Psychology and More

The NY Times has an obituary for Leonard Eron, who ran a longitudinal study looking at television violence’s effects on children and their adult behaviors. The obit includes a brief description of the study. It provides confirmation of Bandura’s Social Learning Theory.

Leonard Eron, 87, Is Dead; Researcher on TV’s Tie to Violent Conduct – New York Times:

the researchers found a correlation between the viewing of violent television shows in youth and the expression of violence in adulthood, in terms of criminal records and other measurements.

“Television has great teaching potential,” Dr. Eron told The New York Times in 1993. “It’s just been teaching the wrong things.”

Dr. Eron and his collaborators also identified violent parents as another important factor in the development of overly aggressive children, and found that a long-term association between early exposure to violence, whichever the source, and aggression in later life held true for both sexes.

Technorati Tags: aggression, human development, psychology, social psychology