Media psychology is the application of psychological science--the study of human behavior, emotions, and cognitions--to all forms of mediated communications and technologies. It takes into account the spectrum of activity from production, content, and consumption to distribution and impact. It is a continually changing, multi-disciplinary field with implications for individuals, organizations and society. We apply it to technology design, such as augmented and mixed realities, marketing and brand development, with approaches such as transmedia storytelling, and usability and audience engagement based on core human goals, needs and motivations.
6. How Do We Define It?
• Psychology is the study of
human behavior, emotions,
and cognitions
• Media includes all forms of
mediated communications
and technologies
• Multi-disciplinary
• Continually changing
7. Why
Do
We
Define
Media
Psychology?
• Set the compass and
standards of a field
• Frame the work of its
practitioners
• Create an intellectual
basis for exchange and
integration
• Inform the public
9. 5
Major
PerspecDves
Biological
• EvoluDonary
• Neuroscience
Psycho-‐
dynamic
• Freud
Behavioral
• Skinner
CogniDve
• Piaget
HumanisDc
• Carl
Rogers
Different
views
on
the
roots
of
human
development
and
behavior
10. Theory Changes Questions We Ask
• Narrative
• Social
• Developmental
• Positive
• Personality
• Emotions
• Attitudes/Beliefs
• Preferences
• Perception
13. Neuropsychology &
Evolutionary Psychology
§ Biological and evolutionary
explanations for behaviors and
emotions
§ Triune brain theory
§ Implications for research on
attachment style, relational style,
attention, fear, persuasion,
addiction as related to media use
and influence
14. Psychoanalytic Theory
þ Focus is on understanding
conscious and unconscious
processes
þ Developed by Sigmund Freud
þ Theorists: Horney, Adler,
Erikson, Jung, Fromm, Rank,
Klein, Sullivan
þ Basis for understanding
personality and elements of
media effects tradition,
uses and gratifications,
parasocial relationships
15. Behaviorism
þ People
respond
to
environmental
sDmuli
without
his/her
mental
state
being
a
factor
þ People
learn
behaviors
through
condiDoning
þ Operant
–
making
a
connecDon
through
reinforcement
of
posiDve
or
negaDve
rewards
þ Classical
–
naturally
occurring
sDmulus
paired
with
learned
response
þ Pavlov,
Skinner,
Watson,
Hull
(drive
reducDon),
Bandura
(social
learning)
16. Humanistic Psychology
þ Holistic view that focus is on the
human context for motivations,
attitudes and needs
þ Rogers, Fromm, Maslow, Sullivan
þ People select media experiences
that satisfy cognitive, social and
emotional needs
17. Cognitive Psychology
þ Cognitive Revolution
þ Reaction to Behaviorism
þ Perception, Language, Attention, Memory, Problem Solving, Decision
Making and Judgment, Intelligence
þ Among the theorists:
þ Early: Gestalt Wertheimer, Wundt,
þ Chomsky, Broadbent, Gardner, Piaget
þ Bruner, Beck, Seligman
þ Applicability for media psychologists includes:
þ Usability, developmental appropriateness of technology and content,
Information comprehension, schemas, categorization, belief
formation, perception and learning styles
18. Social Learning/Social Cognition
• Bandura
• Learning in a social
context
• People can learn by
observing from others
• Behaviorist perspective
vs. Cognitive perspective
• Learning can occur
without a change in
behavior
• Basis for research on
violence, stereotype
emulation, media
framing
19. Evolved into Social Cognition
Overt
Behavior
Environment
Individual
Factors
þ Roots in social psychology
þ Theorists have moved
toward this perspective
from other schools of
thought
þ Bandura
þ Bruner
þ Allport
þ Festinger
þ Reciprocal Determinism
20. Social Constructionism
• Shifts emphasis to social dimension
• People construct beliefs about the world from their
interactions with other people, environments, and culture
• Learning is most successful when people provide
“scaffolding” to help learners reach the next level
• Basis for most research on
identity development, multiple
intelligences
• Major theorists: Vygotsky, Gergen,
and Mead
21. Social
Psychology
þ Social
idenDty
þ Group
affiliaDon
þ Group
behaviors
þ Stereotypes
þ Social
influence
þ CogniDve
dissonance
þ Sherif
–summer
camp/
group
conflict
þ Tajfel
–
social
idenDty
þ Asch
–
social
influence
þ Cialdini
–
persuasion,
social
influence
þ FesDnger
22. Narrative: The Storied Nature of Life
þ Narrative provides
• Meaning and identity
• Sharing of narratives
• Basis for organizing, making meaning and sharing of
experience
• Universal themes, archetypes and myths
• McAdams, Josselson, Polkinghorne, Bruner, Jung, Campbell
• Related theories:
• Presence
• Narrative transportation
• Mirror neurons
23. Developmental Psychology
• Maturation across the lifespan where development progresses
through stages, transitions, relational skills, or life tasks
• Many draw from psychoanalytic theory and identified stages that
must be successfully mastered for healthy development
• Names to know: Erikson, Piaget, Bowlby, Ainsworth
24. Positive
Psychology
• Focus is on the empirical study of
• Positive emotions
• Optimism
• Resilience
• Self-Efficacy
• Trust
• Strengths–based traits
• Healthy institutions and systems
• Seligman, Csikszentmihalyi, Deiner,
Fredrickson, Lyubomirsky
• Relevant to development of prosocial
media including public service
messaging, learning technologies,
gaming, usability
25. What Does a Media Psychologist Do?
• Many specializations combine the knowledge of psychology and media
applications
• Design and production
• Assessment and evaluation of technology, interfaces, usability, and
content, developmental and cognitive fit
• Industry specific solutions: education, media literacy, healthcare,
marketing, entertainment, public policy, social support
26. Media Psychology:
Psychology for the
21st Century
þ Ability to evaluate and anticipate impact:
þ Individual and social interaction
þ Access to information
þ Content production and distribution
þ Disruption
þ Dissolving boundaries
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33. Why media psychology?
Media and technology have
inherent moral issues
Psychology is unique
in its focus on the
health and wellbeing
of individuals and society