Impact of Television Violence on Young Minds in an Urban Setting; An Introspective Study
type: CreativeWork
description: An institution such as broadcasting affects and is affected by the society, which encompasses the viewers and listeners it serves. The increase in crime and violence and the fear of crime may actually help explain the popularity of TV violence. Media violence has been a topic of popular interest right from the fifties, when television was still being applauded as one more of those human marvels. Therefore, for my study, I will concentrate on television, a medium that involves both the visual and hearing senses and to which young people are particularly drawn. The sample for this study involved five schools in Nashville, Tennessee. A random sample of 210 children in the age group of 11 to 16 years were asked to answer a questionnaire designed to determine the effect of television violence on young minds. The study is an introspective one, and the questions required the young people to 'look into themselves' and speculate on why they do what they do. The study is not a laboratory analysis that involves extensive statistical methods. Rather, it is a self-report study asking for subjective introspective guesses that will help answer the research question of whether the sample accepts or denies being affected by television violence. In addition to media violence, other factors to be considered are peer pressure, self-validation, self-identification and initiation into a group. These factors that affect human behavior have been selected as independent variables in my study on the effect of TV violence on young minds The analysis of responses will follow a "Grounded Theory" approach, which is a general methodology for developing theory that is grounded in data systematically gathered and analyzed. The theory states that the hypothesis to be developed can evolve during actual research or existing schemes can be elaborated and modified as incoming data are played against them. I will elaborate on and modify the Social Learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura in the 60's. H…
abstract: An institution such as broadcasting affects and is affected by the society, which encompasses the viewers and listeners it serves. The increase in crime and violence and the fear of crime may actually help explain the popularity of TV violence. Media violence has been a topic of popular interest right from the fifties, when television was still being applauded as one more of those human marvels. Therefore, for my study, I will concentrate on television, a medium that involves both the visual and hearing senses and to which young people are particularly drawn. The sample for this study involved five schools in Nashville, Tennessee. A random sample of 210 children in the age group of 11 to 16 years were asked to answer a questionnaire designed to determine the effect of television violence on young minds. The study is an introspective one, and the questions required the young people to 'look into themselves' and speculate on why they do what they do. The study is not a laboratory analysis that involves extensive statistical methods. Rather, it is a self-report study asking for subjective introspective guesses that will help answer the research question of whether the sample accepts or denies being affected by television violence. In addition to media violence, other factors to be considered are peer pressure, self-validation, self-identification and initiation into a group. These factors that affect human behavior have been selected as independent variables in my study on the effect of TV violence on young minds The analysis of responses will follow a "Grounded Theory" approach, which is a general methodology for developing theory that is grounded in data systematically gathered and analyzed. The theory states that the hypothesis to be developed can evolve during actual research or existing schemes can be elaborated and modified as incoming data are played against them. I will elaborate on and modify the Social Learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura in the 60's. H…
author: Sagar, Nirupama
keywords: Communication, Psychology
date published: 1995-05-01T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:07:54Z
provider: Western Kentucky University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Western Kentucky University