In 1969, Senator John Pastore requested that the Surgeon General appoint a committee to conduct an inquiry into television violence and its effect on children. When the Surgeon General's report was finally released in 1972—after a three-year inquiry and a cost of over $1.8 million—it angered and confused a number of critics, including politicians, the broadcast industry, many of the social scientists who had helped carry out the research, and the public. While the final consequences of the Report may not be played out for years to come, TV Violence and the Child presents a fascinating study of the Surgeon General's quest and, in effect, the process by which social science is recruited and its findings made relevant to public policy. In addition to dealing with television as an object of concern, the authors also consider the government's effectiveness when dealing with social objectives and the influence of citizen action on our communication systems. Their overwhelming conclusion is that the nation's institutions are ill-equipped for recruiting expert talent, providing clear findings, and carrying out objectives in this area of delicate human concern.

This third annual report presents comparative year-to-year data on the nature of violence on television across programme genres and channel types in the United States. It contains an analysis of how the new television rating system was initially implemented and tracks trends over three years in the use of programme advisories and content codes. It also evaluates public service announcements designed to prevent handgun violence among adolescents. Finally, it provides new analyses of `high risk' presentations of violence most likely to adversely affect younger audiences.

In this important work twelve eminent scholars review the latest theoretical work on human aggressive behavior. Emerging theories of aggression; peers, sex-roles, and aggression; environmental investigation and mitigation of aggression; development of adult aggression; and group aggression in adolescents and adults are all discussed in detail to provide clinicians, researchers, and students with a cutting-edge overview of the field.

This book, published originally in 1980, addressed the needs for a profile of televised violence which considered the advantages and disadvantages of various measures and for a furthering of research directions beyond the then-popular emphasis on children. The Committee on Television and Social Behavior was formed in1972 and stimulated new research in order to provide a multidimensional profile of the social effects of television programming. Chapters here look at the effect of television on adults as well as children, particularly special audiences such as the elderly and minority groups. An excellent summary of the various conceptual, substantive and methodological issues around television’s influence.

Violent video games are successfully marketed to and easily obtained by children and adolescents. Even the U.S. government distributes one such game, America's Army, through both the internet and its recruiting offices. Is there any scientific evidence to support the claims that violent games contribute to aggressive and violent behavior? As the first book to unite empirical research on and public policy options for violent video games, Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents will be an invaluable resource for student and professional researchers in social and developmental psychology and media studies.