Citation

Siegel AE. Child Dev. 1958; 29(1): 35-56.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1958, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

13511554

Abstract

With the arrival of television upon the social scene, there has been a renewal of widespread concern that the prevalence of violent themes in the dramatic presentations featured by the mass media may have harmful effects on the audience, especially the child audience. This concern had earlier focused on violent presentations in radio and in movies, and it has been expressed in countless articles and discussions in the popular press and even in the conduct of a legislative investigation of the entertainment industry.

Among professional workers, discussions of the possible effects of violence in the mass media have centered on the effects upon children's emotional development-upon anxiety, fears, aggressive motivation, etc. Recent experimental research has not confirmed hypotheses derived from this approach.

Much less attention, however, has been given to the possible influence of violence in the mass media upon what may be called children's cognitive development, which includes their conceptual learning of the realities of social life. It is with that possible influence that the present paper is concerned.

Language: en