ERIC Number: ED062791
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1971
Pages: 186
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Television and Aggression.
Feshbach, Seymour; Singer, Robert D.
While violence on television may serve as an instigation or model for real life violence, there may be other, more positive effects of violent portrayals, such as entertainment or catharsis of hostile feelings. A study was conducted to assess the effects of violent television in natural settings with preadolescent and adolescent boys. For a six-week period, controls were instituted in seven institutions over television viewing behavior, so that the 625 boys who participated were exposed to programs which were either predominately aggressive or nonaggressive in content. Changes in aggressive attitudes resulting from the differential television exposure were assessed through the use of pretests and posttests, and indices of each child's aggressive behavior were created from ratings made by a house parent, supervisor, teacher, or proctor. In spite of some methodological limitations, such as the necessaity of including a violent program in control group viewing lists at three of the institutions because of strong objections from subjects, the experimental results appear to suggest that exposure to aggressive content in television did not produce an increment in aggressive behavior, and that in certain types of boys, aggressive behaviors decreased. (SH)
Descriptors: Adolescents, Aggression, Catharsis, Emotional Development, Hostility, Males, Programing (Broadcast), Self Expression, Social Behavior, Television Research, Television Viewing, Violence
Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers, 615 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, California 94111 ($8.50)
Publication Type: N/A
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A