DOCUMENT RESUME ED 222 186 IR 010 420

ED 222 186 TITLE

INSTITUTION REPORT No, PUB DATE - NOTE. EDRS PRICE DESCRIPTORS

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DOCUMENT RESUME

IR 010 420

Television and Behavior. Ten Yeart of Scientific Progress and Implicatiois for the Eighties. Volume I:

Summary.Report. National Inst. of Mental Health (DHHS), Rockville,

Md.

DHHS-ADM-82-1195

82 103p.

MF01/PC05 Plus Postage. *Behavioral'Science Research; Literature Reviews; *Public Health; Social Behavior; *Television

Research; *Television Viewing Surgeon Generals Report on Television Violence

,ABSTRACT

Recent literature on television and behavior is

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4rowth and development of children. (LMM)

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TELEVISION AND BEHAVIOR

Ten Years of Scientific Progress and Implication4.: for the ,Eighties

Volume I

Summary Report

ft.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Public Health Service Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration

National institute of Mental Health

(4

5600 Fishers Lane Rockville, Maryland 20857

All material appearing in this volume, except quoted passages from copyrighted sources, is in the public domain and may be reproduced Weaned without permission from the InstitUte or the authors. Citation of the source is appreciated.

5,

Library of Congress catalog card number 82-600539 DHHS Publication No. (ADM) 82-1195 Printed 1982

Foreword

This volume and its companion offer an update and elaboration of information presented in the 1972 Report of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Television and Behavior. That report was based, in large part, on the findings of research

projects commissioned and funded by the Federal Government to assess the effects of televised violence on children and youth. The Committee's report confirmed the pervasiveness of television within the United States but noted the conspicuous paucity of information about the relationship of television viewing to the psychological growth and development of children. In a' strongly wqrded statement, the Committee called

for the conduct of such research.

The past decade bears witness to the response of the scientific community to that

call. Approximately 90 percent of all research publications on television's influences on

behavior have appeared within the past 10 yearsmore than 2,500 titles. While a large

number of the studies continued to focus on effects of the medium on aggression, miny

more dealt with television viewing and its influences on other aspects of development and behavior. This massive research effort, undertaken in this country and abroad,

under the sponsorship of a wide Variety of research and funding organizations, yielded

an enormous amount of new and needed information, the significance of which was

to an extenehindered by lack of synthesis and assessment,

In early 1979, a group of researchers in the field suggested to then Surgeon General

Julius B. Richmond the growing need for collection, review, synthesis, andVssessment of the new literature on television and behavior. The Surgeon General agreed that such an effort would provide opportunity to be more definitive regarding teleVision's causal influences on violent and aggressive behaviors of viewers as well as to address an in-

creasing number of questions about the medium's impact on viewers' functioning.

Because the National Institute of Mental Health had exercised lead responsibility

within the Public Health Service for.more than a decade for research in this area, the Institute was encouraged by the Surgeon General to undertake the project, and work

began in late 1979. Dr. David Peail, Chief, Behavioral Sciences Research Branch, Divi- A sion of Extramural Research Programs, was assigned lead responsibility within NIMH for the review project. The reader is directed to the Preface of this volume for a detailed

description of the process through which the review was managed and conducted.

Several decisions were made early that significantly influenced the nature of the present report. First, in recognition of the large body of existing research literature, it was decided that new studies would not be funded and conducted specificallyfor the report; rather, comrrehensive and integrative reviews of the existing literature would be commissioned to present the state-of-the-art in coherent and unified form. Second, a decision was made to focus on a much broader spectrum of.television and behavior

than did the earlier report which had been restricted to the effects of televised violence

on aggressive such issues .as

behavior among Children and youth. Thus, the new cognitive and emotional aspects of television viewing

report addresses ; television as it

relates to socialization and viewers' conceptions of social reality; television's influences on physical and mental health; and television as an Arneripaa institution. Also, though

?much of the research has been conducted with child and'adolescent subjects, the nein, report is not limited to influences of the medium on this age group. Within this broad- ened context, the orientation of the report overall is lo research aiid public health

issues.

While the coverage of the report has been broadened substantially, certain topics, generally not included, should be noted. Television news and news reporting, political socialization, public ,affairs broadcasting, and television advertising either have been . considered in detail elsewhere in recent years or were judged inappropriate for this project. Thus the progammatic focus of this review is on entertainment television the kinds of programs watched by most of the audience, most of the time.

Television and Behavior: Ten Years of Scientific Progress and Implications for the Eight;es (Volumes I and II) intends primarily to elucidate research findings and their implications for public health and future research. Though the subject is relevant to public policy issues, the present work makes no recommendations and 'does not issue specific prescriptions. We would anticipate, however, that persons bearing responsibility for policy and for television industry practices would be interested in the fipdings for use in decisionmaking. Also the report should be of substantial help to parents and others who seek to know of both the positive and adverse effects of the medium and of the ways in which they can influence them.

HERBERT PARDES, M.D.

Director National Institute of Mental Health

iv

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