Is There an Association between Hours of TV Viewing and Violent Behaviour in Children - Research Proposal Example

Is there an association between hours of TV viewing and violent behaviour in children? Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Name Tutor Course Date Is there an association between hours of TV viewing and violent behaviour in children? Introduction Television viewing has the prospect of bringing together communities; making available information that permit constructive ethnic, communal and ecological transformation, and to form a proper global village. It also has the latent to isolate, desocialise, to endorse violent and harmful demeanors, supply unhelpful and unsuitable examples to our children, and to develop harmful ideals such as ideals for ingestion and ownership. The connection between what we observe and what we carry out is tremendously intricate (Eron et al, 1972). Some of the most significant determinants are circumstance in which the violent behaviour is depicted, the level of maturity of the spectator, the gender of the spectator, the capacity of the spectator to distinguish between illusion and realism, and warranted and unwarranted application of violence. Television program guidelines are determined by commercial goals. Television viewing seems to be a safe leisurely pursuit, except that the purpose of universal television is linked with the principles of globalizing capitalistic economies. It looks as if the commercial goal is aimed at mis-direction and ethnic regeneration. Television has a huge communal outlay. Television viewing takes us away from the physical realism of our present experiences-and repeatedly for pro longed periods of time. Whilst we stare at television, we discontinue communal communication-discussions become scratchy and incomplete, if they go on at all. As we stare at television we overlook the vocal relations that facilitate sharing, learning and creation of communal viewpoints (Chaffee, 1972). Justification This study seeks to find out the validity of the above stated testable hypothesis by describing the general pattern of the findings of violent behavior in relation to hours of television viewing. Research findings by an American Psychological Association indicate that for a child who views the television two to four hours a day will have witnessed more than 10,000 assorted shows of violence and at least 8,000 murders by the time the child leave elementary school (Clapp, 1998). The increase in crime rates in many states can be associated with increased aggressive tendencies and violence in children as a result of watching violent shows in television. The purpose of this study is to find out whether pro longed TV viewing causes behaviours which are aggressive in children. The research question which will guide the whole study is: Does extended TV viewing cause aggressive behavior in children? The hypothesis of this study is that TV violence causes aggressive behaviours in children. The study on this particular topic will be a good basis for parents to learn the effects of violence on television on their children and therefore develop ways of trying to cope with this behaviour. This study may also be very good for teachers since it will provide alternative ways of dealing with children basing on understanding of their difference in reaction to violence videos on Television. Literature Review: So as to be able to evaluate and perform the research adequately, this study will rely on evidence from various articles which deal with the same subject. Clapp’s, (1998) research based on this topic in his book titled ‘Television and Children Study Research: Current Perspectives and Applications’ has out forward some of the findings which he obtained from the study (Clapp, 1998). His research was based on the hypothesis that children often develop aggressive behaviours when they are exposed to violent programs on TV. In this study this will be very useful since this is the hypothesis of our study seeks to establish the correlation between the hours of TV viewing and violent behavior (Clapp, 1998). Comstock & Rubinstein (1972) have also been of great contribution to how children are affected aggressively by programs which are violent on TV. His book entitled ‘Television and Social Behaviour’ clearly indicates the relationship between individuals and their personality. Children for instance, become very aggressive when they watch programs which are violence related. Comstock & Rubinstein further explain that every person is influenced by programs which are violent on Television. They argue that these programs have a considerable influence on the behaviour of individuals in that they contribute to how an individual will live with theirs and the extent to which the individual will act so as to counteract this issue (Comstock & Rubinstein, 1972). Research Question(s) /Hypotheses The research questions which will guide the whole study are: Does TV viewing cause aggressive behavior in children? What is the correlation between the hours of watching television and violent behaviour in children? Methods: The method which will be used in this study is experimental method. In this experimental study, the characteristics of children at nursery school age are observed when they are in the playing field and specifically when they doing activities like punching, hitting, throwing a large inflatable doll and kicking. Some specific actions were used, for instance use of words like pow, boom….boom etc and use of the hammer. These activities were used since the children are unlikely to perform the two acts simultaneously (Bandura, 1965). Children playing without interference were then observed for about 20 minutes in their playing field. The design involved forming a control group of the children which is the group which was allowed to pay without being influenced by any external factor i.e. without their aggressive behaviours observed (Bandura, 1965). Sampling: Participants of this study are children who are drawn from a school environment where all the factors are constant, i.e. its assumed that these children get the same learning and are from the same environment i.e. they share the same environmental, social and economic conditions. A total of 20 children will be chosen, ten of them will be exposed to an environment where they will be monitored and ten will be left to play on their own. The results of the experimental group will be recorded and conclusions will be made basing on this data later when conclusions will be made. The selected school where the children will be drawn from should be a day school because children from day schools share many aspects of their backgrounds. Variables There are a number of dependent variables; the age of the viewer, for instance is the first dependent variable. Children as young as 3years exhibit a difference between how they behave when exposed to violent acts than grown children or even adults. However, the most sensitive stage during which the children are more susceptible to influence by television violence has been observed to be in between ages 8 and 12 (Comstock & Rubinstein, 1972). The degree of aggressive behavior in children is also a dependent variable because it does not only depend on the amount of violent shows watched but also on the general time spent watching television. (Comstock & Rubinstein, 1972). This is because frantic and frenzied programming that creates a high level of excitement among the children can also stimulate aggressive behavior. Another dependent variable is the perception of the Television shows by individuals and the nature of violence in the videos which are in the televisions. The way the violent shows are portrayed in the television play a major role in influencing children’s behavior. (Bandura, 1965). There is also a significant correlation in what the children believe to be the reality of television violence, the amount of violent shows watched and the aggressive behavior demonstrated by the children. The amount of violent shows in which the child is exposed is therefore a dependent variable (Comstock & Rubinstein, 1972). The children’s intellectual ability is also a dependent variable in this case. The independent variable in this experiment is the act of watching television itself. This is because this does not depend on any other variable for its occurrence and is the variable which will influence the child to behave in the manner which is given. Measures A total of 20 children will be chosen, ten of them will be exposed to an environment where they will be monitored and ten will be left to play on their own. The results of the experimental group will be recorded and conclusions will be made basing on this data. The procedure will involve the conductors of the experiment asking the children to tell them how long they are allowed to watch television each day after school. The children will then be grouped into two then taken out for their outdoor activities i.e. play. The experimenters will then observe the children and as they play in the same field or in the same game. They will then watch them play from a distance and record the findings which they observe. The other group involves observing a group of some other ten children from a distance who do not know that they are being watched. This group is the control group. The results will also be recorded and the results taken so that they will create a relationship with the other initial results. References: Bandura, A (1965): 'Influence of Reinforcement Models' on the attainment of Imitative Responses’, Journal of Social Psychology and Personality 1: 576-582 Burgess, R. L. & Akers, R. L. (1966). A differential association-reinforcement theory of criminal behavior. Social Problems 14:363-383 Centerwall, B. S. (1992). “Television and violence: The scale of the problem and where to go from here.” JAMA 267: 3059-3063 Chaffee, S H (1972): 'Television and Adolescent Aggressiveness' American Psychological Association. Comstock, G & E Rubinstein (eds) (1972): Television and Social Behaviour, vol 3. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office Clapp, G. (1998). Television and Children Study Research: Current Perspectives and Applications, Lexington, MA: Lexington Eron, L. D., L. R. Huesmann, M M. Lefkowitz, and L. O. Walder. (1972).Does television violence causes aggression?" American Psychologist 27:253-63. Felson, R.B. (1996). Mass media effects on violent behavior. Annual Review of Sociology 22: 103-128 Patterson, G., Bank, L., & Reid, J. B. (1987). Delinquency prevention through training parents in family management. Behavior-Analyst 10: 75-82 Williams, T. (1977): The Effects of Television: A Symposium, Vancouver: Canadian Psychological Association Read More