Effects of Television Violence on Children

This literature review is based on the effects of television violence on children. More specifically, it deals with the relationship found between television violence and aggression found in young children. I chose this topic because I found it interesting to learn that studies have indeed found a connection between television viewing and the behavior of people, especially children.

The first study reviewed is entitled "Television Violence and

Children's Aggression: Testing the Priming. Social script, and

Disinhibition Predictions," by Wendy Josephson. Josephson begins her study by commenting on other studies which pertain to the idea of television violence leading to aggressiveness in children's behavior. She acknowledges that, in fact, there are still differing views over whether or not behavior is affected by the violence. However, Josephson tends to rely more on the idea that it is affected and feels that more research should be directed to this area.

Mostly, attention is focused on factors such as the disinhibition effect and cue-triggered aggression. Josephson aims to differentiate these two areas and how they are affected by television violence. The overall purpose of her study is to research the effect this violence has on boys' aggression. Special emphasis is placed on factors such as teacher-rated characteristic aggressiveness in the boys, timing of frustration (before or after watching the televised violence, and violence related cues.

Josephson's study is detailed and technical. However, sometimes it gets very difficult to understand the study due to the many advanced, technical terms used. The purpose of the study is somewhat easy to determine, and the three hypotheses on which she bases her research on are outlined clearly in the end of the review. It is understandable, from the review, how she came to her hypotheses.

The second study reviewed is by Leonard D. Eron. Titled "Interventions to Mitigate the Psychological Effects of Media Violence on Aggressive

Behavior," it begins with Eron's realization that although many studies were conducted which support the link between violence on television and aggressive behavior, very few studies have been conducted which attempt to intervene between the two. Interventions between television violence and aggression could be useful because, then studies could be conducted on reducing the effects of violence on the viewer.

Also, the results of such a study could be helpful in researching the cause and effect relationship which may exist between the two. However, this would require that the interventions pertain exclusively to television viewing and that any other areas of intervention are controlled. If the aggressive behavior is reduced, it could support the theory of a causal effect as convincingly as a study performed in a carefully controlled laboratory experiment.