‘Children’s playground behaviour across five years of broadcast television: a naturalistic study in a remote community.’
Aim: To investigate the effect of the introduction of satellite TV on the aggressive behaviour of children.
Procedure:
- conducted using 3-8 year olds on the island of St Helena who had not previously seen transmitted TV.
- Aggressive behaviour was analysed in 1994 prior to the introduction of transmitted television in 1995. This was done through filming 256 minutes worth of free play in the school playground.
- Behaviour was assessed again in 2000 after satellite TV became available, filming free play totalling 344 minutes.
- A schedule of 26 playground behaviours was used, such as pushing, hitting and kicking, in addition to pro-social behaviours such as sharing and affection. The analysis of results was based on four anti-social and four pro-social behaviours in addition to gender and number of children involved.
Results:
There were no significant differences in the results. The levels of anti-social behaviour were very low on first observation and remained this way throughout various viewings. The children displayed almost twice as much pro-social than anti-social behaviour both before and after the introduction of television.
Conclusion:
Exposure to more violent TV does not necessarily result in an increase in aggressive behaviour. Importantly, no differences were found in the behaviours most associated with TV violence- kicking, hitting and pushing.
Evaluation:
- May not be generalisable to all cultures; was conducted on a small island
- Subjective- different researchers may have considered different behaviours anti/pro- social.
- Longitudinal
- Applicable to society- television is viewed on a regular basis so any information on its impact is valuble to parents and other professionals working with children
- High ecological validity- not a contrived task
Revision for A2 Psychology... 