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Influence of Television

Psychology: AQA A Level, topic 15.2.14

Television and Aggression

The rise in our consumption of media has prompted psychologists to examine their effects on aggressive behaviours.

Robertson et al. (2013)

Robertson et al. (2013)

  • In a longitudinal study, Robertson et al. (2013) wanted to see if there was a link between what they called excessive television viewing in childhood and aggressive behaviour in adulthood.
  • They studied 1037 people born in New Zealand in 1972 and 1973, and measured their TV viewing hours at regular intervals up to the age of 26 years.
Findings

Findings

  • They found that time spent watching TV was a reliable predictor of aggressive behaviour in adulthood.
    • They measured this in terms of convictions for aggressive and violent crimes.
  • Those who watched the most TV were also more likely to be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder and to have aggressive personality traits.
Conclusions

Conclusions

  • It would appear that the most important media related factor in influencing aggressive behaviour may be the amount of TV watched rather than whether it has violent content or not.
Paik and Comstock (1994)

Paik and Comstock (1994)

  • Aim: To investigate the impact of television violence on anti-social behaviour.
  • Procedure: A meta-analysis. Correlation between television violence and anti-social behaviour.
  • Results: Significant positive correlation between television violence and anti-social behaviour. Especially large effect found for erotica (porn).
  • Conclusion: There would appear to be a relationship between television violence and anti-social behaviour.
Paik and Comstock (1994) evaluation

Paik and Comstock (1994) evaluation

  • Strengths
  • Meta-analysis – large amount of data included.
  • Limitations
  • Cannot show cause – maybe people with anti-social tendencies choose to watch more violent TV.
  • Individual differences.
  • Social and cultural variations.

Charlton et al (2000)

Charlton et al (2000) investigated the effect of TV being introduced to St Helena on children’s behaviour.

Procedure

Procedure

  • Natural experiment.
  • The investigation began two years before TV was introduced. Children’s behaviour was investigated before and after the introduction of TV on St Helena.
  • Behavioural measures:
  • Self-report from parents and teachers.
  • Observations of children.
  • Content analysis of TV watched.
  • Discreet CCTV in playgrounds and classrooms.
Results & conclusions

Results & conclusions

  • Results
  • TV did not have a significant impact on the behaviour of the children.
  • Conclusion
  • TV did not impact the children’s behaviour, but this may be because of high levels of community and parental control and surveillance.
Evaluation

Evaluation

  • Strengths
  • Ecological validity.
  • Discreet cameras so children acted naturally.
  • Limitations
  • St Helena is a small, close knit community – high surveillance and control of children is not typical in the environment.
  • Parents and teachers might not report honestly – demand characteristic and social desirability.
  • TV programmes watched were less violent than those on the mainland.

Test yourself on Influence of Television

  • How did Robertson et al. (2013) measure aggressive behaviour in adulthood?

  • What did Robertson et al. (2013) conclude was the most important media related factor influencing aggression?

  • What were the behavioural measures in Charlton et al's (2000) study?

  • TV did not impact the children's behaviour on St Helena. Why might this be?

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