Table Of ContentADVANCES
IN
PSYCHOLOGY
32
Editors
G. E. STELMACH
P. A. VROON
NORTH-HOLLAND
AMSTERDAM. NEW YORK . OXFORD .TOKYO
TELEVISION VIOLENCE:
A CHILD'S-EYE VIEW
T. H.A .V AN DER VOORT
Leyden University
The Netherlands
1986
NORTH-HOLLAND
AMSTERDAM. NEW YORK . OXFORD 'TOKYO
ELSEVIEK SCIENCE PUBLISHERS B.V., 1986
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Library of Congress Cataloging-inPubliction Data
Voort, T. H. A. van der.
Television violence.
(Advances in psychology ; 32)
Bibliography: p.
Includes indexes.
1. Television and children--United States.
2. Violence in television--United States. 3. Agressive-
ness in children. I. Title. 11. Series: Advances in
psychology (Amsterdam, Netherlands) ; 32.
HQ784.T4V663 1986 791.45'01'3 86-813
ISBN 0-444-87978-1
PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
xi
P R E F A C E
Many parents are concerned about how children are affected by
violence on television. Ask a parent to name a program category
'unsuitable for young viewers, and violent programs are the
first thing he or she thinks of. But parents do not reject all
types of televised violence. In particular, objections are
raised to the dramatized violence on television. While many
parents indeed dislike all kinds of violence, acted or other-
wise, real-life violence on television is something that cannot
be avoided. Dramatized violence, however, is produced without
any intrinsic necessity. It is gratuitous violence, simply made
for the viewer's entertainment.
Concerning the effects of television violence many questions
arise. Does it frighten children? Does it instigate or rein-
force aggression? Do children mimic it? Does it incline them to
consider violence normal? Does it blunt their feelings? And,
how do these programs influence the children's notion of the
world around them?
Although we shall be examining what research has to say
about these and other questions (as a matter of fact, the first
chapter is entirely devoted to this subject), the empirical
research study expounded in this book is not directly concerned
with the effects of television violence. In our own research,
we are concerned with what children actually experience when
watching violent programs on television, a research area that
has received relatively little attention up to now.
Of course, we shall never know exactly what children ex-
perience while watching television, but the least we can do is
ask them. That is what is done in this study. Children between
the ages of nine and twelve years were shown a series of vio-
lent programs. With the exception of one English film, all
programs were American productions. The programs varied from
the realistic genre of Starsky and Hutch to such fantasy car-
toons as Tom and Jerry. Among other things, it was studied what
children's attitudes are to the violence depicted in these
programs. Do children experience the violence as such? Which
types of programs do they consider violent? Do children enjoy
this violence? Do they morally approve of the violent actions
displayed in these programs?
It was also investigated how children perceive the reality
of different kinds of violent programs. Do children believe
that what they have seen could happen in real life? And, more
xii TV VIOLENCE: A CHILD'S-EYE VIEW
specifically, do children believe that it could happen in their
own neighborhoods? In addition, it was investigated to what
extent children would like to be like different TV characters.
The extent of involvement with which different kinds of pro-
grams are watched was also investigated. When watching these
programs, do children become totally absorbed in them or do
they remain detached from what they see?
With respect to these and other experiential and perceptual
aspects, it was investigated what children have in common. But,
as no two children are completely alike, it was also studied to
what extent children differ in their perceptions and experien-
ces. Do boys and girls differ in their perceptions of violent
television programs? To what extent does age account for the
perception and experience of these programs? Do heavy viewers
perceive the programs differently from light viewers? Does the
perception of violent programs depend on the children's social
background? And what differences exist between children of
parents who are or who are not very worried about television
violence?
Finally, it was investigated how perceptual and experiential
aspects are mutually related, and what dimensions can be dis-
tinguished in this regard. In doing so, it was also estimated
to what extent children occupying an extreme position on each
of these dimensions appear more or less susceptible to the
aggression-arousing effect attributed to television violence.
In a separate validation study--a follow-up study conducted a
year later among the same children--it was investigated to
what extent the perception dimensions found earlier correlate
predictably with children's aggressiveness.
xiii
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
This research project could not have been carried out with-
out the assistance and cooperation of a number of individuals
and organizations. Although we are not able to mention every-
one, we particularly want to thank the following people. A
major debt of gratitude is owed to Marcel Vooijs and Paul
Bekker. Marcel Vooijs, who began working on the study soon
after it received a special grant from the Dutch Foundation for
Educational Research, helped in both its design and execution.
He also contributed to the development of measurement instru-
ments, and undertook a part of the statistical analysis of
data. Bekker was primarily responsible for the statistical
analysis. His efficient and creative application of multiva-
riate techniques of statistical analysis was greatly beneficial
to the study.
Attie van Roon and Thea Kerkhof took part in the field work
of the project, in particular during its initial stage. Dini
Bakker, Karin Gortzak and Evelien Schoute participated in the
follow-up study.
We also want to thank Dolf Kohnstamm, whose social interest
led to the initiation of the project, and Leo van der Kamp, who
advised us on the statistical analyses of data. Both Dolf and
Leo read and commented on earlier drafts. Rien van IJzendoorn
and Jan van Lil also provided assistance in this regard.
Cora Lucassen-Jongsma converted all our scribbles to co-
herent type, and helped greatly to move the manuscript towards
its present state. Marc Schoen ably translated the manuscript
from Dutch into English, with the assistance on a number of
chapters by Ivan Augsburger.
The study was primarily carried out through the auspices of
the Department of Pedagogics of the University of Leyden. The
basic funds for this project were provided through a grant
awarded by the Foundation for Educational Research. The Dutch
Broadcasting Corporation (NOS) also provided a grant to the
project. We are grateful for the support of these grants and
the thorough analysis they made possible.
Last, but not least, we want to thank the parents, the ele-
mentary school teachers, and especially the children. Their
cooperation was crucial to the study.
1
I N T R O D U C T I O N
One of the startling areas of ignorance in
communication research is that nobody
knows what children perceive when they
look at television (Klapper, 1969).
This study is concerned with the question how children perceive
and experience violent television programs. Experiments deter-
mining the effects of television violence rarely approach the
problem from this angle. It might even be said that everything
emphasized in this study is generally neglected in the standard
effects research studies. But the reverse is also true: what
effects studies do investigate are the very things omitted
here. This point can be illustrated by means of a discussion of
a well-known experiment by Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1963).
After this first sketch of the research angle from which tele-
vision violence will be approached, a further characterization
will be provided of the study discussed in this book. Then, the
practical circumstances occasioning this study will be pin-
pointed. These circumstances helped in part to determine the
kinds of problems to be investigated in the study. Finally, an
indication will be provided of what the reader may expect in
the chapters to follow.
A CURIOUS EXPERIMENT
In a now classic experiment, Bandura et al. (1963) confronted
children aged three to five with male or female models who were
busy bashing and kicking about an almost life-sized inflated
Bob0 doll. This unusual behavior was shown to the preschoolers
under three different experimental conditions. Some of the
children saw the model behavior live. A second group saw the
same performance on film. A third group also saw it on film,
2 TV VIOLENCE: A CHILD'S-EYE VIEW
but in this case in what the researchers called a cartoon
version, In this cartoon, a female model was dressed as a black
cat (of the kind often seen in cartoons). In order to further
emphasize the fantasy character of this cartoon version the set
was decorated with brightly colored imaginary trees, birds and
butterflies. Finally, there was a control group that had to
make do without a model.
After being confronted with the model, the preschoolers from
all four groups were first mildly frustrated. After that, they
were put in a situation greatly resembling that which they had
seen live or on film, allowing them to behave as aggressively
or as prosocially as they pleased. In that situation, each of
the three experimental groups, that is, the three groups who in
one way or another had been confronted with an aggressive
model, exhibited significantly and considerably more aggressive
behavior than the control group. Not only was the total aggres-
sion higher (disinhibition effect), but also the number of
actions seen earlier with the model (imitation effect). Ban-
dura, Ross and Ross were thus among the first to demonstrate
that seeing a film model can have just as great an aggression-
arousing effect as a real-life model.
With that, the most important prediction was borne out. But
a second prediction was not confirmed unequivocally. The re-
searchers assumed that the three aforementioned experimental
treatments could be classified according to what they called a
reality-fiction stimulus dimension. In this continuum, the
model seen in real life is presumed to be on the reality side,
the cartoon-model on the fictional side, and the film model
somewhere in between. The expectation, then, was that the
further removed a model is from reality, the less inclined the
preschoolers will be to mimic the model's behavior. This pre-
diction was not confirmed. Although the preschoolers of the
cartoon-group exhibited significantly less aggressive imitative
behavior than the children that had seen the live model, the
remaining differences between the three experimental groups
were not significant.
This experiment has been discussed and, in particular,
criticized by numerous authors. The three most important points
of criticism can be found in Wiegman (1975). Firstly, he won-
ders whether punching and kicking a plastic doll can be re-
garded as "aggression." Secondly, he questions whether the same
experimental effect would be obtained if the treatment and
measurement conditions were to be less similar. Finally, he
wonders whether the unfamiliarity with the stimulus material
might not itself have had a stirnulatory effect.
These points of criticism are only mentioned for the sake of
completeness, for at this point we are concerned with other
INTRODUCTION 3
aspects of this--and many other--effects studies. A first
criticism is that the researchers devote no attention whatso-
ever to the way the preschoolers experience the experimental
treatments. The researchers' point of departure is that of the
adult. They assume that filmed models are less realistic than
real-life models. In addition, they assume that the cartoon
version is less realistic than the filmed version of the live
model. In the eyes of an adult, these differences are only too
apparent, but it is questionable whether preschoolers also see,
or more accurately, experience it that way. It is altogether
possible that what an adult sees as varying greatly in realism
a preschooler may see as being very similar. Judging from Le-
velt's (1981) observations, this is even quite likely. On the
basis of his interviews with preschoolers, he came to the
conclusion that young children see television programs as very
real, so much so that at the time of the broadcast, they may
even have the impression that the television characters are
actually physically present inside the television set. Such an
observation inclines one to believe that there may hardly be
any difference between the way a preschooler experiences a live
or a filmed performance.
In addition, it is doubtful whether preschoolers regard a
woman dressed as a cartoon cat as less authentic than an ordi-
narily dressed woman. It is even quite possible that as a
preschooler experiences it, the very opposite is the case; a
cartoon cat may be more appealing than an ordinary woman. In
any case, the makers of programs for preschoolers seem to
think so. In many of their programs, one will not find any
"normally" dressed people at all.
Another indication that the researchers devote no attention
to the way the preschoolers themselves experience the film is
the fact that they neglected to investigate whether the child-
ren saw the model's behavior as being aggressive. The doubts
expressed about this in the literature appear, by the way, to
be unfounded. As Zumkley (1980) demonstrated, preschoolers do
regard the behavior exhibited by the model of Bandura et al. as
aggressive. When asked about it, the (German) preschoolers
respond that they disapprove of the model's behavior (though
not in so many words of course), and that they assume that the
model had some evil intention. In addition, the preschoolers
said that if they could play with such a plastic doll, they
would behave differently. It is indeed very doubtful that this
last statement is reliable, for parallel groups in Zumkley's
study did actually exhibit this "disapproved" behavior.
Most experiments, then, are characterized by a neglect of
the participants' subjective interpretation of what they have
been watching. It is also characteristic of the effects re-
4 TV VIOLENCE: A CHILD'S-EYE VIEW
searchers that they are often satisfied if they can demonstrate
that on average, the experimental group differs from the con-
trol group. Children who exhibit little or no aggressive beha-
vior after seeing an aggressive film, are rarely given any
attention. In most experiments, then, individual differences
between children's reactions have been neglected. In this
respect, the study by Bandura, Ross, and Ross does not show up
so badly after all. They analyzed the experimental results for
boys and girls seperately (not even possible in many experi-
ments due to the lack of female participants), and in addition
they ascertained whether the effect obtained in the experiment
correlated with the children's aggressiveness.
Finally, it is striking that in reporting on their experi-
ments, researchers usually provide a detailed description of
the stimulus material (the films). At the same time a vivid
description is given of the instructions children receive in
the laboratory, and how they are prepared for what is going to
happen. But as soon as the film-projector starts running, the
researcher's pen is silent, not to be heard of again until the
lights have been turned back on. Then, of course, there is work
to be done, for the child must be given the opportunity to
behave prosocially or aggressively, whichever the case may be.
In short, the descriptions pay a great deal of attention to the
film stimuli, as well as to the reactions after it is over, but
what happens between the time the film begins and the time it
ends remains obscure. Then, apparently, the researcher takes a
coffee break.
THE NATURE OF THIS STUDY
What takes place during the experimental researcher's break is
the very quintessence of this study, even though it can only be
measured retrospectively, that is, right after it is over. In
other repects as well, this study is a "negative" of the
photograph researchers usually make of the event. Firstly,
while the experimental researcher is usually only interested in
the objective features of films, this study i s concerned with
the children's subjective perceptions and experiences of them.
The objective features of the films are only of interest to the
extent that they result in a child's perceiving or experiencing
the films differently. An important question dealt with in this
study, therefore, is how children perceive and experience
different types of films (in this case, television programs)
with distinguishable objective features.
