Two studies investigated the validity of the Cultivation Hypothesis, which holds that the more people view television the more they will see the world as mean and violent. Specifically, the study examined whether three psychological variables affected the relationship. The variables are (1) Magic Window, the degree to which a person believes television program content is an accurate picture of reality; (2) Instructional Motives, which refers to the degree to which a person uses television to seek social information; and (3) Identity, the degree to which a person sees a match between characters on television and real people. An instrument was developed to measure these variables and administered first to 92 college students, then to 237 high school students, along with a television viewing questionnaire. Results indicated that subjects in both groups consistently overestimated the danger of being victimized. In addition, the relationship between television viewing and reality estimates was sometimes positive, sometimes negative, and sometimes zero depending upon whether the person was in a high, medium, or low group as defined by the psychological variables. In general, the findings support the Cultivation Hypothesis. (FL)