Charlton et al (2000) St Helena study

This is a key study in Topic C - Aggression. It investigates the nature/social side of the theory.

Aim
To investigate the effects of television on children's social behaviour.

Procedure
St Helena was a remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean, that was not connected to TV.

Independent variable - The introduction of TV

Dependent variable - Children's behaviour before and after the introduction of TV.

Charlton and his colleagues began their study of children's behaviour two years before TV was connected to the island. This was a natural experiment because the researchers did not have to set up the experiment themselves.

Charlton collected data about children's behaviour using number of methods:
 * Using questionnaires and asking parent and teachers about the behaviour of children
 * Observations of the children's behaviour were made in the school playground, particularly the level of aggression the children displayed
 * The researchers' content analysed what and how much the children watched television and how much violence was seen.
 * Video cameras were placed in the school classrooms and playgrounds to watch the children and measure the level aggression.

Results/Findings
Charlton found very little difference in the children's behaviour before and after the introduction of television, the island had a very low rate of behavioural problems with children before the study and this did not significantly increase after TV was introduced.

Because the population of St Helena was so small, with everyone knowing everyone else, and parents having a high level of control over their children's behaviour, the effect of television was reduced. TV did not have the impact it could have had in a less isolated environment.

Conclusion
This study shows that TV did not have a significant impact on children's behaviour. Even if violence was watched it was not copied. This was due to high levels of community control and surveillance and parents' control over behaviour.

Evaluation
Strengths:
 * This study was a natural experiment, which means it has greater realism than a laboratory or field experiment
 * Discreet cameras were used so the children would have acted naturally because they did not know that they were being watched.

Weaknesses:
 * Because of the close nature of the community, it might be that the children were more aggressive after watching TV, but that parents and teachers were unwilling to report this to maintain the reputation of the community
 * Other psychologists have reported that the programmes watched by children contained less violence than programmes watched by mainland children