| Show U. of Texas Investigates TV Addicts' Personalities FROM THE SUMMER TEXAN The average American home has a television set turned on from five to six hours The reasons for and effects of the commanding place that television holds in American life are being studied by the University Mass Communications Research The under the direction of William R. associate professor of will include interviews in the Austin When the interviews are vital data on the correlations between personality attributes of the views and their television will be available to the research on radio reading and TV viewing habits is really quite contradictory when pieced Hazard points one we find that the mass media fan does not seek to identify the invincible hero in a dramatic plot as a means of inflating his but rather regards the hero as an omniscient creature as a sort of a creature of unalterable we find research which pictures the fan of dramatic shows or stories to be searching for vicarious identification with the central or for emotional release being able to or to feel happy or or to feel better knowing that other people have troubles examples point up the fact that we know very little about what goes on in a viewer's mind or what he hopes to find when he sits at home in front of the bright little It's our hope to probe the mystery a With this end in the researchers will study the relationship of anxiety to television Other personality variables to be studied are political social and cultural These aspects of personality will be correlated with television program as rated on a special scale devised by the research The sponsored by the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health and the University's excellence is be able to effect increased program has on This will be done by comparing the viewing habits of Austin citizens before and after they subscribe to cable Cable television allows subscribers to view all three television networks in addition to local television Citizens who have not subscribed to the service will be used as a control group in the The research composed of Hazard and three research assistants David Ann and Vicke Timmons is now in the process of hiring interviewers to begin The interviewing period will be from 5 through with a second sample to be taken after cable television is in Fifty interviewers will work with the many of whom are wives of faculty members and Austin housewives will make up the rest of the interviewing A few positions remain for according to field supervisor Graduate students in the social sciences are |
