e investigator shows television programs in the normal viewing setting and observes behavior where it naturally occurs. The investigator controls the television programming either by arranging a special series of programs or by choosing towns that in the natural course of events receive different television programs.One of the early field-experiments in 1972 conducted by Stein and Friedrich (1972:202-317) for the Surgeon General’s project dealt with 97 preschool children with a programming of either antisocial, prosocial, or neutral television programs during a four-week viewing period. The results indicated that children who were judged to be somewhat in the beginning aggressive became increasingly more aggressive as a result of viewing the Batman and Superman cartoons. The children who had viewed the prosocial programming of Mister Roger’s Neighborhood were less aggressive, more cooperative and more willing to share with other children. (Stein, Friedrich, 1972:202-317)CAUSE AND EFFECTS ON TYPES OF CHILDRENWe get a clearer picture about the effects of TV violence when we know more about the way children watch televised violence. For example, Ekman and his associates (Ekman et al., 1972) found that children whose facial expressions, while viewing televised violence, depicted the positive emotions of happiness, pleasure, interest or involvement were more likely to hurt another child than were those children whose facial expressions indicated disinterest or displeasure.Although there is much discussion about the amount of research evidence concerning the impact of television violence, most researchers would agree with the conclusion in the report during 1982 by the National Institute of Mental Health, which suggests that there is a conclusion among members of the research community that "violence on television does lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch the programs".(NIMH, 1982) This conclusion is bas...
