Thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Science at the University of Otago.

This thesis has two main objectives. The first is to replicate prior findings on the relationship between viewing violence and aggressive daydreaming with an adolescent sample (11- to 19-year olds). The second objective is to determine if a relationship between television and daydreaming can be generalised to an interactive form of media: video games. The methodology involved 737 adolescents from four secondary schools in Dunedin and Christchurch completing the Imaginal Processes Inventory questionnaire (IPI-C) and answering questions regarding types of television, video, and movies they watch and the type of video games played. The results show that males spend more time using media and prefer media with fantasy and violence themes. In males and females, aggressive, heroic and dysphoric styles of daydreaming have a positive relationship to the amount of television viewing. Only in females were these styles of daydreaming also related to the amount of video game play. The author concludes that there is evidence suggesting a causal link between violence in media and aggressive behaviour. Source: Author's abstract

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