Related Research Articles
Moral support is a way of giving support to a person or cause, or to one side in a conflict, without making any contribution beyond the emotional or psychological value of the encouragement by supporting them.
Cultivation theory is a sociological and communications framework to examine the lasting effects of media, primarily television. It suggests individuals routinely exposed to certain media for extended durations at a time perceive the world's social reality as it is similarly presented through the media they are exposed to, which then influences their attitudes and behaviours.
Uses and gratifications theory (UGT) is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. UGT is an audience-centered approach to understanding mass communication. Diverging from other media effect theories that question "what does media do to people?", UGT instead focuses on "what do people do with media?" It postulates that media is a highly available product and the audiences are the consumers of the same product.
Affect, in psychology, refers to the underlying experience of feeling, emotion, attachment, or mood.
Suspense is a state of mental uncertainty, anxiety, being undecided, or being doubtful. In a dramatic work, suspense is the anticipation of the outcome of a plot or of the solution to an uncertainty, puzzle, or mystery, particularly as it affects a character for whom one has sympathy. However, suspense is not exclusive to fiction.
Media psychology is the branch and specialty field in psychology that focuses on the interaction of human behavior with media and technology. Media psychology is not limited to mass media or media content; it includes all forms of mediated communication and media technology-related behaviors, such as the use, design, impact, and sharing behaviors. This branch is a relatively new field of study because of advancement in technology. It uses various methods of critical analysis and investigation to develop a working model of a user's perception of media experience. These methods are used for society as a whole and on an individual basis. Media psychologists are able to perform activities that include consulting, design, and production in various media like television, video games, films, and news broadcasting. Media psychologists are not considered to be those who are featured in media, rather than those who research, work or contribute to the field.
Mood management theory posits that the consumption of messages, particularly entertaining messages, is capable of altering prevailing mood states, and that the selection of specific messages for consumption often serves the regulation of mood states.
Reinforcement theory is a limited effects media model applicable within the realm of communication. The theory generally states that people seek out and remember information that provides cognitive support for their pre-existing attitudes and beliefs. The main assumption that guides this theory is that people do not like to be wrong and often feel uncomfortable when their beliefs are challenged.
Exemplification theory is a theory that states that an event is the exemplification of a property in an entity. This identity is often modeled as an "ordered triple" of an entity, property type, and time.
Misattribution is one of many theories of humor that describes an audience's inability to identify exactly why they find a joke to be funny. The formal theory is attributed to Zillmann & Bryant (1980) in their article, "Misattribution Theory of Tendentious Humor", published in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. They derived the critical concepts of the theory from Sigmund Freud's Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious, originally published in 1905. Freud declared people incapable of knowing exactly what it is they find amusing due to the complex nature of their conscious and subconscious minds. Jokes are crafted by comedians who have experience with causing laughter but who may themselves be blind to the actual cause of humor.
Narrative transportation theory proposes that when people lose themselves in a story, their attitudes and intentions change to reflect that story. The mental state of narrative transportation can explain the persuasive effect of stories on people, who may experience narrative transportation when certain contextual and personal preconditions are met, as Green and Brock postulate for the transportation-imagery model. As Van Laer, de Ruyter, Visconti, and Wetzels elaborate further, narrative transportation occurs whenever the story receiver experiences a feeling of entering a world evoked by the narrative because of empathy for the story characters and imagination of the story plot.
Excitation-transfer theory purports that residual excitation from one stimulus will amplify the excitatory response to another stimulus, though the hedonic valences of the stimuli may differ. The excitation-transfer process is not limited to a single emotion. For example, when watching a movie, a viewer may be angered by seeing the hero wronged by the villain, but this initial excitation may intensify the viewer's pleasure in witnessing the villain's punishment later. Thus, although the excitation from the original stimulus of seeing the hero wronged was cognitively accessed as anger, the excitation after the second stimulus of seeing the villain punished is cognitively assessed as pleasure, though part of the excitation from the second stimulus is residual from the first.
However, the excitation-transfer process requires the presence of three conditions. One: the second stimulus occurs before the complete decay of residual excitation from the first stimulus. Two: there is the misattribution of excitation, that is, after exposure to the second stimulus, the individual experiencing the excitation attributes full excitation to the second stimulus. Three: the individual has not reached an excitatory threshold before exposure to the second stimulus.
The hedonic music consumption model was created by music researchers Kathleen Lacher and Richard Mizeski in 1994. Their goal was to use this model to examine the responses that listening to rock music creates, and to find if these responses influenced the listener's intention to later purchase the music. The article begins with a discussion of why the issue of music consumption is important. Music is then explored as an aesthetic product, prior to a discussion of what hedonic consumption is, as well as its origins, and concludes with an in-depth look at the model itself.
Capacity theory is the theoretical approach that pulled researchers from Filter theories with Kahneman's published 1973 study, Attention and Effort positing attention was limited in overall capacity, that a person's ability to perform simultaneous tasks depends on how much "capacity" the jobs require. Further researchers - Johnson and Heinz (1978) and Navon & Gopher (1979) - went further with Kahneman's study.
Joanne Cantor (2004) suggested that “humans are naturally inclined to empathize with the emotions of protagonists” This may help explain potential long-term reactions that may accompany exposure to frightening content. Feeling close to the protagonist may enhance the depth of fear and helplessness a viewer might experience.
Moral development focuses on the emergence, change, and understanding of morality from infancy through adulthood. Morality develops across a life span in a variety of ways and is influenced by an individual's experiences and behavior when faced with moral issues through different periods of physical and cognitive development. Morality concerns an individual's reforming sense of what is right and wrong; it is for this reason that young children have different moral judgment and character than that of a grown adult. Morality in itself is often a synonym for "rightness" or "goodness." It also refers to a specific code of conduct that is derived from one's culture, religion, or personal philosophy that guides one's actions, behaviors, and thoughts.
Jennings Bryant was Distinguished Professor Emeritus at The University of Alabama (UA). Prior to his retirement in 2010, he was Communication and Information Sciences Distinguished Research Professor, holder of the Reagan Endowed Chair of Broadcasting, and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research at UA. Jennings Bryant was married to Sara Poteat Bryant for 43 years. He and Sara were the parents of three children. The Bryants lived on a family farm in the Mountain Valley Rural Agricultural Historical District in Glenwood, North Carolina.
Savoring is the use of thoughts and actions to increase the intensity, duration, and appreciation of positive experiences and emotions. It is a topic commonly studied in the domain of positive psychology. It can also be referred to simply as the up-regulation of positive emotions. Traditional psychology attempts to develop methods of coping and dealing with negative emotions. Positive psychology uses the concept of savoring as a way to maximize the potential benefits that positive experiences and emotions can have on peoples' lives. The opposite of Savoring is known as dampening. Dampening is a method of dealing with positive affect by trying to feel worse, or down-regulate positive emotions.
Peter Vorderer, Prof. Dr. phil. is a German professor of media and Communication studies at the University of Mannheim focusing on the area of media psychology, entertainment research, and the social change related to the use of new media. He made major contributions to the field of mass communication, primarily in the area of media effects research. From May 2014 until May 2015, he was president of the International Communication Association (ICA).
Dolf Zillmann is dean emeritus, and professor of information sciences, communication and psychology at the University of Alabama (UA). Zillmann predominantly conducted research in media psychology, a branch of psychology focused on the effects of media consumption on human affect, developing and expanding a range of theories within media psychology and communication. His work centred on the relation between aggression, emotion, and arousal through media consumption, predominantly in pornography and violent genres of movie and television. His research also includes the effects of music consumption, video games, and sports.
References
- Zillmann, D.; Cantor (1972). "Directionality of transitory dominance as a communication variable affecting humor appreciation". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 24 (2): 191–198. doi:10.1037/h0033384. PMID 5081191.
- Bryant, J., & Raney, A.A. (2000). Sports on the screen. In D. Zillmann & P. Vorderer (Eds.), Media entertainment: The psychology of its appeal (pp. 153–174). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Gantz, W., & Wenner, L. A. (1991). Men, women, and sports: Audience experiences and effects. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 35, 233–243.
- Gantz, W., & Wenner, L. A. (1995). Fanship and the television sports viewing experience. Sociology of Sports Journal, 12, 56–74.
- Peterson, E. M., & Raney, A. A. (2008). Reconceptualizing and Reexamining Suspense as a Predictor of Mediated Sports Enjoyment. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 52(4), 544–562.
- Raney, A. A. (2004). Expanding disposition theory: Reconsidering character liking, moral evaluations, and enjoyment. Communication Theory, 14(4), 348–369.
- Raney, A. A. (2006a). The psychology of disposition-based theories of media enjoyment. In J. Bryant & P. Vorderer (Eds.), Psychology of entertainment (pp. 137–150). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Raney, A. A. (2006b). Why We Watch and Enjoy Mediated Sports. In A. A. Raney, J. Bryant (Eds.), Handbook of sports and media (pp. 313–329). Mahwah, NJ US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
- Raney, A. A., & Depalma, A. J. (2006). The Effect of Viewing Varying Levels and Contexts of Violent Sports Programming on Enjoyment, Mood, and Perceived Violence. Mass Communication & Society, 9(3), 321–338.
- Sapolsky, B. S. (1980). The effect of spectator disposition and suspense on the enjoyment of sport contests. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 11, 1–10.
- Vorderer, P., & Knobloch, S. (2000). Conflict and suspense in drama. In D. Zillmann, & P. Vorderer (Eds.), Media entertainment: The psychology of its appeal (pp. 56–68). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Zillmann, D., & Cantor, J. (1977). Affective responses to the emotions of a protagonist. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 13(2), 155–165.
- Zillman, D., (1991). Television viewing and psychological arousal. In J. Bryant D. Zillman (Eds.), Responding to the screen: Reception and reaction process (pp. 103–133). Hillsadale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Zillman, D., (2000). Mood management in the context of selective exposure theory. In M. E. Roloff (Ed.), Communication Yearbook 23 (pp. 103–123). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- Zillman, D., Bryant, J., & Sapolsky, B. (1989). Enjoyment of watching Sport Contests. In J.H. Goldstein (Ed.), Sports, Games, and play: Social and Psychological Viewpoints (2nd ed., pp. 241–287). Hillsadale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Zillman, D., & Paulus, P. B. (1993). Spectators: Reactions to sporting events and effects on athletic performance. In R. N. Singer, M. Murphey, & L. K. Tennant (Eds.), Handbook of research on sports psychology (pp. 600–699). New York: Macmillan.
- Zillmann, D. (1996). The psychology of suspense in dramatic exposition. In P. Vorderer, W. J. Wulff, & M. Friedrichsen (Eds.), Suspense: conceptualizations, theoretical analyses, and empirical explorations (pp 199–231). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
- Zillmann, D. (1994). "Mechanisms of emotional involvement with drama". Poetics. 23 (1–2): 33–51. doi:10.1016/0304-422x(94)00020-7.