Recall of Television Commercials as a Function of Viewing Context: The Impact of Program-Commercial Congruity on Commercial Messages

The effect of the congruity between the involvement types of advertising commercial and a television program on the effectiveness of the commercial was studied. Participants (N = 103) viewed either a cognitive or an affective commercial for a product, which was embedded in either a cognitive or an affective television program. The results showed that the effects of the congruence influence the impact on memory. Free recall and cued recall were significantly influenced by the program-commercial congruity. Free recall and cued recall were significantly higher for the cognitively involving commercial in the cognitively involving program context than in the affectively involving program context. Similarly, free recall and cued recall were significantly higher for the affectively involving commercial in the affectively involving program context than in the cognitively involving program context.     

The Effects of Programme Context on Memory for Humorous Television Commercials

This study investigated the effects of programme context on memory for humorous television advertisements in South Korean participants. Humorous and nonhumorous Korean advertisements were embedded within two programme contexts: humorous and nonhumorous. When the programme ratings of humour, enjoyment and involvement were higher, unaided recall was poorer. In addition, unaided recall of the advertisements was better when they were embedded within a nonhumorous programme. However, there was no significant programme‐advertisement interaction effect. Overall, both free and cued recall were higher for humorous advertisements than for the nonhumorous advertisements. The findings are discussed in terms of cultural differences and changes in television programmes and advertising over time.Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Television Commercials as a Lagging Social Indicator: Gender Role Stereotypes in Korean Television Advertising

Previous studies of mass media in many countries have confirmed that images of women are stereotypical and unrealistic, particularly in television advertising. This study was designed to analyze the representation of gender roles in Korean television advertising and to compare the results with previous studies conducted in other countries. A sample of 878 Korean television advertisements from the MBC network in 2001 was content analyzed. Findings indicate that women in Korean television advertising were portrayed as young (48.2%), as dependent (37.5%), and as nurturing children (12.1%); they were often depicted in the home (37.2%). These stereotypical images of women have been found in television advertising in many countries. Korean society has changed a great deal in recent decades, but the images we analyzed do not reflect the current situation. Therefore, television commercials are a lagging social indicator of role changes.     

Intended and Unintended Reverberation of Traditional and Pro‐age Commercials as a Function of Viewer Age

Pro‐age advertising campaigns feature mature models, at least in part to reduce the depiction of unrealistic body ideals associated with the use of young models. The introduction of mature models into advertising campaigns may have hitherto unexamined effects on viewers' self‐esteem. We therefore compared the impact of mature and young models on women's levels of self‐esteem. Young adult and middle‐aged women were subtly exposed to young or pro‐age female models before completing an affective priming task designed to measure self‐esteem. As predicted, exposure influenced only appearance‐based self‐esteem, but not global self‐esteem. Furthermore, age congruency led to decreased self‐esteem, whereas age incongruency led to increased self‐esteem. Specifically, exposure to young models decreased young women's self‐esteem, just as exposure to mature models decreased middle‐aged women's self‐esteem. By contrast, exposure to mature models increased young women's self‐esteem, and exposure to young models increased middle‐aged women's self‐esteem. The implications for marketing campaigns are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sexual Minority Identity,Viewing Motivations,and Viewing Frequency of LGB-Inclusive Television Among LGB Viewers

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between dimensions of sexual minority identity, viewing motivations, and viewing frequency of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB)-inclusive television (TV) among LGB viewers. Two hundred two LGB adults completed measures regarding sexual minority identity, TV viewing motivations, and frequency of viewing LGB-inclusive TV programs. Analyses revealed that dimensions of sexual minority identity (i.e., internalized homonegativity, acceptance concerns, and identity affirmation) were positively associated with a learning motivation for viewing LGB-inclusive TV. Moreover, a learning motivation mediated the relationship between dimensions of sexual minority identity and frequency of viewing LGB-inclusive TV. These findings have important implications for clinicians, and suggest that engaging with LGB-inclusive TV may represent an important coping strategy for LGB individuals dealing with identity concerns.     

The Social Costs and Benefits of Anger as a Function of Gender and Relationship Context

On the basis of Social Role Theory and a social functional view of emotions, we argue that gender differences in anger experiences and expression are related to men??s and women??s relationship context. We hypothesized that women in traditional relationship contexts would express their anger less directly, and would suppress their anger more, due to expected negative social appraisals. We compared anger reactions to a conflict situation in a traditional and egalitarian relationship context. Eighty-two Dutch adult participants (43 women and 39 men) were recruited partly by students in a psychology class, and partly by a snowball method. They were invited to participate only if they had a steady relationship of minimally one year. The results show that women report more intense subjective anger in both contexts, but that the expression of anger differed with relationship context. In traditional relationships women tend to suppress their anger more than men, while men report to express their anger directly more than women. This difference in anger expression was mediated by negative social appraisals. In egalitarian relationships, this difference was not found.     

Coding for Short-Term Memory as a Function of Age

Twenty-one young (), 21 middle-aged (), and 21 old () female volunteers viewed letter sequences of 12 letters each and were required to recall the letters in exactly the same order as they saw them. In half of the sequences the letters could not be coded into meaningful units, while in the other half the letters could be chunked into three complete four-letter words. The findings indicated that the age groups did not differ from each other in the low-code condition, but that with the high-code sequences the old subjects performed significantly more poorly than either the young or middle-aged subjects. These findings suggest an age-related deficit in the coding of sequentially ordered material.     

Memory for Words as a Function of Spelling Transparency

The authors investigated the impact of spelling transparency on memory for words written in Persian orthography. Adult Persian university students (N = 212) performed in a memory recall experiment on 160 monosyllabic words printed on 8 cards (20 on each card) manipulated for spelling transparency, frequency, and imageability. Each card was presented randomly to the participants and they were asked to read the words aloud as quickly as possible. After reading each card, the participants were asked to engage in a digital addition task for 20 s (as a distracter), which was immediately followed by a request to write down as many words as possible from the cards in 40 s. No significant difference was found in the time to name aloud the opaque and transparent words, whereas on the memory recall task there were main effects for spelling, frequency, and imageability and significant 2-way and 3-way interactions. The effects were greatest for transparent spellings when they were of high frequency and high imageability or low frequency and low imageability. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Adaptation of Marketing Activities to Cultural and Social Context: Gender Role Portrayals and Sexism in Spanish Commercials

This study was designed to examine the portrayal of men and women in a sample of 370 Spanish television commercials. The general objective was to compare and contrast the plurality and similarities between men and women as regards both gender role portrayals and sexism levels and also product stereotyping as the association of certain kinds of products with gender. In addition, we examined the type of social relationship held by the main actor/actress in the commercial. Applying content analysis methodology, the results highlight a feminine culture and a social reality moving steadily toward gender equality and complementariness between genders, albeit still within the framework of the traditional family model, which characterizes women as homemakers and mothers. Impact of Cultural and Social Reality on Marketing Activities: Gender Role Portrayals and Sexism in Spanish Commercials.     

Professorial Prestige as a Function of Discipline and Gender

To examine gender bias in professional prestige, 200 male and 200 female undergraduate students of Bombay University were asked to rate the respectability of 20 academic disciplines, each with male and female incumbents (e.g., a male professor of anthropology, a female professor of anthropology, etc.)- The study thus had a 2 (subject's sex) × 2 (incumbent's gender) × 20 (academic disciplines) mixed ANOVA design with incumbent's, that is, professor's gender and disciplines as within-subjects factors. All the main and interaction effects were significant. The results showed an overall higher respectability rating of the female professor as compared to her male counterpart, this difference being stronger with female subjects than with male subjects. More importantly, the higher respectability rating of the female professor vis-à-vis the male professor was found to hold only for lower ranked disciplines.     

Science Anxiety as a Function of Gender and Experience

This study examined the influence of gender and various background factors on science anxiety. Students (50 women, 37 men) took the Science Anxiety Scale (Mallow, 1994), provided information about high school and college academic accomplishments, described gender-role stereotyping in the home, and evaluated their science teachers and science experiences. Most participants were Caucasian and from an upper-middle class background. Women were not uniformly more science anxious and had a relatively similar science background to men, although they had higher science grades in high school and did report less stringent sex-role socialization in the home. However, students with high science anxiety took fewer science courses in college, had lower SAT-Q scores, and reported that their high school science teachers were not helpful. The findings regarding gender- and anxiety-linked differences are discussed in terms of women's and men's differential interpretations of their abilities, the influence of parental gender typing on pursuit of science, and the gender-appropriateness of studying science.     

Television Viewing and Public Perceptions of Attorneys

This investigation examines the way prime-time network television programming depicts attorneys, and the influence of these images on the public's perceptions of attorneys. In addition, the study examines some of the theoretical and methodological controversies identified with the cultivation explanation of the way television shapes perceptions of social reality. The results reveal that network prime-time television programming depictions of attorneys affect public perceptions of attorneys, particularly in terms of front region behaviors. The results involving attorneys’back region behaviors are mixed. In addition, the results indicate that content-specific viewing is a more reliable predictor than total viewing or select viewer sociodemographic variables of the public's tendency to perceive attorneys in the same way they are portrayed in prime-time television programming.     

Occupational Prestige as a Function of Occupant's Gender

To examine sex bias in occupational prestige, 250 male and 250 female undergraduate and graduate students in Bombay were asked to rate the respectability of 16 occupations, each with male and female occupants (e.g., a male scientist, a female scientists, etc.). Thus, the study had a 2 (subject's sex) × 2 (occupant's gender) × 16 (occupations) mixed design, with occupant's gender and occupations as within-subjects factors. All of the main and interaction ANOVA effects were significant. The findings clearly supported the primary hypothesis that both male and female subjects would show a sex bias in favor of the male occupant in cases of high prestige occupations.     

Recall of Television Advertisements as a Function of Program Evaluation

The effects of program content and program evaluation on viewers' ability to remember advertisements placed in the middle of a television program were examined. University undergraduates (N = 129) took part in what was described to them as a program evaluation study. Results showed no differences in recall as a function of the content of the program watched, but program evaluation ratings were significantly related to recall of advertisements. Greater program involvement as indicated by measures of liking, perceived credibility, perceived contemporaneity, and affective response was associated with poorer free and cued recall of advertising content.     

Work Satisfaction as a Function of Gender and Job Status

Male lawyers, female lawyers, and female legal secretaries were interviewed concerning their work satisfaction, the nature of their employment-related gratifications and deprivations, and their work values. The data showed that the three samples' responses concerning work-related gratifications, deprivations, and values were largely similar. When they differed, the splits tended to be along the lines of job status (lawyer vs. secretary) rather than along the lines of gender (male vs. female). In addition, lawyers tended to be more satisfied with their work than were secretaries.     

MMPI Taxonomies of Child Sexual and Nonsexual Offenders: A Cross-Validation and Extension

In a court clinic sample of 107 child sexual and nonsexual offenders, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality inventory (MMPI) profiles did not differ as a function of arrests for sexual versus nonsexual offending. However, a three-group cluster-analytic solution was generated. Two of these clusters replicated those derived by Hall, Graham, and Shepherd (1991). The first duster was unelevated, with Scales 4 and 9 as high points. The second Cluster had MMPI Scales 4, 8, 2, and 7 as the highest scales. The third cluster was even more elevated than the other two clusters, characterized by extreme elevations on MMPI Scales F, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 8. The somewhat different results of this study versus previous studies (e.g., Hall et al., 1991) may be a function of the different populations sampled. The results provide evidence of within-group heterogeneity among sexual and nonsexual offenders that may be as important as between-group differences.     

Characterization and Prediction of Sexual and Nonsexual Recidivism Among Adjudicated Juvenile Sex Offenders

Estimating the risk of sexual recidivism for a juvenile sex offender is essential in order to protect public safety by identifying and evaluating high risk adolescents and to ensure the rights and welfare of juvenile offenders who will not likely reoffend. Empirically validated risk assessment methods are needed to aid in the classification and treatment of juvenile sex offenders. The present study utilized a dataset collected by Maricopa County, AZ, and aggregated by the National Juvenile Court Data Archive. The purpose of the study was to evaluate and characterize risk factors for juveniles who have been charged with a sexual offense in order to determine the predictive utility of these factors for subsequent offending, as well as offense trajectory, and to evaluate risk factors for nonsexual offenders who have committed crimes of various severities. The results of the present study show the strongest individual predictors of sexual recidivism to be prior nonsexual offending, prior sexual offending, hands‐off offending, offending against a child, younger school grade/age at time of initial offense, Asian or Hispanic ethnicity, and not attending school. A preliminary screening measure was developed from the seven positive risk factors, and ROC analysis produced an AUC indicating moderate predictive utility in discriminating between juvenile sex offenders who would sexually reoffend and those who would not. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attention and Brain Activity While Watching Television: Components of Viewer Engagement

Television commercials include elements designed to engage the viewer's attention. Manipulations of the commercial's visual structure that result in rapid pacing or frequent scene changes can be engaging because they require a frequent redirection of visual attention. Manipulations of semantic content through such techniques as the inclusion of humorous or anomalous elements can elicit cognitive engagement. Structural manipulations in videos are known to attenuate the alpha (8 to 13 Hz) rhythm of the electroencephalogram (EEG) recorded over posterior cortical regions involved with visual processes. To examine whether other engaging elements also affect the alpha rhythm, EEG was recorded from 10 participants who viewed television commercials. Principal components analysis was used to decompose the alpha rhythm into underlying factors that varied in spatial topography over the head and in spectral composition. Across commercials, the power of a posterior-distributed alpha component was inversely correlated with the frequency of scene changes. In contrast, a frontal component in the lower frequency portion of the alpha band was attenuated during commercials that elicited high subjective interest, independent of scene change frequency. And, an upper-frequency frontal alpha component was attenuated during commercials for which the item being advertised had a high probability of being subsequently recalled, independent of other factors. These frontal patterns of alpha reactivity are consistent with other neuroimaging results concerning frontal lobe activation by executive processes and episodic memory encoding. With appropriate neurologically guided analysis, EEG signals can provide a unique means of monitoring both perceptual and higher order neurocognitive processes during television viewing.     

Sports Participation and Self-Esteem: Variations as a Function of Gender and Gender Role Orientation

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of gender, sports participation, and gender orientation in predicting individuals' domain-specific and global self-esteem. A sample of 100 Grade 11 students completed measures of self-perception, body image, gender orientation, and sports participation. The results showed that although boys reported greater satisfaction with weight and appearance, there were no gender differences in general self-worth. In addition, more feminine individuals who participated in competitive sports reported lower levels of perceived athletic competence and global self-worth, but reported higher self-esteem when they participated in more noncompetitive sports. Although sports participation does predict self-esteem, participants' gender orientation and the type of sports in which they participate are moderating factors.