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Mr.PowPow:

--- Quote from: msg on June 09, 2013, 09:06:25 PM ---Is this a one person topic or can anybody join?

--- End quote ---
Yeah don't be fooled, anyone can join. I just seem to be the only one doing so atm.
If you have some material to share, by all means share it =3

Mr.PowPow:
Psychological views on media

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Social Learning Theory
Disinhibition
Desensitisation
Cognitive Priming
Stereotypes
Counter-Stereotypes
Stimulation

1. Social Learning Theory - Bandura
Children demonstrated directly imitative behaviour. Children changed their behaviour without direct reward or unishment. This did not fit with Learning Theory at the time, as it required some form of reward or punishment to alter behaviour.

2. Disinhibition
Since we have conscious control over our behaviour we tend to want to inhibit our anti-social behaviours. High levels of violence in the media might make us less inhibited as the more violence we see the less 'shocked' it becomes.

3. Desensitisation - Franzoi, Thomas Horton Lippincott and Drubman.
Franzoi believed we get less concerned by aggression when we repeatedly see violence on the tv. We are less emotionally concerned the more we see.
Thomas Horton Lippincott and Drubman asked 2 groups of children to watch a video of young children behaving aggressively. They measured their physiological arousal (heart rate). They found that the group who had watched the programme containing violence previously showed less physiological arousal than the other group who had watched a programme with no violence previously.
This seems like desensitisation is taking place, the more violence we see the less impact it has on us. We become less sensitive to it with repeated exposure.

4. Cognitive Priming - Bushman and Geen, Josephson
The idea is that watching violent content cues us to have more aggressive thought processes and aggressive feelings than those who do not watch violence. Bushman and Geen asked college students to write down their thoughts while watching aggressive movies. They found that they reported having many aggressive thoughts, increased anger and a high level of physiological arousal.
 
Josephson asked canadian boys to watch a violent program during which there was a gun battle inwhich the snipers communicated by walkie-talkie. A second group of boys watched a program about a motocross team. All then played floor hockey but before the game started the referee gave instructions to all boys via walkie-talkie or tape recording.

5. Stereotypes- Mulac Bradac and Mann

The media relies on the use of stereotypes to get across large amounts of information and as such frequently employ both positive and negative stereotypes. Mulac Bradac and Mann analysed the content of children's programs and found strong gender stereotyping -males were more dynamic and females had greater socio-intellectual status and were more aesthetically pleasing. Stereotyping of course could be anti-social if they promote existing stereotypes (prejudice) or pro-social if they break existing stereotypes.

6. Counter-stereotyping - Greenfield
One way of dealing with stereotypes is to replace them with counter-stereotypes. Greenfield found that Sesame Street's use of ethnic and disabled minorities helped children from minority groups to have more ethnic pride.

7. Stimulation Hypothesis  - Johnston and Ettema
Idea is that if you have seen a situation via the media that you then experience, your learning from watching might aid you in real-life. This is the idea that TV and media can be educational. The US 'Freestyle' programme tried to reduce sex-role stereotyping by presenting characters in the show in the non-stereotypical ways even though the characters clearly found this hard to do. Eventually they overcome their difficulties and are rewarded (Johnston and Ettema)
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Exposure
A lot of the focus on media is on the anti-social messages or behaviour that they portray. However, the media can also send messages of pro-social behaviour. A study by Greenberg in 1980 found that on US television in any hour, there were an equivalent number of pro-social and anti-social acts.

Acquisition
This links to social learning theory which suggests that we observe and imitate behaviours. Here vicarious reinforcement can determine whether or not behaviour is imitated. The suggestion with pro-social behaviour is that it is likely to reinforce social norms that are already established in society. If this is the case then pro-social acts are more likely to be reinforced than anti-social acts.

Developmental factors
This suggests that the age and development of the child can affect the influence that message from the media have. In order for someone to behave pro-socially they must process skills such as empathy and moral reasoning. These do not develop until later childhood. Therefore, young children are unlikely to be affected by pro-social messages in the media.

Parental mediation
This explanation suggests that the effects of television viewing is mediated by the presence of a parent. The learning effects of television have been enhanced when accompanied by discussion with a parent. Research by Rosenkoetter suggests that with parental mediation, children as young as seven can understand complex moral messages in adult sit-coms.

Poulos et al showed that young children who watched an episode of Lassie were more likely to help puppies in distress than those who watched a neutral or anti-social programme. Altruism.

Frederick and Stein asked observers to record behaviours whilst children were at play. Behaviours included number of aggressive acts, number of friendly acts, number of expressions of affection. They found that children who had watched pro-social programmes showed more positive behaviours that those who had seen the neutral programme.

Woodward found that 77% of US pre-school programmes continued at least one pro-social message. However, they also found that only 4 of the top 20 most watched programmes for under 17% contained any pro-social messages.

Valkenburg et al suggests that parental mediation has some variation. They found that simply watching TV with your child is ineffective at modifying the child's interpretation of the programme. They found that 'instructive mediation' which involves discussion of the content of the show demonstrates effective mediation of the effect of television.

Mares found that fairy tails reinforce positive messages and children love to hear these stories repeatedly, again reinforcing these messages. The use of computers and the internet are also now common forms of media although the pro-social effect of these media is not yet widely studied.
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Hard sell and soft sell advertising. This is similar to the central and peripheral routes to persuasion. Hard sell equates to central route (fact based), soft sell relates to peripheral route (subtle and creative). The effectiveness of these advertising techniques depends on the person receiving the message.

Research has shown that people with different levels of self-monitoring respond differently to the types of advertising. High self monitoring  (regulating own behaviour so you are perceived favorably by others) prefer soft sell approaches. Low self monitoring (less image conscious) prefer hard sell approaches.

Fowles estimated that in 1990, 20% of TV adverts continued celebrity endorsements. Celebrities provide a familiar face and act as a neutral source of information. However, research suggests that consumers to not thin that celebrity endorsements are believable, moreover, the credibility and expertise of the celebrities appear to be important 'source' factors.

Martin et al found that students were more convinced by a fictional students endorsement of a digital camera than a celebrity. He suggests that this is because young people need to be certain that what they by is fashionable amongst their peer groups - not celebrity groups.

Pine and Nash found that increased exposure to TV adverts amongst children increased number of items requested on their christmas list. They compared the lists of children in the US and Sweden and they found significantly fewer gift requests amongst Swedish children. This research is correlational and therefore, other factors could explain the cultural difference.

Advertisements have been criticised for displaying stereotypical gender role. For example men are often portrayed as dominant and export and when they are portrayed against the stereotype, by maybe cleaning, they are shown as incompetant. THese adverts are believed to reinforce social norms and stereotypical behaviours.

Tv appears to have an important role in health promotion. French suggests that TV is useful when wide exposure is required. When the time frame is urgent and when the behavioural goal is simple.

Statistics from the Health Development Agency say that the knowledge of units of alcohol in popular drinks - up 300%
Belief that a condom protects against HIV-66% in 1986, 95% in 1997. The HDA claims that this is a direct result of TV campaigns.

Research has shown that people will retain information that they have seen drama. For example, viewers of an episode of casualty retained information about Parecetamol toxicity.
(click to show/hide)Griffith, Davis and Chappell studied characteristics of those playing games on the internet. 85% were males, 60% were over the age of 19.
 
Recently there has been a substantial increase in violence in video games. Graphics have improved thereby giving more realistic experience. The focus of research is on violent video games although there are many non-violent ones. 3 reasons for this:
1. Most of the research has been violent games
2. When 10 year olds asked about their favorite video games, 73% and 50% chose violent games.
3. There is concern about effects of laying these games and ethical issues are raised

Gentile and Anderson say that there are positive effects - games can be educational and teach skills. Can also assist in socialisation process of children.

Anderson and Dill - Four stage general aggression model

Stage 1 - At this stage key variables are situational cues
Stage 2 - What happens at stage 1 produces various effects at stage 2. Can produce changes in affect for example, hostile feelings, arousal and cognition.
Stage 3 - What happens at stage 2 affects what happens at stage 3 - leads to appraisal processes.
Stage 4 - Will choose either aggressive behaviour or non-aggressive behaviour.

Most research focuses on aggression. Other research has looked at other things such as the use of stereotypes early video had white males in lead roles - sustaining unfortunate stereotypes regarding gender and race.

Jansz and Martis - The Lara Phenomenon
Studied the Lara Phenomenon by analyzing the introductory films to 12 recent video games. There were as many female leading parts as male leading parts - good sign. But tendency to over-emphasise bodily characteristics - bad sign. All the heroes were white - bad sign.

Anderson and Bushman conducted a meta-analysis on data from research of violent video games. Support for 4 stage model.
1. Situational cues were associated with aggressive behaviour - same for males, females, children and adults.
2.Exposure to violent video games reliably increased aggressive cognitions.
3. Exposure increased affect and physiological arousal.

Anderson and Dill argued that personality of the individual influenced effects of exposure to violent. Evidence came from Unsworth, Devilly and Ward where they asked adolescents to play Quake II, found that some showed increased aggression, some decreased and some no change. Participants prone to aggression more likely to show raised aggression.

Cognitions are central in general aggression model. Repeated exposed to violence can cause a hostile expectation bias in which individuals expect others to behave in a hostile and aggressive fashion.

Limitations
Most studies have only looked at short-term effects - we do not know the long-term effects. Observes free-play activity but not other situations like education.
Correlations between amount of playing and aggression - cannot infer causality.
(click to show/hide)The effect that our attitudes have on decision making and behaviour.

Cognitive consistency
This idea suggests that as humans we like to be in a state of 'psychological balance'. What this means is that we are happier when our attitudes, beliefs and behaviour all 'match'. Therefore if we act in a way that is contradictory to our beliefs, we are motivated to do something to restore the balance.

Cognitive dissonance

Proposed by Festinger, cognitive dissonance refers to the 'mental tension' caused when our behaviour is not consistent with our beliefs or attitudes. This theory suggests three strategies that we use in order to modify our beliefs to match our behaviour.
1. Changing the attitude
2.Changing the behaviour
3.Adding a third cognition
All of these aim to reduce dissonance and restore the balance.

Example: Smokers are always presented with information about how bad smoking is for health. This would cause them cognitive dissonance so they could: Change their attitude (smoking isn't that unhealthy), change the behaviour (give up smoking), or add a third cognition (I'll give up once my exams are over).

Post-directional dissonance
This occurs after we have made a choice and decision and we think it is the wrong one. Here we would have to use the strategy of selective exposure in order to reduce the dissonance caused by having made the wrong decision.
Variables affecting dissonance include choice and incentive. This refers to how much choice, or the extent of the reward for engaging the behaviour does not fit our attitude. Therefore, if there is sufficient external justification for the behaviour then we are less likely to feel dissonance.

Festinger and Carlsmith gave participants a monotonous task to do for an hour, they were then asked to show the next participants what they had to do and were asked to tell them that it was very interesting, one group was paid 20 dollars and the other group 1 dollar.

When they asked participants how they really felt about the task they found that the 1 dollar group rated it more positively than the 20 dollar group, both groups experienced dissonance when lying, however the 20 dollar group had sufficient external justification for lying. The 1 dollar group did not, therefore the only way for the to reduce dissonance was to change their attitude.

Evaluation
Research suggests that dissonance is an automatic process that does not require conscious reflection. It challenges the view of behaviourism who suggests that all behaviour is driven by reward and punishment. However, some research suggests that we are happier with something if we have experienced pain or discomfort to achieve it.\
This makes sense with cognitive dissonance theory because we adjust the perception of the went to focus on the positives.
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Celebrity Worship- The Celebrity Attitude Scale is used to measure levels of celebrity worship.

Maltby et al used this scale to develop 3 levels of parasocial relationships. Entertainment social, Intense personal, Borderline pathological.

The problems with measuring celebrity worship are that they are measured with a self-report questionnaire. Social desirability, subjectivity of responses, plus if we are implying that people who display high levels of celebrity worship are psychologically unhealthy, can we be sure that they can reliably self rate their own levels of fandom.

Maltby et al did a sample of 374 people aged 18-47. 15% were at entertainment social level. 5% were at intense personal level, 2% would be considered borderline pathological.

Chung and Yue sample of 883 chinese teenagers, found that 'idol worship' was associated with lower work levels, low self-esteem and poor identity achievement. Maltby concluded that celebrity worshipers have poorer levels of psychological well-being. It is a behavioural representation of an inability escape from or cope with pressures of everyday life. He found that intense personal scores predict anxiety and depression scores.

Research has found that suicide rates amongst the general public increase following the suicide of high profile celebrities. Sheridan et al suggests that pathological worshipers are attracted to more rebellious celebrities and so probably have higher desires to emulate the behaviour of these celebrities.

Evolution could explain celebrity worship in terms of respecting those who are successful in society. Since success improves survival it makes sense that we would use these people as role models for our own behaviour as we would wish to be as successful.

Stalking - involves repeated and persistent attempts by the stalker to engage in unwanted communication with the target person, there are two types of stalking: Love Stalking and Simple Stalking.

Those who develop Love obsession or fixation with someone whom they have no personal relationship with. Stalkers of this type have delusional thought patterns and may suffer from illnesses such as schizophrenia. Explanations for Love stalking suggest that these people are unable to form normal personal relationships and so retreat into a world of fantasy were their target becomes their love conquest.

Simple obsessional stalking is different because it involves some prior personal or romantic relationship before stalking began.

Fisher and Cullen found that they have been cyber-stalked. For stalkers, cyber-stalkers has the advantage of anonymity and because there is no face to face contact, there is reduced fear reprisal. Research has found a link between insecure attachment and talking. Cyber stalking can create tolerance meaning the stalker will need to resort to extreme measures to receive the same thrill. Cyber-stalking is not taken as seriously as other stalking due to the lack of face-to-face contact.
(click to show/hide)Psychologists believe that if we wish to use the media to change behaviour then we must bring about attitude change.

Hovland and Yale studied effective persuasion and found that it can be brought about by focusing on:
1. The communicator
2. The message
3. The audience it is aimed at

Source factors
The source of the information (Who is trying to persuade you). Experts and popular/attractive sources are far more powerful in persuasion than non-experts or unpopular people. Bochner and Insko asked students how many hours sleep was needed for a good nights rest.

Most students said around 8, however, participants were more influenced by an expert than non-expert offering different view points. IN fact, they were even swayed by the expert when their opinion was very different to the participants original answer. This suggest that messages are more effective if we believe they are not intended to persuade. It has also been found that low fear or high fear messages are not as effective as moderate fear messages. This is because low fear does not create motivation and high fear causes so much anxiety that we are unable to process the message.

Lewis et al - participants viewed 2 advertisements, related to drink driving and completed questionnaire measuring.
1. Pre exposure attitudes and behaviour
2. Immediate post-exposure attitude and behaviour
3. Attitudes and behaviour 2-4 weeks later

The results were that they found that fear arousing messages were more effective in the short-term whereas positive messages were better at bringing about long term attitude change.

Attitude factors

McGuire found that low intelligence and high intelligence groups were less easily persuaded than moderately intelligent groups. Low intelligence groups are less likely to process the content of the message and high intelligence groups are more likely to process in depth and so would reject a one-sided approach. Presenting both sides of an argument is more effective amongst high intelligence groups.

Igartua et al found that audience factors do not exist independently of message factors. They found that using fictional short stories to highlight HIV/AIDS prevention was more effective when the quality of the stories was high. Considering the audience and the message together can be more effective than focusing on one.

Methodological problems

Biased samples - most of the research used students or army personnel and so do not reflect characteristics of the general public. Also, in lab studies, researchers demand the full attention of participants whilst messages are displayed. This would rarely happen with real life communication.
Psychological views on OCD

(click to show/hide)According to the biological approach, OCD has a physical cause. Fear and anxiety are adaptive responses that aid survival, therefore they are natural responses. This is the rationale behind the biological approaches explanation.

Neurological abnormalities
The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) sends signals to the thalamus about things that are worrying. The caudate nucleas (located in the basal ganlia) suppresses the signals from the OFC. When the caudate nucleus is damaged it fails to suppress minor worry signals. PET scans have shown heightened activity in the OFC when symptoms of OCD are active.

Genetic Factors
Family studies and twin studies suggest a genetic link to OCD. Studies looking at patients with OCD and their first degree relatives, compared to the control group with no mental illness found a strong family link for the most common form of OCD. MZ twins are twice as likely to both have OCD compared to DZ twins (87% concordance). However, these concordance, rates are not 100% suggesting environmental factors must also play a part.

The gene itself may not be the cause of OCD. Genetics may cause abnormal brain functioning or abnormalities in neurotransmitters. Like with other aspects of behaviour, low levels of serotonin and high levels of dopamine are associated with OCD symptoms. Antidepressants that increase serotonin reduce the symptoms of OCD whereas anti-depressants that don't act on serotonin do not.

Evolutionary explanations

We have already discussed how most of us display some ritualistic behaviour and how OCD could be an exaggeration of these behaviours. Many rituals aid survival and OCD could be an exaggeration of these behaviours. Adaptive rituals include Grooming: in primates, grooming protects against parasites and also serves to make social interactions easier. Some OCD patients wash and groom excessively. Hoarding: hoarding of food can protect against shortages. Some OCD patients hoard or collect excessively.

Harm avoidance strategies - according to Abed and De Pauw, humans have developed a mental system which allow us to imagine risky situations and then deal with them more effectively if they do occur - the involuntary risk scenario generation system. OCD patients would have an overactive IRSGS, viewing more things as risky and worrying about them.
(click to show/hide)Behavioural - Anxiety is usually caused initially through classical conditioning. This is then generalised to any object that could be dirty. According to the approach this where intrusive thoughts come from.

Compulsive behaviour - patients make an association between the action and the reduction in anxiety. This action is then reinforced by the fact that it does reduce their anxiety.

Evidence: Tracy et al suggest that OCD patients are predisposed to rapid conditioning. They divided participants into an OCD like group and a control group. They found that the OCD like group were more easily conditioned than the controls.

Cognitive - We all have inappropriate intrusive thoughts from time to time, but most of us have the ability to dismiss them or distract ourselves. OCD patients tend to misinterpret these thoughts, blame themselves and then expect terrible things to happen. OCD patients often also have depression and this also limits their ability to distract their mind.

Pleva and Wade found that people who scored highly on an obsessive compulsive scale, also scored highly on a responsibility attitude scale. This was not the case for the control group. Other research has also suggested that OCD patients believe that they should have complex control over their world.

Evaluation
The behaviourist approach is reductionist - explaining OCD in terms of learning. Both behaviourists and cognitive explanations appear strong at explaining one area of OCD. Combining these approaches could make a more effective explanation.

shredc0re:
Anything you know about HSP?

Mr.PowPow:

--- Quote from: Darth SHRED on June 17, 2013, 09:59:56 AM ---Anything you know about HSP?

--- End quote ---
HSP stands for a lot of things, what thing in particular are you referring to?

shredc0re:
Hyper Sensitive Personality

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