Tracking the psychosocial predictors of older individuals' television uses

The elderly spend considerable amounts of time with mass media, but little is known about the psychology of their viewing habits. This study compared the relative impact of social, structural, and psychosocial variables on the television uses of elderly viewers. The results of a survey of 113 older respondents indicated that psychosocial factors accounted for variance above and beyond that of demographic and situational factors in viewing of television entertainment programs, parasocial programs (e.g., soap operas), as well as in watching of television for companionship purposes. Emotional loneliness and locus of control proved particularly significant predictors of television behavior.     

Tracking the Psychosocial Predictors of Older Individuals' Television Uses

The elderly spend considerable amounts of time with mass media, but little is known about the psychology of their viewing habits. This study compared the relative impact of social, structural, and psychosocial variables on the television uses of elderly viewers. The results of a survey of 113 older respondents indicated that psychosocial factors accounted for variance above and beyond that of demographic and situational factors in viewing of television entertainment programs, para-social programs (e.g., soap operas), as well as in watching of television for companionship purposes. Emotional loneliness and locus of control proved particularly significant predictors of television behavior.     

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.     

Psychological Processes in Perceiving Reality

Little attention has been paid to the mental processes and the story elements that influence perceived reality judgments of media stories. People often lack the motivation or ability to be thoughtful about perceived reality judgments. This is particularly true when the stimulus controls the pace of the story (e.g., television). It is possible that people use the typical and atypical elements of a story as a heuristic for making simple judgments about perceived reality of media narratives. In 2 studies, the careful manipulation of atypical and typical information in a soap opera and a news story predicted about half the variance in perceived reality. As the typicality of the stories increased, so did the participants' ratings of the perceived reality of the stories. In a 3rd study, while viewing entertainment television shows, participants used dials to continuously rate the selected programs for perceived reality, typicality, interest, and liking. Results indicate that viewers can make moment-to-moment reality judgments, and these judgments are strongly related to typicality. Interest-liking was related to typicality and perceived reality for drama. For comedy, however, situations with low reality produced greater interest and liking. Typicality appears to be a key psychological characteristic of media stories.     

Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire? Reality Dating Television Programs, Attitudes Toward Sex, and Sexual Behaviors

Past research has revealed associations between television viewing and sexual attitudes and behaviors. We examined a burgeoning new television genre, reality dating programs (RDPs). Undergraduate students (ages 18–24) reported their overall television viewing, their RDP viewing, and their involvement with RDPs (watching in order to learn and watching in order to be entertained). They also completed measures of attitudes toward sex, dating, and relationships, and answered questions about sexual behavior. Most participants were occasional or frequent viewers of at least one RDP. Men reported using RDPs for learning more than did women; there was no gender difference in use of RDPs for entertainment. Total amount of RDP viewing was positively correlated, for both men and women, with adversarial sexual beliefs, endorsement of a sexual double standard, and the beliefs that men are sex-driven, that appearance is important in dating, and that dating is a game. In all cases, however, these relationships were partially or totally mediated through viewer involvement. Men and women who watched RDPs tended to be less sexually experienced; there were few other correlations with sexual behaviors.     

Cosmetic Surgery Makeover Programs and Intentions to Undergo Cosmetic Enhancements: A Consideration of Three Models of Media Effects

The recent proliferation of reality‐based television programs highlighting cosmetic surgery has raised concerns that such programming promotes unrealistic expectations of plastic surgery and increases the desire of viewers to undergo such procedures. In Study 1, a survey of 170 young adults indicated little relationship between cosmetic surgery makeover program viewing and body satisfaction or perception of risk but a small positive association with desire to undergo cosmetic surgical procedures. In Study 2, a survey of 271 young women allowed for a test of three theoretical explanations for this association. Evidence in support of cultivation theory, social cognitive theory, and social comparison theory emerged, thus highlighting the need for a more integrated theoretical model of media effects.     

A parent-administered program to reduce children's television viewing

A parent-administered program to reduce television viewing of primary school-aged children was tested on two boys and three girls from three different families who were heavy viewers of television. Children were given 20 unearned tokens each week by their parents, which they could exchange for up to 10 hours of viewing time. The child earned a gold token for viewing in accordance with the rules for 4 consecutive weeks, which was exchanged for a reward. Parents were given instructions to follow the program independently. Data on hours of television viewing, homework, and reading were recorded each day by one or both parents. A multiple-baseline analysis of the effects of the TV reduction program indicated that children reduced their baseline television viewing by more than half once the program was implemented, and continued to maintain these changes 6 months and 1 year after the program was discontinued. Reading time increased for all children whereas effects on homework varied across children. The results support the effectiveness of a parent-administered program for nonbehavior problem children who watch excessive amounts of television.     

UNIFORM MESSAGES AND HABITUAL VIEWING: UNNECESSARY ASSUMPTIONS IN SOCIAL REALITY EFFECTS

Gerbner and his co-authors argue that commercial television content is essentially uniform in its symbolic messages about societal values and that television viewing is essentially habitual (ritual) rather than selective. Their claim that these two assumptions are essential to cultivation analysis is challenged here. Viewing crime-adventure, cartoon, and game programs is related to two violence-related social reality beliefs, while viewing of other content types is not. And based on the intercorrelations of viewing various content types, it seems that some types of content are viewed more or less habitually. Finally, an indicator of selecting to view or not view a given content type—watching more or less of that type than predicted based on the individual's total viewing—is quite differently related to social reality beliefs than is viewing itself. This provides support for considering cultivation effects as actual effects rather than the product of third variables or of reverse causation. Overall, then, the uniform message and ritual viewing assumptions are found flawed, but discarding them serves to strengthen rather than weaken the cultivation hypothesis.     

Adolescents’Motivations for Viewing Graphic Horror

This study identifies four motivations adolescents report for viewing graphic horror films: gore watching, thrill watching, independent watching, and problem watching. On the basis of a uses and gratifications model of media effects, it is argued that viewing motivations are predictors of responses to graphic horror. This study also seeks to extend Zillmann's excitation-transfer model of media effects to predict under what conditions viewing-generated arousal is transferred to positive or negative affect. The dispositional characteristics of fearfulness, empathy, and sensation seeking are found to be related to different viewing motivations, providing a viewing-related personality profile for the four different types of adolescent viewers. The four viewing motivations are found to be related to viewers’cognitive and affective responses to horror films, as well as viewers’tendency to identify with either the killers or victims in these films. Directions for future research addressing the role of viewing motivations in the relationship between violent media, cognitive and affective responses, and subsequent behavioral aggression are discussed.     

Source confusion as an explanation of cultivation: a test of the mechanisms underlying confusion of fiction with reality on television

Cultivation studies have found evidence that heavy television viewers adopt a world view congruent with how the world is portrayed in fictional television programs. An explanation is that viewers may remember fictional TV stories as realistic stories or news (fiction-to-news confusion). Until now, fiction-to-news confusion was found only if at least a week evolved between watching TV and asking viewers what was remembered. The present study conducted with a purposive sample of students and employees of a college in The Netherlands (N=96; M age = 28.6 yr., SD = 10.9) indicates that fiction-to-news confusions can also occur almost immediately after watching. In addition, whereas earlier research suggests that fiction-to-news confusions are associated with heavy viewing, i.e., more confusion when more hours per day are spent on TV viewing in leisure time, and faulty memory, the present study more specifically suggests that participants make many fiction-to-news confusions when they are exposed to relatively many fictional TV fragments that contain threatening, violent events.     

Predictors of children's entertainment television viewing: Why are they tuning in?

Three hundred and twenty six 3- and 5-year-olds (N = 160 3-year-olds) participated in a longitudinal study of the sociological and ecological predictors of children's general audience and child entertainment viewing. Viewing was assessed through five weekly diaries for each child, completed by families over a two-year period. Concurrent analyses of program availability, family demographics/attributes, and child characteristics indicated that children who were frequent viewers of entertainment programs had parents who had limited education, access to cable, and incorporated television into their activities. Although parental regulation and encouragement played a role in children's viewing experiences, particularly at 5 and 7 years of age, the strongest long-term predictors on children's entertainment viewing were parents' education, family size, and the age and sex of the child. Parents need to become more aware of their role in shaping their children's viewing habits. Responsibility for improving children's television viewing experiences, however, should not rely solely with parents but must be shared by educators, broadcasters, and legislators.     

The Portrayal of Aggression on North American Television1

The past decade has seen an accumulation of evidence that TV viewing influences beliefs about social reality, particularly in areas related to violence. Detailed content analyses of the portrayal of aggression on North American television were conducted in an attempt to document some of the symbolic messages in television content and the extent to which those messages vary according to program category. The TV sample analyzed consisted of 109 programs (81 hours) chosen on the basis of audience viewing figures; 76% were produced in the U.S.A. and 22% in Canada. An average of 9 acts of physical aggression and 7.8 acts of verbal aggression per program hour were observed, but both type and rate of aggression varied by program category. Other methods of conflict resolution occurred rarely, and few witnesses sought alternatives to aggression. Less than 2% of the aggression observed was accidental, and most (69%) was incidental to the plot. Aggression, especially verbal abuse, was often portrayed as humorous, and there was little evidence of consequences. Some differences between Canadian and U.S. programming were noted. The possibility of using schema theory to understand the role of television in the development of beliefs about social reality is explored.     

The relationship of television viewing to physical fitness and obesity

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which light, moderate, and heavy television viewing relates to multiple measures of obesity and physical fitness among 379 high school males. The Body Mass Index and Tucker's Perceived Somatotype Scale were employed to assess obesity; physical fitness was measured by six tests: pushups, pullups, sidestep, long jump, situps, and jog-walk. Results showed that light television viewers scored significantly better than heavy viewers on a composite fitness index and on pushups, pullups, sidestep, situps, and jog-walk considered individually. Similarly, light viewers performed better than moderate viewers on the composite fitness measure and on pushups, pullups, and jog-walk. Light viewers displayed a strong tendency toward better fitness than moderate viewers on the long jump, situps, and sidestep tests, although statistical significance was not attained. Light viewers were not significantly less obese than moderate or heavy viewers. Statistical control of the demographic variables, applied simultaneously, had little influence on the associations found in this study. The findings indicate that for purposes of good physical fitness, television viewing should be limited to one hour or less per day.     

The Relationship of Television Viewing with Attitude Strength and Extremity: Implications for the Cultivation Effect

The relationship of television viewing level with attitude strength and attitude extremity was investigated. Attitude accessibility was used as an indicator of attitude strength and was operationalized as the response latencies associated with the attitude judgments. Fifty-one students who were either very heavy soap opera viewers (> 4 hrs. per week) or very light soap opera viewers (< 1 hr. per week) provided attitude judgments pertaining to marital problems, owning expensive products, and distrust of people. Regression analyses indicated that heavy viewers showed significantly more distrust and a greater likelihood that they would experience marital problems than did light viewers, consistent with a cultivation effect (Gerbner & Gross, 1976). Over and above the effects of attitude extremity, heavy viewers also exhibited stronger attitudes than light viewers, as evidenced by significantly shorter latencies for all three attitude measures. Both the effects of attitude strength and extremity held in the presence of multiple statistical controls. These results suggest that television may serve to bolster and reinforce attitudes consistent with the television message.     

The Role of Television in the Socialization of Nonverbal Behavioral Skills

This study examined the relation between level of television viewing and ,nonverbal behavioral encoding skills among school-aged children. As predicted, frequent TV viewers communicated emotions common on television (happiness and sadness) better than emotions uncommon on television (disgust and fear/surprise), a pattern that did not emerge for infrequent TV viewers. Additionally, compared with infrequent TV viewers, frequent viewers were better encoders of spontaneous nonverbal displays, but worse encoders of posed displays. The results of a follow-up study suggest that this latter pattern may reflect a failure by children who are exposed to highly expressive television models to engage in active self-regulation of their nonverbal expressions.     

Japanese television as a window on other cultures

Beginning with a brief review of issues regarding the effects of television on viewers in Japan, this paper examines how foreign programming and features relating to other countries are utilized on terrestrial television, the most influential of the mass media today. Foreign cultures are introduced either through importation of programs from abroad or through indigenous programs dealing with such topics. An overview of the changing role of imported programs emphasizes comparison of the public and commercial networks. News reporting and commercials are highlighted in a discussion of the treatment of foreign cultures in indigenous programs. Survey results show that Japanese people are favorably disposed toward foreign program imports, suggesting that the major reason for the failure of imported programs to flourish in Japan is the strong competition offered by domestic productions, not xenophobic attitudes on the part of viewers. I also consider the distinguishing characteristics of television and the cinema in order to explain the popularity of films as opposed to television dramas from abroad. In conclusion, studies that examine the effects of television on viewers' perceptions of foreign cultures are presented to suggest the importance of analyzing images of foreign cultures as depicted in programs that are domestically produced, rather than analyzing those that are imported.     

Searching for Cognitive Processes in the Cultivation Effect Adult and Adolescent Samples in the United States and Australia

Research on the cultivation hypothesis has focused on whether relationships between television viewing and social reality beliefs truly exist or are artifacts. There is very little evidence about what cognitive processes allow viewers to construct television-biased beliefs. The present study tests two possible processes: First, that perceptions of the television world serve as an intermediate step between fragmented incidental learning from television and beliefs about the real world and second, that beliefs closely linked to television content are an intermediate step in implying more general values and beliefs. These two hypotheses were tested in one adult and three adolescent samples, two in the United States and two in Australia. Across a range of cultivation questions, the basic cultivation result generally replicated that heavy viewers had beliefs about the world that appeared influenced by television. However, neither process hypothesis was supported. Although the null findings on the first hypothesis do not rule out construction from learned fragments, findings on the second hypothesis contradict cultivation's second-order effect. “Close” beliefs and their implied counterparts were unrelated, and cultivation relationships for these implied variables occurred only for those with real-world biased “dose” beliefs. Exploration of this result demonstrated that cultivation of both kinds of beliefs occurred more of ten for adolescents with high academic skills, suggesting that if cultivation occurs, it is a more active and intellectually demanding process than previously proposed.     

Effects of Viewing “Holocaust” on Germans and Americans: A Just-World Analysis1

This study examines attributions of blame to the Nazis and the Jews for the events of the holocaust. The sample consisted of Germans and Americans who had viewed the television series “Holocaust” and comparison groups who had not seen the program. It was found that among viewers who identified with the Nazis, attributions of blame to the Jews were higher than among nonviewers or viewers who identified with the Jews. Attributions of blame to the Nazis did not vary as a function of viewing the television series. However, people who identified with the Nazis blamed the Nazis less for the holocaust than people who identified with the Jews. These results are discussed in terms of the justworld hypothesis (Lerner & Miller, 1978) and their implications for media presentations on the victims of oppression.     

A preliminary study on the relationship between characteristics of TV content and delayed speech development in young children

Our previous population survey of 18-month-old children suggested an association between delayed language development and heavy TV viewing. We therefore collected all 85 videos described as children's favorites in that questionnaire to examine relationships between the characteristics of habitually viewed videos and language development. In the language delayed group, compared to the non-delayed group, the types of videos preferred more were “realistic animations” and “baby education” and the characteristics of videos were contained few close-ups of characters facing viewers, continued uninterruptedly between stories, had constant movement or transformation of characters, had a high frame rate of animation, and that adults readily kept on watching the videos even with the sound off. These characteristics were seen more in videos the above two types. These findings imply that habitual television/video viewing with characteristics that are not apt to elicit parent–child communication for long hours may affect delayed language development in young children.