NCJ Number
119409
Date Published
1988
Length
20 pages
Annotation
The effect of television violence on children is discussed in terms of the conclusions of national bodies in the 1950's and 1960's and the theories and research findings of the same period. ASBT United States Senate hearings in 1954 and 1961, a Senate report in 1964, and the report of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence in 1968 all concluded that television showed a large amount of violence and that this violence probably adversely affected children and youth. However, it was also recognized that the available laboratory studies bore only indirectly on the question of the relationship between the viewing of television violence and the commission of real acts of aggression. In the 1960's, academic psychologists developed three major theories of how such material might influence young viewers. The social learning theory of Bandura and Walters emphasized that television provided instructional models for behavior. Berkowitz, Tannenbaum, and others emphasized the immediate arousing and instigating effects of viewing television violence. Finally, Feshbach and Singer, in research financed by CBS, published a unique experimental field study that seemed to support their catharsis hypothesis in that youths exposed to repeated television violence were less aggressive than those exposed to nonaggressive programs. The clear implication of these studies was that more definitive research was needed on the nature and effects of television violence. This recognition led to the issuance of the Surgeon General's Report on the subject. Photographs.