science

Media psychology

Media psychology is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Media psychology rather than just read about it. In short: Media psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on the interactions between human behavior, media, and technology. Media psychology is not limited to mass media or media content; it includes all forms of mediated communication and media technology-related behaviors, such as the use, design, impact, and sharing behaviors.

Key takeaways

Media psychology belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Media psychology to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Media psychology from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Media psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on the interactions between human behavior, media, and technology. Media psychology is not limited to mass media or media content; it includes all forms of mediated communication and media technology-related behaviors, such as the use, design, impact, and sharing behaviors. This branch is a relatively new field of study because of technological advancements. It uses various critical analysis and investigation methods to develop a working model of a user's perception of media experience. These methods are employed for society as a whole and individually. Media psychologists can perform activities that include consulting, design, and production in various media like television, video games, films, and news broadcasting. The field of media psychology explores how recent, newer social media apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat have become more popular and how they are creating new media and mental health challenges that are not widely researched. Newer apps like Instagram and Snapchat have changed how people consume media, communicate, and deal with their self-image. These social media platforms have introduced complex mental dynamics that may contribute to mental health challenges like negative body image, depression, and anxiety, which could affect users and add to unhealthy media psychology effects. In response, researchers have started to focus their studies on these platforms' psychological effects, specifically the effects on younger users, looking into issues like social comparison and body image.

History Media psychology overlaps with various fields such as media studies, communication science, anthropology, education, and sociology. Research on media psychology has evolved, and most of the research that is considered 'media psychology' has come from other fields, both academic and applied.

1920-1940s In the 1920s, marketing, advertising, and public relations professionals began researching consumer behavior and motivation for commercial applications. The use of mass media during World War II created a surge of academic interest in mass media messaging, creating a new field, communication science (Lazarsfeld & Merton, 2000).

1950-1980s Media psychology gained prominence in the 1950s when television became popular in American households. Psychologists responded to widespread social concerns about the children and their television viewing. For example, researchers began to study the impact of television viewing on children's reading skills. Later, they began to study the impact of violent television viewing on children's behavior, for example, if they were likely to exhibit anti-social behavior or to copy the violent behaviors that they were seeing. These events led up to the creation of a new division of the American Psychological Association in 1987. Division 46, the Media Psychology Division (now the APA Society for Media Psychology and Technology), is one of the fastest growing in the American Psychological Association.

2000s Today, media psychologists have expanded their focus to study newer technology and platforms like cellular phone technology, the internet, and social media. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat have become important areas of study as these apps have increased incidences of social comparison, body image concerns, and technology addiction. TikTok, particularly with its fast-paced content and short videos, has been associated with increased anxiety and depression rates among younger users. This increase is caused by the glamorization of influencers and excessive exposure to idealized lifestyles, creating unrealistic expectations for users and causing negative self-images. In contrast to some of these effects, related media consumption practices such as Comfort television involve returning to familiar content for relaxation and emotional regulation.

Theories Media psychology's theories include the user's perception, cognition, and humanistic components in regards to their experience to their surroundings. Media psychologists also draw upon developmental and narrative psychologies and emerging findings from neuroscience. The theories and research in psychology are used as the backbone of media psychology and guide the discipline itself. Theories in psychology applied to media include multiple dimensions, i.e., text, pictures, symbols, video and sound. Sensory Psychology, semiotics and semantics for visual and language communication, social cognition and neuroscience are among the areas addressed in the study of this area of media psychology. A few of the theories employed in media psychology include:

Affective Disposition Theory The concept of affective disposition theory is used to differentiate users' perspectives on different forms of media content and the differences within attentional focus. The theory consists of four components that revolve around emotion: (1) media is based on an individual's emotions and opinions towards characters, (2) media content is driven from enjoyment and appreciation from individuals, (3) individuals form feelings about characters that are either positive or negative and (4) media relies on conflicts between characters and how individuals react to the conflict.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Media psychology

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Media psychology claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Media psychology before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Media psychology ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Media psychology

In research: Media psychology appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Media psychology in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Media psychology is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Applied psychology, Media studies, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Media psychology outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Media psychology in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Media psychology means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Media psychology out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Media psychology in simple terms?

Why does Media psychology matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Media psychology?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Media psychology.