Edexcel GCSE Psychology: Williams et al(1981)

Strengths

+ High ecological validity, due to it being a natural experiment + The same children were observed over two years, so their behaviour can be monitored + Children were observed in their natural surroundings

Results

- Children become twice as aggressive after being introduced to TV - Children and adults spent less than half the time on leisure activities than they did before television - Children began to see gender differences - Children became less creative - IQ scores also decreased slightly after the introduction to TV.

Weaknesses

- Not generalisable - Researchers didn't control what children saw or how long they watched TV for - Potential bias of observations

Conclusion

-Notel displayed increased levels of aggression due to the influence of TV. - Aggression had increased far more in places that had TV before Notel. - TV also reduced time spent on other leisure activities - it also lowered creativity and intelligence

Procedure

Natural experiment; they decided to study children in a remote town in British Columbia before and after its introduction to television, measuring: - the level of aggression displayed in the playground and classroom - leisure activities of the community - IQ levels of the community - creativity and reading levels of the children Two observers watched children in the school playground, but only started observing them once children were used to their presence. They measured the amount of physical acts of aggression(e.g. hitting) and verbal aggression(e.g. teasing). They decided to name this town, Notel. They also studied two other nearby towns, they named Unitel and Multitel: - Notel: originally had no TV - Unitel: one channel - Multitel: multiple channels All 3 towns were studied before TV was introduced in Notel, and for two years after.

Aim

To investigate the effects of television on children's behaviour