A Study of Violent Television Program Effects on Asocial Behavior

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1. The Background : From previous research findings, the consequence of violent television program viewing can be explained through the theories of observational learning, desensitization and cultivation. This study will focus on the behavior of exposure to violent television programs to be either fantasy oriented or reality oriented, and will consort them to the three prevalent theories of television violence.2. The Problem : Upon examination of the concept of asocial behavior and three theories, correspondence was found among the three effects and three aspects of asocial behavior. Therefore, I labeled each effect asocial behavior : observational learning to asocial justification, desensitization to asocial habituation, and cultivation to social mistrust. By examining the correspondence between reality orientation, fantasy orientation and ambivalence with the theories of television violence, I determined that a high degree of fantasy orientated exposure will lead to desensitization, … More a high degree of reality oriented exposure will lead to cultivation, and when both fantasy and reality orientation are high, this will lead to observational learning. H1 : Those with a higher degree of fantasy orientation than others towards violent television programs will have a high degree of asocial habituation. H2 : Those with a higher degree of reality orientation than others towards violent television programs will have a high degree of social mistrust. H3 : Those with high degrees of fantasy orientation and reality orientation towards violent television programs will have a high degree of asocial justification.3. Survey : The survey was conducted by questionnaire method in March 2000. The subjects were 1405 Japanese Junior high and high school students. The total of valid responses was 1000. The hypotheses were tested using t-tests and through the results, all three hypotheses were supported.4. Discussion : Through the survey results, I have created a perspective to examine the three effects of observational learning, desensitization and cultivation through the aspects of asocial behavior and orientation of exposure. Less