Amount of Television Program Viewing and Intellectual Aspects of Personality: A Meta-Analysis on Program Categories

Abstract

In this study, meta-analysis was conducted in order to examine how correlations between amount of television program viewing and intellectual aspects of personality would change with different program categories. Correlations obtained from 11 studies were divided into zero-order correlations and partial correlations. These correlations were then integrated for each program category. We found that the amount of viewing of news/documentary programs and educational programs each indicated a positive correlation with intellectual aspects. On the other hand, the amount of viewing of animation, drama, sports and violent programs each had a negative correlation with intellectual aspects. The results therefore suggested that taking program categories into consideration was important when discussing the relationship between television viewing and intellectual aspects of personality.