Week 3

Question 1

parasocial interaction

Answer 1

media users sense of reciprocal and intimate conversation with a mediated fiction, despite knowing it is a figure

Question 2

consequences of parasocial interaction

Answer 2

• enjoyment in media users
• authenticity ratings
• perceived cognitive challenge, perceived sophistication of the media
• more loyalty the media

Question 3

personal causes of parasocial interaction

Answer 3

• gender: female
• age: elderly
• media dependeny: higher exposure
• shyness
• social ability: higher
• user’s perception of character: attractiveness and similarity

Question 4

media show related causes of parasocial interaction

Answer 4

1. consistent characters
2. direct involvement (breaking the 4th wall)
3. sense of spontaneity (feeling that anything can happen)
4. indirect involvement (camera angle)
5. acceptance by audience (audience decides to assume answering role: mimicry)

Question 5

parasocial relationship

Answer 5

sense of having enduring bond with media performers despite knowing it’s one-sided

Question 6

differences PSI and PSR

Answer 6

PSI is restricted to the duration of a movie, PSR can endure beyond this, it’s not only while watching
PSI isn’t a prerequisite of PSR

Question 7

3 types of attachment styles

Answer 7

1. secure - “real love exists“, positive self-other perception, optimistic expectations
2. anxious-ambivalent - “falling in love is easy, but does the other want me?“, negative self, idealized other-view, very high need of closeness
3. avoidaint - „love is transitory“, difficulties in trusting others, pessimistic self-other views, low level of closeness

Question 8

PSR functions, just like other relationships

Answer 8

1. similar social value
2. Persuasive effect
3. Buffer effects of isolation
4. When they end, people feel the breakup
5. Change levels of prejudice

Question 9

structural affect theory: narrative-effective structures

Answer 9

1. surprise structure (viewer < character, but told at the end)
2. curiosity structure (viewer = character)
3. suspense structure (viewer > character, but only a potential outcome)

Question 10

key characteristics of suspense structure

Answer 10

1. narrative story components (initiating event, delay (uncertainty) and than outcome event)
2. high subjective certainty of harm
3. liked protagonist as targets

Question 11

Excitation transfer theory

Answer 11

arousal from prior events in movie boost reaction to a satisfying ending, positive out coming leads to a positive arousal

Question 12

Affective disposition theory

Answer 12

liking a character –> hoping for a good outcome
disliking a character –> hopping for a bad outcome
& we have expectations about the goodness and badness of characters based on their actions

Question 13

functions of mass media

Answer 13

1. Surveil for possible risks or threats
2. Correlate society by selection of specific news and information
3. Transmit cultural norms
4. added later: entertainment

Question 14

the 3 changes in the role of emotions in news

Answer 14

1. diversity of emotional style (news less neutral)
2. journalist involvement (shifts more to an partisan role, express their personal opinion)
3. audience involvement (agencies crafting narratives, aimed at generating emotional involvement)

Question 15

motivated reasoning

Answer 15

• news media changes the way people consume media info
• people aren’t rational decision makers, but motivated reasoners who cognitively process facts to form opinions that are congruent with own prior attitudes and beliefs

Question 16

cognitive dissonance

Answer 16

discrepanties in cognititions bring people in uncomfortable psychological states

Question 17

3 mechanisms that explain motivated reasoning

Answer 17

1. The prior attitude effect: the tendency to feel strongly about an issue; evaluate supportive arguments as stronger and more compelling than opposing arguments;
2. Disconfirmation bias (also: incongruency bias): people spend more time and cognitive resources denigrating and counterarguing attitudinally incongruent than congruent arguments.
3. Confirmation bias: seek out attitude

Question 18

3 psychological mechanisms that cause motivated reasoning

Answer 18

• Avoidance of cognitive dissonance when cultural views are called into question by information encountered in one’s environment.
• Affect: Negative or positive perceptions of information can be determined by cultural views that influence judgment.
• Cultural group dynamics and a sense of trust influence opinion formation. - when faced with conflicting claims, rely on sources that they perceive as trustworthy when forming opinions –cultural group membership, cultural orientation.

Question 19

4 functions of humor

Answer 19

• Psychological well-being
• Tension relief
• Coping with adversity (mature defense mechanism)
• Social functions: creating bonds

Question 20

definition humor

Answer 20

“Humor is a broad, multifaceted term that represents
anything that people say or do that others perceive
as funny and tends to make them laugh, as well as
the mental processes that go into both creating and
perceiving such an amusing stimulus, and also the
emotional response of mirth involved in the
enjoyment of it.”

Question 21

Humour styles

Answer 21

1. affiliative humor (interpersonal, spontenous)
2. self-enhancing humor (humurous look at life, emotion regulation and coping mechanism)
3. aggressive humor (sarcasm, manipulating others, related to hostility and aggression as personality characteristics
4. self-defeating (downgrading yourself, being ridiculed or disparaged)

Question 22

factors that show something is funny

Answer 22

• Play face joke-telling: exaggerated behaviour, voices to signal that something is funny (e.g. Mr Bean, The Office)
• Deadpan: telling jokes with a straight face (e.g. Brooklyn 99)
• Canned laughter, laugh track: other‘s recorded laughter, sense of
copresence/ social presence (social cue)
• Media genre schemata: triggers expectations

Question 23

forms of humor

Answer 23

•Joke: set-up + punch line
•Spontaneous conversational humor
     -Anecdotes
     -Wordplays, puns
     -Irony: literal meaning is opposite to the meaning intended
     -Sarcasm: aggressive type of humor
     -Satire: aggressive humor that exposes contradictions 
     -Grotesque: distorted caricature 
•Unintended humor

Question 24

humor theories

Answer 24

1. Relief theory
   - Motivational: Interpersonal needs –> relief of tension
2. Superiority/ Disparagment theory
   - Motivational: Interpersonal motives –> self-esteem enhancement
3. Incongruity theories
   - Cognitive: perception and interpretation –> perception of incongruity