The main concern of Dr Jarvie's book is the relation of belief to action. He argues that people act in society because of beliefs, because of 'the way they see things'. There is the world of physical and social conditioning - where fixed roles, tropisms, adaptations seem to operate; there is the world of mind - where action, alternatively, seems to originate; but then there is Karl Popper's 'third world' - where dwell the objects of thought (ideals, theories, beliefs, values) which 'directly affect how people act, and thus affect the way the world is'. Reform, change, improvement, modification, all proceed from the competitive interaction between our private beliefs about the world, and their 'third world' brothers. Jarvie contends that the struggle of privately held beliefs to realize themselves in the world through the actions of their believers is a fundamental force behind social change.

The main concern of Dr Jarvie's book is the relation of belief to action. He argues that people act in society because of beliefs, because of 'the way they see things'. There is the world of physical and social conditioning - where fixed roles, tropisms, adaptations seem to operate; there is the world of mind - where action, alternatively, seems to originate; but then there is Karl Popper's 'third world' - where dwell the objects of thought (ideals, theories, beliefs, values) which 'directly affect how people act, and thus affect the way the world is'. Reform, change, improvement, modification, all proceed from the competitive interaction between our private beliefs about the world, and their 'third world' brothers. Jarvie contends that the struggle of privately held beliefs to realize themselves in the world through the actions of their believers is a fundamental force behind social change.

An analysis of the first and most comprehensive study of the influence of movies on American youth, the Payne Fund Studies. First published in 1933, these studies are intrinsically important for their insights and conclusions regarding the effects of movies on behaviour. They are, moreover, also an important landmark of modern social science research, demonstrating the rapid evolution of this discipline in American academic institutions over the first three decades of the century. Based on more recently discovered primary sources, whose contents are published here for the first time, this volume also reproduces the long-missing first Payne Fund study in its entirety.

Children and the Movies analyzes the first and most comprehensive study of the influence of movies on American youth, the Payne Fund Studies. First published in 1933, these studies--reproduced here in their entirety--are intrinsically important for their insights and conclusions regarding the effects of movies on behavior. They are, moreover, an important landmark of modern social science research, demonstrating the rapid evolution of this discipline in American academic institutions over the first three decades of the century.