Tobacco, Drug, and HIV Preventive Media Interventions

Media-based health promotion interventions can reach large segments of the population and lower barriers to participation in programs. By collaborating with media specialists, we can develop interventions that might be broader, more publicized, and ultimately more likely to change behaviors and attitudes within the community. The present paper describes a series of media interventions involving smoking cessation, drug abuse prevention, stress reduction, weight control, and HIV/AIDS prevention. The process by which I became involved in these interventions is discussed, and the implications of developing these types of large-scale behavioral interventions are discussed.     

The role of age on reactivity and memory for emotional pictures

The purpose of this study was to investigate subjects' reactivity to emotional pictures and their recollection of these pictures, and to examine these two factors as they relate to age. Adolescents and young adults were shown emotionally arousing scenic pictures for long (4-s) and very brief (50-ms) durations. Recognition of the pictures and recall and recognition of words presented along with the pictures were assessed both immediately after the presentation and six weeks later. The results showed that very negative pictures are retained better than neutral or even positive pictures, and that very negative pictures reduce memory for associated information. It was also found that adolescents show a somewhat lower reactivity to very negative pictures and a higher degree of retention of these pictures than adults. The results are discussed in relation to (a) habituation effects, (b) strategies that subjects might develop to block emotional involvement, and (c) the notion that watching violence might serve as a powerful prime to socially undesirable behaviour.     

Terrorism in the Evolution Wars: Mass Media and Human Nature

Antievolutionist and New Atheist pundits invoke the specter of terrorism in widely distributed mass media. Notably, allusions to terrorism within such Evolution Wars communications are frequently associated with discourse on human nature, morality, and values. Such discourse includes references to substantive and relational traits linked with human distinctiveness, as well as the moral implications of evolution and religion. This paper examines broadcasts disseminated by the most media vocal Darwin skeptics and New Atheists, revealing the ways in which the dread of terrorism is married to discussions of evolutionary theory.     

Breast cancer representations in Canadian news media: a critical discourse analysis of meanings and the implications for identity

Despite the importance of critical media work, much is to be learned about breast cancer representations within media discourses and the implications for women’s identity construction. Building on research from Australia from a discursive perspective, this article used an eclectic approach to critical discourse analysis to explore the cultural construction of breast cancer in 25 detailed stories within Canada’s two national newspapers, The Globe and Mail and the National Post. Ten images accompanying stories and 17 advertisements/public service announcements were also analyzed to contextualize discourses and subject positions/identities within the stories. Analysis of this media affords the unique opportunity to explore taken for granted assumptions and prevailing meanings about breast cancer and the implications for subjectivity. Two primary discourses were identified: a discourse of biomedicine and a discourse of healthism. Subject positions identified included “breast cancer survivor,” “the good consumer,” and the “medical expert.” The psychological, social, political, and health promotion implications are discussed.     

The influence of the media on practice in mental health: a bricolage of a single case study

This paper has its genesis in the convergence of two individuals’ interests – one with a long-standing interest in representations of mental health and one with an interest in the use of bricolage as a research approach. These interests converged around the ways in which mental health care practitioners might react to and subsequently reflect on images of mental health they came across in the media. A bricolage was developed relating to newspaper coverage of a homicide carried out by someone with a mental health problem. The bricolage draws on the assumption that practitioners will have immediate reactions to material they come across, take a more considered overview of this material, and subsequently attempt to contextualize this reflection in terms of academic literature. The bricolage as presented mirrors this process for an experienced practitioner. Suggestions are made concerning the use of newspaper reports on mental health, to enable both novice and experienced practitioners to gain vicarious experience through reflection on these reports.     

FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF EPISODIC SELF-INJURY CORRELATED WITH RECURRENT OTITIS MEDIA

A functional analysis examined the consequences that maintained episodic self-injury and the relationship between those consequences and otitis media for a child with moderate developmental disabilities. Results indicated that self-injury occurred only during periods of otitis media. Otitis media may have served as an establishing operation related to escape from ambient noise.     

Culture, Society, and the Individual: Cross-Cultural Political Psychology in Japan

Studies of political behavior and attitudes in Japan have often looked to similarities and differences between the West, most notably the U.S., and Japan. This paper details two approaches concerned with examining Japanese social and political behavior within a cross-cultural context. The first—nihonjinron—works with cultural nationalism, which argues that Japanese values are unique and thus no social theory developed in the West can be applied to Japanese society. The second approach is characterized by field studies and tries to assess Japanese social behavior by comparing it to that of Americans and Europeans. There is a great deal of knowledge on political behavior in Western countries which scholars in Japan often refer to in order to evaluate the significance of their survey results. But there is still limited information on the Japanese situation, and any attempt to construct a general theory in either cultural or cross-cultural political psychology will have to refer also to human attitudes in this non-Western industrial society.     

Videodisc instruction in science and mathematics: Implications for media research and instructional design

This article summarizes research conducted over the last seven years on videodisc instruction in science and mathematics. Research findings, as well as the instructional design principles used to create programs, have direct implications for the general debate over media and its effects on learning. The array of studies conducted with the videodisc programs indicates that the medium is very cost effective. High quality instruction can be presented reliably and with much less human effort than traditional methods of instruction. By using videodiscs, developers are also able to exploit the strong graphic features of the medium, thus allowing carefully-designed visual images to play a key role in the instruction. Empirical support for non-text presentations along with examples of the graphics used in the science and mathematics programs are discussed.     

Religion and Science in America: Populism versus Elitism

Historian James Gilbert argues that the dialogue between science and religion is an important dynamic in the creation of contemporary American culture. He traces the dialogue not only in the confines of the academic world but also in popular culture. The science-religion dialogue reveals a basic tension between the material and the spiritual that helps define the core of the American psyche: fascination with material progress yet commitment to traditional religious beliefs. Gilbert's cultural narrative traces the dialogue in a unique way because of the attention given to popular renditions of science and religion in evangelical films used by the military, in televised science programs, in science-fiction literature, and at the Seattle World's Fair in 1962. Gilbert suggests that the discussion between science and religion is significant because it is part of the process of creating new cultural structures necessitated by social, scientific, and technological developments. The tensions between religiously informed commonsense science and professional science work to create new cultural forms in a democratic society. Religion and science in dialogue are part of the process of cultural creation. Dogmatism on the part of either scientists or religionists is countered by the democratic process itself.     

Social Media Use and Creativity: Exploring the Influences on Ideational Behavior and Creative Activity

This study explored the relationship between social media (SM) use and creativity. The data collected from 407 participants included indicators such as time spent using SM, frequency of SM use, purposes for using SM, and the nature of SM use. The data involved two aspects of creativity: ideational behavior and creative activity and accomplishment. Correlational analyses indicate that SM use is positively related to both creativity measures. Overall, the active use of SM (e.g., sending a post) is more related to creativity than the passive use (e.g., reading others’ posts); and the link between creativity and SM use is more evident for certain platforms (i.e., Twitter) than others (e.g., Instagram). Ideational behavior and creative activity were also found to be higher among those who use SM primarily for expressing their ideas and opinions, gleaning information on topics to discuss and self‐education and learning compared with those who use it primarily for entertainment or relaxation. None of the creativity measures used was related to extraversion and excessive use of SM. Our findings indicate that SM is not necessarily a negative factor for creativity; it may even be a useful platform to support new ideas and projects.