(assault, physical fights resulting in injury, robbery, crime committed with a
weapon) increased dramatically with an increase in television viewing.
One potential difficulty in interpreting this research concerns the possibil-
ity that the children watched television because they were aggressive, not the
other way around. Not surprisingly, research shows that aggressive people
prefer aggressive television programs (Bushman, 1995). However, when re-searchers control for the child ’s initial aggressiveness level statistically, the find-
ings still suggest that watching television causes the later aggressive behavior.Moreover, when researchers account for other possible influences on aggres-sive behavior, such as neighborhood violence, childhood neglect, and family
income, they still find the association between television viewing and aggres-
sion (Johnson et al., 2002).
In short, frequent exposure to aggressive models on television appears
to increase aggressive behavior over the short run and many years later.
Some of this relationship can be explained through Bandura ’s observational
learning model. However, closer examination of the model suggests imita-
tion may be only part of the picture. In many studies the aggressive acts dis-
played by participants are different f rom the acts modeled in the films the
participants are shown (Geen & Thomas, 1986). That is, exposure to an ag-
gressive motion picture increases aggressive acts, but not necessarily the acts
shown in the movie. Why might this be so? As we will see in Chapter 16,
some concepts borrowed from the cognitive approach to personality help5
01015202530354045Seriousness of Criminal Act by Age 30
Low Medium
Frequency of TV Viewing at Age 8High Low MediumFemales Males
High
FIGURE 14.5 Seriousness of Criminal Act at Age 30 as a Function of
Frequency of TV Viewing at Age 8
Source: From Eron (1987).392 CHAPTER 14 The Behavioral/Social Learning Approach