Hostility Modifies the Association between TV Viewing and Cardiometabolic Risk

Background. It was hypothesized that television viewing is predictive of cardiometabolic risk. Moreover, people with hostile personality type may be more susceptible to TV-induced negative emotions and harmful health habits which increase occurrence of cardiometabolic risk. Purpose. The prospective association of TV viewing on cardiometabolic risk was examined along with whether hostile personality trait was a modifier. Methods. A total of 3,269 Black and White participants in the coronary artery risk development in young adults (CARDIA) study were assessed from age 23 to age 35. A cross-lagged panel model at exam years 5, 10, 15, and 20, covering 15 years, was used to test whether hours of daily TV viewing predicted cardiometabolic risk, controlling confounding variables. Multiple group analysis of additional cross-lagged panel models stratified by high and low levels of hostility was used to evaluate whether the association was modified by the hostile personality trait. Results. The cross-lagged association of TV viewing at years 5 and 15 on clustered cardiometabolic risk score at years 10 and 20 was significant (B=0.058 and 0.051), but not at 10 to 15 years. This association was significant for those with high hostility (B=0.068 for exam years 5 to 10 and 0.057 for exam years 15 to 20) but not low hostility. Conclusion. These findings indicate that TV viewing is positively associated with cardiometabolic risk. Further, they indicate that hostility might be a modifier for the association between TV viewing and cardiometabolic risk

The War on Drugs: An Audience Study of the Netflix Original Series Narcos

Netflix has adopted an emerging subgenre known as narcodrama in the production of their new original series, Narcos. What motivates Colombian and American audiences to watch Narcos? What are the differences in uses and gratifications between American and Colombian audiences when it comes to violence in television shows? This survey among Colombian and American audiences attempted to better understand the motivations that push them to watch Narcos. The results show that Colombian and American audiences differ on almost all four variables, which is supported by open-ended responses where Colombians were more likely to refer to national history and how drug trafficking has affected the country

How Do Violent News Stories Affect Viewers?

Television news broadcasts have been airing since the mid-1930s, and has since then, implemented itself into viewer’s everyday lives. In the 1980s, Cable News Network, or CNN, introduced the 24-hour news cycle. Because of this, there was a sharp increase of violent news being reported. In this study, the researchers chose to study both the emotional and physical reactions to the violent news media. Specifically, the researchers explored the possibility that too much violence could affect their mental and physical health. Participants from this study hailed from a faith-based institution of higher learning in an urban area of the Midwestern United States. The study found that there is a relationship between the violence in news media and mental and physical effects of the body

How terrorist attacks are presented in the news of CNN, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and ARD

The article analyzes to what extent news reporting on terrorist attacks globalized, regionalized, or country specific. We compare coverage on four terrorist incidents in the main news shows of the US edition of CNN, of Al Jazeera’s Arabic language service, of the British BBC, and of the German ARD. The analysis shows cross-national similarities in several dimensions: the analyzed media devote nearly identical amounts of attention to the four events, employ similar stylistic devices to describe them, and evaluate them similarly. At the same time, there are notable differences. These differences are not found between Western channels and Al Jazeera – as proponents of a ‘clash of civilizations’ might expect – but between CNN and Al Jazeera on the one hand, and the BBC and ARD on the other. The former interpret the attacks as an expression of a global “war on terror”, whereas the latter see them as criminal attacks by a few individuals against the human civilization itself

Jóvenes espectadores de violencia en los medios: cuestiones que sí importan

La emisión de violencia en los medios ha sido tomada en cuenta principalmente por sus aspectos negativos, como productora de influencias perturbadoras en la conducta de los espectadores, especialmente si son jóvenes o niños. Desde una perspectiva más amplia, que tiene en cuenta todos los tipos de violencia que pueden ver los espectadores, presentamos un resumen de las dimensiones que pueden influenciar, no siempre de forma negativa, a los espectadores jóvenes: las funciones informativa, testificativa, identificativa y productora de emociones, de las escenas violentas. Consideramos de particular interés las formas de presentación que los emisores utilizan con la pretensión de evaluar moralmente la violencia que se muestra en las pantallas

“All I need to do is improve my diet and exercise habits”: Exploring the impact of the ‘mental healthism’ discourse on people who have experienced mental illness

Healthism is an ideology and discourse that positions the maintenance of health as a personal responsibility under individual control. It is known to negatively impact the lives of individuals, especially those judged as ‘physically unhealthy’. The aim of this exploratory mixed methods study was to investigate whether the healthism ideology and discourse extends to include mental health. This was referred to as ‘mental healthism’. This study also aimed to explore whether exposure to mental healthism framings affects: mood, self-stigma, mental healthism attitudes, or beliefs about mental health, in people who have experienced mental illness. One hundred and twenty-four participants with a history of mental illness were randomly assigned to read news media stories relating to mental health, two of which contained a mental healthism framing. They then completed an online survey containing self-report scales that measured mood, self-stigma and mental healthism attitudes, before contributing answers to open-ended questions regarding mental health. The quantitative data did not identify an effect of reading the different framings of mental health on any of the psychosocial variables. However, the qualitative responses provided evidence that mental healthism is already ingrained within understandings of mental illness. Furthermore, the qualitative data revealed that the mental healthism framings led to negative attitudes towards medication as a treatment for mental illness, suggesting that mental healthism could increase stigma around medication use. The convergent result of this mixed method study calls for additional ‘mental healthism’ research in samples of people who have not experienced mental illness. Messages about how to remain healthy through diet and exercise are ubiquitous in the news and popular media. They operate on an ideology and discourse known as ‘healthism’ which emphasises personal responsibility for individuals to manage their bodies in pursuit of good health (Crawford, 1980). Healthism beliefs are associated with negative psychosocial outcomes, particularly for groups of people who do not meet society’s standards of ‘healthy’. These include stigma, anxiety and discrimination (Crawford, 1994, 2004; Powroznik, 2017). In recent times, these healthism messages have been linked to mental health, with a growing focus in the media on using diet and exercise to control or prevent mental illness. In consideration of the negative effects of the healthism discourse, this study is concerned with the potential impact of ‘mental healthism’ on mood, self-stigma and attitude formation for those who have experienced mental illness

The Mediation of Personal Distress on Negative Television News and Donations

Previous research has shown that negative television news can lead to a reduction in positive affect (Harrell, 2000; Szabo & Hopkinson, 2007). What has yet to be investigated though is how negative television news influences an individual\u27s interactions with others; precisely, how negative television news affects a person\u27s empathy for persons in need and donation behaviors to help others. Participants were randomly assigned to four different conditions: local victim news condition, nonlocal victim news condition, far victim news condition, and a neutral media condition. Participants viewed media clips that corresponded with their condition and then filled out a questionnaire that examined implicit affect, empathy, and donation behavior. A series of models were conducted to analyze the data. A one-way between groups ANOVA showed that participants in the local victim news condition donated more money to a crime victim charity than participants in the nonlocal victim news condition, the far victim news condition, and the neutral media condition. The results of a MANOVA showed implicit positive affect, personal distress, and empathic concern to be significant process variables. These process variables were entered into the model as covariates with victim distance being the independent variable and donations being the dependent variable. The results suggested that personal distress may be mediating the relationship between local victim news and donations. One implication of this research that warrants further examination is the possibility that television news creates personal distress, ultimately precipitating an increase in donations to victims of crime

Anger as a moral emotion: A 'bird's eye' systematic review

Anger is common problem for which counselling/psychotherapy clients seek help, and is typically regarded as an invidious negative emotion to be ameliorated. However, it may be possible to reframe anger as a moral emotion, arising in response to perceived transgressions, thereby endowing it with meaning. In that respect, the current paper offers a ‘bird’s eye’ systematic review of empirical research on anger as a moral emotion (i.e., one focusing broadly on the terrain as a whole, rather than on specific areas). Three databases were reviewed from the start of their records to January 2019. Eligibility criteria included empirical research, published in English in peer-reviewed journals, on anger specifically as a moral emotion. 175 papers met the criteria, and fell into four broad classes of study: survey-based; experimental; physiological; and qualitative. In reviewing the articles, this paper pays particular attention to: how/whether anger can be differentiated from other moral emotions; antecedent causes and triggers; contextual factors that influence or mitigate anger; and outcomes arising from moral anger. Together, the paper offers a comprehensive overview of current knowledge into this prominent and problematic emotion. The results may be of use to counsellors and psychotherapists helping to address anger issues in their clients

From Negative Biases to Positive News: Resetting and Reframing News Consumption for a Better Life and a Better World

Research psychologists have found that people are subject to negative biases. These powerful biases may influence how journalists and editors produce the news and how citizens consume it. While not all news is negative, much of it is. Negatively biased news is both inaccurate and detrimental for well-being. This paper reviews literature about negative biases and the detrimental effects of negative news on well-being. Positive psychology interventions, taught in a workshop, may be able to mitigate or neutralize negative news effects. This paper presents a half-day workshop meant to combat negative biases in the news by training attendees in relevant positive psychology strategies. While the workshop is informed by research, testing will determine the extent to which it mitigates and combats the negative effects of bad news

Reação e regulação emocional de observadores a cenários de cyberbullying

Tese de mestrado, Psicologia (Área de Especialização em Psicologia da Educação e da Orientação), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Psicologia, 2020As novas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC) tornaram-se uma das partes fulcrais do quotidiano da vida de grande parte dos indivíduos, especialmente dos jovens, sendo que estes nasceram numa época em que as tecnologias lhes são acessíveis desde cedo, convivendo com elas regularmente. As vantagens do uso das TIC são inúmeras, contudo existem também diversas desvantagens e consequências negativas que advêm da utilização indevida das mesmas, sobretudo o cyberbullying. Uma das características do cyberbullying é o número ilimitado de observadores das agressões que as TIC permitem alcançar, destacando a importância do impacto das intervenções dos observadores na moderação de comportamentos agressivos. O presente estudo foca a investigação do fenómeno do cyberbullying, na perspetiva dos observadores de cenários de cyberbullying quanto às suas reações emocionais e as suas estratégias de regulação emocional. Com recurso a uma entrevista semiestruturada, aplicada a estudantes do 8º ano de escolaridade pertencentes a uma escola da região de Lisboa (N = 23), realizou-se uma análise descritiva e exploratória das respostas de observadores de situações hipotéticas de cyberbullying para responder às seguintes questões de investigação: (1) Quais as reações emocionais de observadores a cenários de cyberbullying, (2) Quais as estratégias de regulação emocional de observadores a cenários de cyberbullying. Os resultados desta investigação indicam que os observadores experienciam maioritariamente reações emocionais negativas e morais, e revelam uma maior tendência para a utilização de estratégias de coping focadas no problema, na tentativa de ajudarem a vítima e resolverem o problema.Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become one of the central parts of the daily lives of many individuals, especially young people who were born at a time when technologies were accessible to them from an early age and, therefore, have lived with them regularly. The advantages of using technologies are numerous but there are also a number of disadvantages and negative consequences that arise from their misuse, such as cyberbullying. One of the characteristics of cyberbullying is the unlimited number of bystanders of the aggressions that technologies enable them to achieve. This highlights the importance of the impact of observer interventions in moderating aggressive behavior. This study focuses on investigating the phenomenon of cyberbullying from the perspective of bystanders of cyberbullying scenarios with regard to their emotional reactions and their strategies for emotional regulation. Using a semistructured interview, applied to 8th grade students from a school in the Lisbon region (N=23), a descriptive and exploratory analysis of bystanders’ responses to hypothetical cyberbullying situations was conducted to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the emotional reactions of bystanders to cyberbullying scenarios? (2) What are the emotion regulation strategies of bystanders to cyberbullying scenarios? The results of this research indicate that bystanders mostly experience negative and moral emotional reactions, and reveal a greater tendency to use problem-focused coping strategies in an attempt to help the victim and solve the problem