Television Violence and Behaviour: A Research Summary.

Television Violence and Behaviour: A Research Summary. ERIC Digest.

Author: Smith, Marilyn E.

ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology, Syracuse, N.Y.

INTRODUCTION

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) position statement on media violence and children (1990) reports that violence in the media has increased since 1980 and continues to increase, particularly since the Federal Communication Commission's decision to deregulate children's commercial television in 1982. The NAEYC statement cites the following examples: * Air time for war cartoons increased from 1.5 hours per week in 1982 to 43 hours per week in 1986. * In 1980, children's programs featured 18.6 violent acts per hour and now have about 26.4 violent acts each hour.

According to an American Psychological Association task force report on television and American society (Huston, et al., 1992), by the time the average child (i.e., one who watches two to four hours of television daily) leaves elementary school, he or she will have witnessed at least 8,000 murders and more than 100,000 other assorted acts of violence on television.

Indicating growing concern regarding the issue of television violence, recent commentaries in the Washington Post (Harwood, 1993; Will, 1993; "Televiolence," 1993) highlight: * a paper by Centerwall (1993) that examines several studies and argues that television violence increases violent and aggressive tendencies in young people and contributes to the growth of violent crime in the United States; * and a Times Mirror poll, reported in March 1993, that found that the majority of Americans feels that "entertainment television is too violent...that this is harmful to society...that we as a society have become desensitised to violence."

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This digest describes the overall pattern of the results of research on television violence and behaviour. Several variables in the relationship between television violence and aggression related to characteristics of the viewers and to the portrayal of violence are identified. Finally, concerns regarding the effects of television violence are summarised.

RESEARCH FINDINGS

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RESEARCH FINDINGS

The overall pattern of research findings indicates a positive association between television violence and aggressive behaviour. A Washington Post article (Oldenburg, 1992), states that "the preponderance of evidence from more than 3,000 research studies over two decades shows that the violence portrayed on television influences the attitudes and behaviour of children who watch it." Signorielli (1991) finds that: "Most of the scientific evidence...reveals a relationship between television and aggressive behaviour. While few would say that there is absolute proof that watching television caused aggressive behaviour, the overall cumulative weight of all the studies gives credence to the position that they are related. Essentially, television violence is one of the things that may lead to aggressive, antisocial, or criminal behaviour; it does, however, usually work in conjunction with other factors. As aptly put by Dorr and Kovaric (1980), television violence may influence 'some of the people some of the time'" (pp. 94-95).

CHARACTERISTICS OF VIEWERS

The following characteristics of viewers, summarised by Clapp (1988), have been shown to affect the influence of television violence on behaviour.

Comstock and Paik (1987, 1991) also identify the following factors that may increase the likelihood of television influence:

PORTRAYAL OF VIOLENCE

The following are factors related to how the violence is portrayed which may heighten the likelihood of television influence. Research on these factors is summarised by Comstock and Paik (1987, 1991):

Comstock and Paik (1991) argue that "these contingencies represent four dimensions: (a) efficacy (reward or lack of punishment); (b) normativeness (justified, consequenceless, intentionally hurtful, physical violence); (c) pertinence (commonality of cues, similarity to the viewer, absence of humorous violence); and (d) susceptibility (pleasure, anger, frustration, absence of criticism)" (pp. 255-256).

CONCERNS

Three major areas of concern regarding the effects of television violence are identified and discussed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (1990):

Of these, Signorielli (1991) considers the third scenario to be the most insidious: "Research...has revealed that violence on television plays an important role in communicating the social order and in leading to perceptions of the world as a mean and dangerous place. Symbolic victimisation on television and real world fear among women and minorities, even if contrary to the facts, are highly related (Morgan, 1983). Analysis also reveals that in most subgroups those who watch more television tend to express a heightened sense of living in a mean world of danger and mistrust as well as alienation and gloom" (p. 96).

Another concern addressed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (1990) is the negative effect on children's play of viewing violent television: "In short, children who are frequent viewers of media violence learn that aggression is a successful and acceptable way to achieve goals and solve problems; they are less likely to benefit from creative, imaginative play as the natural means to express feelings, overcome anger, and gain self-control" (p. 19).