On Thu, 11 Apr 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > For yet another line of research pointing to the same types of conclusions > as the laboratory and correlational studies that David refers to check out > T.M. Williams (Ed.)The impact of television: A natural experiment involving > three towns, NY: Academic. Joy,et al found increased levels of aggression > after television was introduced into a remote town.
I've been laying low on this interesting issue because it's a busy time of year around here. However, I do agree with the cogent arguments advanced by David Epstein concerning the limitations of research purporting to find a causal relationship between watching TV and later violence. But it's one thing to decry the lack of effective research; it's another to produce it. Because of ethical considerations and our in ability to push parents and kids around, credible experiments are just about impossible to do. But that doesn't mean that we should jump to conclusions from what's available, if what's available isn't up to the job. So natural experiments like the famous one by Tannis Williams are very important. I haven't looked at hers in many years, but my impression is that her conclusions were rather stronger than her results. All of this is preliminary to the real reason I'm writing: an unassuming final paragraph in a news report in Nature on the Johnson (2002) study. (It drove me crazy until I remembered where it was). It said: "The link between television and violent behaviour is still far from clear, believes Helena Hird...For example the Atlantic island of St. Helena only got television a few years ago. Children there have not become more aggressive, possibly because they live in close-knit, carefully supervised communities" Is this a published study? If so, it would provide a nice counter-example to the Williams study so widely cited. At: http://www.nature.com/nsu/020325/020325-9.html -Stephen ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470 Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661 Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at: http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
