DOCU E T RESUME ED 056 478 EM 009 332 AUTHOR Atkin, Charles K., Ed; And Others TITLE Television and Social Behavior; An Annotated Bibliography of Research Focusing on Television's Impact on Children. INSTITUTION National Inst. of Mental Health, Rockville, Md. REPORT NO PHS-Pub-2099 PUB DATE 71 NOTE 153- EDRS PRICP MF-$0.65 HC-$6.58 DESCRIPTORS Aggression; *Annotated Bibliographies; Audiences; *Children; Demography; *Films; Information Sources; Programing (Broadcast); *Social Behavior; *TeleVision; Television Surveys; Violence; Visual Stimuli ABSTRACT Approximately 300 annotated references to research on the impact of television and other visual media on the behavior and development of children are presented in three sections of this bibliography. The first section consists of reports about the type of fare offered to the public and the values and picture of life it presents. Literature in the second section deals with the viewers of televisione the role of television in their lives, and the relationships between demigraphic variables and the viewerf program Preferences. Research which assesses specific effects of viewing particular forms of visually presented stimali is described in the third section. The scope of the review is limitel to the entertainment and informational aspects of television, and citations are provided only for books and research papers up through January of 1971. An additional 250 references are included in an unannotatad supplemental list.(Author/SH) _ ------:-ntilErl 'NATIO,NAL -INSTITUTE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO- DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIG- .1), TELEDVISION INATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPIN- IONS STATED 00 NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU- . ATION POSITION OR POLICY E AN ROCIAL BEHAVIOR An Allomieri mithoorapq 01 Rohm; FROM OR Television's impact on Children Edited by: Charles K. Atkin Mass Communicationi Research Center University nf Wisconsin John P. Murray Surgeon Generars Scientific Advisory Committee on Television & Social Cehavior National Institute of Mental He: th Oguz B. Nayrnan Department of Technical Jouinalism Colorado State University U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE Public Health Service Health Services and Mental Health Administration National Institute of Mental Health 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Md. 20852 Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committers on Television and Boole/ Behavior blic Health Service Publication No. 2099 Printed 1971 F REWORD This annotated bibliography is the by-product of a research program on television and social behavior initiated in1969, under the vidance of the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior. A major emphasis to:the Committee's activities is the support and coordination of twenty-three research projects which have been underway since mid-1969 and are scheduled for completion in 1971. Powever, it was felt that an additional effort should be made to update information on prior research in the area of television and social behavior. This bibliography is the result of that effort. From a numerical standpoint, this listing is impressive.There are approximately 300 annotated and 250 unennotatedcitations. However, in view of the pervasiveness of television in the lives of our children, the scope and depth of relevant literature is surprisingly limited. There is much we do not know about the impact of television on the behavior and attitudes of children, and much that remains equivocal. The program of research under the sponsorship of the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior will hopefully expand our knowledge in this area. In the meantime, we believe that this bibliography can be useful to researchers in the field and to those informed citizens whowish to know what questions have been asked and what answers have been found about the impact of television on the behavior and attitudes of children. Eli A. Eubinstei Ph.D. Vice Chairman Surgeon General-s Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior iii PREFACE Television viewers have begun to fascina e researchers almost as much as television has fascinated viewers. Thus, the past decade has witnessed a sharp increase in both research and public concern over the impact of this aspect of the mass media. This bibliography and the research program of which it is a part is an outgrowth of this public concern. However, on a more restricted scale, this reference work is simply an attempt to present in a concise yet comprehensive manner relevant research on the impact of television. This bibliography incorporated as its hese previous reviews of the literature, such as Greenberg and Tannenbaum's (1968) review of mass communication research, Schramm's (1964) compilation of references for the UNESCO bibliography on mass media, and Weiss's analysis of the effects of the mass media. Ih addition, the standard sources such as Psychological_ Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, _Current_ Contents, and Annual Review articles were used in conjunction and the National Clearinghouse for Mental health Information and the National Library of Medicine (MEDLARS) literature retrieval services to obtain the initial bibliographic listing. From this initial set of references approximately 300 of the most relevant citations were selected for annotation with an additional 250 included in an unannotated supplemental list, The search of the literature, begun in October 1969 and completed in January 1911, represents as closelyas possible a careful coverage of material in the major journals, The annotated material is alphabetical and divided into three sections: "Television Content and Programming," "Audience Viewing Patterns and General Effects of Television," and "The Impact of Television and Other Visual Mediaon Children and Youth." The first section, "Television Content and Programming," consists of reports about the type of fare offered to the public and the values and picture of life it presents. References range from Gerbner's (1969) 1 content analysis of TV programming to Pool's (1960) discussion of the role of "public taste" in regulating television programming. Also included are abstracts of recent research on the structure and operation of the broadcast industry. "Audience Viewing Patterns and General Effects of Television" cites literature which deals with the viewers of,television, the role of television in their lives, and the relationships between demographic variables and the viewers' program preferences and vieving patterns. The research in this section describes viewer characteristics, as in the reports by Himmelweit, Oppenheim, and Vince(1958), Maccoby (1958), and Schramm, Lyle, and Parker (1961), which have provided a broad outline of the role television plays in the life of a child. "The Impact of Television and Other Visual Media on Children and Youth" describes research designed to assess the specific effects of viewing particular forms of visually presented stimuli. Such factors as modification of attitudes and .values(Bailyn, 1959), and the observational learning of aggressive behavior (Bandura, 1969) are characteristic of articles presented in this category. The scope of this, bibliography, as with any review of the literature, is somewhat arbitrarily determined. For example, citations are provided only for book and research papers, while articles appearing in newspapers and other popular journals are not included.Moreover, the bibliography stresses research on the impact of television and other visual media on the behavior and development_of children, since this area is ofmajor interest to the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior. In addition, although one of the major topic areas of this review is the relationship between televised violence and the aggressive behavior of viewers, there has been no attempt to survey the literature relevant to violence or aggression per se. Finally, we have restricted the scope of our review to the entertainment/informational aspects of television and have not dealt with the vast literature pertaining to educational television. In spite of limitations, the bibliography covers a wide range of research topics. While effort was made to include all references pertinent to the subject, undoubtedly some items have been overlooked, especially in the foreign literature. However, it is hoped that the scope is sufficiently broad that the bibliography will be valuable to persons with diverse needs and theoretical orientations. vi One final comment, and perhaps the most important,is an acknowledgment of our gratitude for the sustained assistanceof staffs at the National Institute of Mental Health, ColoradoState University, and the University of Wisconsin. The initial impetus for this bibliography came from Dr. Eli A. Rubinstein and we are grateful that he has continued to play an active role in guiding this project. In addition, the members of the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior provided useful comments on the first draft of the bibliography. We wish to express our appreciation of Miss Barbara Platte of Biospherics, Inc. who assisted in the preparation of aa early draft of some of the annotations appearing in this volume. Moreover, we are particularly indebted to several members of the staff of the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee on