An Introduction to Media Psychology

What is media psychology? What do media psychologists do and how do they do it? What is the intention of the media psychologist as an individual, and media psychology as a discipline? These are the five questions that I would like to explore with you in this essay.

A good place to begin is by defining the words media and psychology. You have learned, no doubt, that the definition of psychology is “the scientific study of behavior and mental processes”. This definition of psychology is not the first, not the last, and not the only definition. In fact, this definition reflects the system of knowledge (called a paradigm) of one of the seven, contemporary systems of knowledge, or schools of thought of psychology; the cognitive paradigm. The cognitive revolution in psychology took place in the early 1960s against the prevailing behaviorist paradigm. From the early 1930s through the 1960s, introduction to psychology textbooks defined psychology as “the scientific study of behavior”. When computer scientists, linguists, and artificial intelligence researchers began treating the brain as a piece of computer hardware and the mind and thinking as software, the definition changed to include mental processes, which means cognition or thinking. It was said at this time that psychology had “regained consciousness,” after a forty-year period of classical and operant conditioning theories of behaviorism.

A Chronology of Media Research

Research and discussion of the media has taken place long before the designation of media psychology as a field of study. The humanities and social sciences have discussed the implications of media since the written text overtook the oral tradition. Philosophers as early as Plato explored the implication of the switch from an oral to a written culture. The influence of mass media has been discussed since the entrance of the movable type printing press in the 15th century. Although thinking about media has taken place for 2,500 years, how we think about media has changed over time.

We will begin our investigation in Ancient Greece. Early philosophers discussed not only the use of persuasion and rhetoric in speaking and writing, they also considered the psychological effects of media including speaking, writing, visual arts, and music. The sophist explored how the way something is said affects how it is received. This research in rhetorical analysis continues in contemporary media studies. Plato (427-347 B.C.E.) discussed the influence of music and visual art on the individual and groups. He warned against the power of poetry and even advised on which music to avoid when sad, angry, or happy.

An Intellectual History of Media Psychology

Premodernity, Modernity, and Postmodernity

In intellectual history, the history of ideas and systems of knowing, we typically discuss three periods of historical contexts. To discuss the difference between premodernity, modernity, and postmodernity, it is most helpful to look at the transitional moments first. We begin with the transition from premodernity to modernity. 

The year 1650 is typically used as practical demarcation of the boundary between what we call premodernity and modernity. The First World War is typically used as the event (concern) to demarcate the boundary between modernity and postmodernity. Let us sketch the picture of these three worlds.

Buddhist Psychology: On The Development of The Ego

Qin Shu, Lotus flower with dragon fly the morning .

The Western psychologist who wishes to explore Eastern psychology may wonder where to begin their search. Buddhism is an ancient tradition that has many variants and thousands of years of texts to explore. In this essay I would like to introduce a few basic concepts about Buddhist psychology, and discuss a basic description of the development of the ego.

There are many books available for Western psychologists who wish to explore Eastern psychology. Some of these books are more friendly to the beginner than others. Two books which I have found to be very helpful in my exploration have been The Sanity we are Born With: A Buddhist Approach to Psychology by Chögyam Trungpa, and Psychotherapy East & West by Alan Watts. Both of these texts offer the Westerner basic theory as well as basic attitude of Eastern psychology.

A few Basic Attitudes

Alan Watts describes the basic attitude of the Eastern psychologist with the image of the lotus flower. The lotus flower remains uninjured from the most turbulent storms, both from the sometimes restless waters from which it arises, and from the winds, rains, and scorching heat that it will encounter during its life. The lotus flower is a part of the world but is not destroyed by it. Stormy rains and high waters "roll off" its petals. This is the image that many Buddhists use as a lesson for how to be in the world. The lotus flower is the example of the serenity that one can cultivate despite the most hostile environments.

Search not Research

Eastern psychology is distinctively personal. Whereas Western psychologists may be taught methods of "research" that are based on the Eighteenth-Century Enlightenment concept of objectivity, the Eastern psychologist engages psychology as something personal. In this way, we can think of Eastern psychology as searching, whereas Western positivistic psychology focuses on researching. The Western philosophical traditions of Existential-Phenomenology, Humanism, and some psychodynamic theories are exceptions to this distinction. It is acknowledged by even the most objective Western psychologists that "research is me-search." In Buddhist psychology this is the basic assumption. The "research" done by the Buddhist psychologist is a personal searching.

Enlightenment not The Enlightenment

 

A Theory of Depression: S. Freud's Mourning and Melancholia

Before describing and explaining Sigmund Freud's theoretical model for understanding depression, I would like to make some points about theory.

A theory is a working model; a way of conceptualizing a phenomenon that helps us to understand and effect change in ourselves or others. The American intellectual William James described how theoretical models can be useful for understanding while not being real. In this way, a theory can be true -meaning it works, while not being real. An example of this can be found in our everyday treatment of currency. What gives paper currency value is our belief in it, not the paper and ink itself, which is relatively worthless. It's value is symbolic and theoretical, not real. The value of the money is true in that it functions within our society in meaningful way. James shows us that theory can be true without being real. This being said, we can approach Freud's theory of depression as a model that can be useful in understanding the phenomenon, without becoming distracted by questions that have little bearing on its pragmatic functioning.

The Marketing Character

This blog originally appeared on October 23, 2011.

When Jean-Paul Sartre described a life lived etre de mauvaise foi he was not speaking so much of dishonesty or destructiveness to others, but rather, a dishonesty to oneself. The bad faith examined by Sartre is the life lived in what Heidegger called fallenness. Heidegger described the person who has become lost in culture, buried so deeply in the layers of the social that the authentic self is concealed. Heidegger does not isolate the self from culture; however, he does describe authenticity as a remembering or awareness of the identification with culture. This is the soul of Sartre’s bad faith -a life completely forgotten in the isolated spectacle of the manufactured desire.