Can a television series change attitudes about death? a study of college students and six feet under
TL;DR: The effects of viewing 10 episodes of the television series Six Feet Under were examined to assess whether such programming could influence college students' attitudes about death and dying.
Abstract: This study examined the effects of viewing 10 episodes of the television series Six Feet Under to assess whether such programming could influence college students' attitudes about death and dying. Students were administered the Death Attitude Profile--Revised, the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale, and the short version of the Threat Index, prior to and after viewing. Significant changes were found on a number of measures. These results are similar to the effects of didactic death education courses.
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TL;DR: Results indicate that many variables were found to differ based on cartoon characters' physical attractiveness, including gender, age, intelligence, body weight, emotional states experienced, prossocial behaviors, antisocial behaviors, and overall goodness/badness.
91 citations
TL;DR: The effect of a death reminder in television shows on the desirability of advertised products is explored and the findings are discussed in light on affective and existential theories which make opposite predictions.
Abstract: References to death abound in many television programs accessible to most people. Terror Management Theory postulates that existential anxiety, which death reminders activate, may reinforce materialistic tendencies. The current article explores the effect of a death reminder in television shows on the desirability of advertised products. Consistent with Terror Management Theory's predictions, in two studies participants show greater desire for products, which were advertised immediately following clips from programs that featured a death scene, compared with programs that did not. Cognitive accessibility of death predicted the appeal difference while changes in affect or interest in the show did not. The findings are discussed in light on affective and existential theories which make opposite predictions. Implications and future directions are considered.
34 citations
TL;DR: The authors compared the 3 dimensions of deathrelated information in 24 young children's picture books and 16 older children's storybooks to offer speculation on the impact of children's books for use with bereaved children.
Abstract: A multidimensional concept of death must include biological, sociocultural, and emotional components. Children glean information about death in many ways, one of which is through books. In this study, the authors compared the 3 dimensions of death-related information (irreversibility, inevitability, nonfunctionality) in 24 young children's picture books and 16 older children's storybooks. In these death-themed children's books, the primary focus was on emotional aspects of death and grieving. Biological facts were more likely to appear in picture books than in storybooks. The authors offer speculation on the impact of children's books for use with bereaved children.
31 citations
TL;DR: The results showed that the course had a positive effect, as the DE group significantly decreased alexithymia and negative attitudes toward death, particularly in fear and avoidance of death, making their representation of death less traumatic.
Abstract: This article presents the results of an experience of death education (DE) course with bibliodrama in Italian high schools, which focused on emotions and existential themes. The research analyzed the inability to recognize or describe one's own emotions (alexithymia), fantasy-proneness, and attitudes toward death in two different groups of students: one who took a course on DE (with 113 students) and another who did not participate in it (with 114 students). The use of a mixed method allowed this study to explore the quantitative results that the students indicated in the questionnaire and the qualitative open answers to the final question about how they had profited from this DE course. The results showed that the course had a positive effect, as the DE group significantly decreased alexithymia and negative attitudes toward death, particularly in fear and avoidance of death, making their representation of death less traumatic.
28 citations
TL;DR: This study demonstrated both the advantages and potential limitations of using the TDAS with Persian-speaking cancer patients and indicated a 3-component solution.
Abstract: In this study, 398 Iranian cancer patients completed the 15-item Templer's Death Anxiety Scale (TDAS). Tests of internal consistency, principal components analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted to assess the internal consistency and factorial validity of the Persian TDAS. The construct reliability statistic and average variance extracted were also calculated to measure construct reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. Principal components analysis indicated a 3-component solution, which was generally supported in the confirmatory analysis. However, acceptable cutoffs for construct reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity were not fulfilled for the three subscales that were derived from the principal component analysis. This study demonstrated both the advantages and potential limitations of using the TDAS with Persian-speaking cancer patients.
27 citations
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Book•
01 Jan 2001TL;DR: In this article, the authors present experiments and generalized Causal inference methods for single and multiple studies, using both control groups and pretest observations on the outcome of the experiment, and a critical assessment of their assumptions.
Abstract: 1. Experiments and Generalized Causal Inference 2. Statistical Conclusion Validity and Internal Validity 3. Construct Validity and External Validity 4. Quasi-Experimental Designs That Either Lack a Control Group or Lack Pretest Observations on the Outcome 5. Quasi-Experimental Designs That Use Both Control Groups and Pretests 6. Quasi-Experimentation: Interrupted Time Series Designs 7. Regression Discontinuity Designs 8. Randomized Experiments: Rationale, Designs, and Conditions Conducive to Doing Them 9. Practical Problems 1: Ethics, Participant Recruitment, and Random Assignment 10. Practical Problems 2: Treatment Implementation and Attrition 11. Generalized Causal Inference: A Grounded Theory 12. Generalized Causal Inference: Methods for Single Studies 13. Generalized Causal Inference: Methods for Multiple Studies 14. A Critical Assessment of Our Assumptions
12,215 citations
Additional excerpts
...The design is aptly described as quasi-experimental insofar as students were not randomly assigned to the class ( Shadish, Cook, & Campbell, 2001 )....
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Book•
01 Jan 1979
11,977 citations
Additional excerpts
...The one-group pretest–posttest design of this study does not permit “hard-headed causal inferences” ( Cook & Campbell, 1979 , p....
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01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: Social cognitive theory analyzes social diffusion of new styles of behavior in terms of the psychosocial factors governing their acquisition and adoption and the social networks through which they spread and are supported.
Abstract: Social cognitive theory provides an agentic conceptual framework within which to analyze the determinants and psychosocial mechanisms through which symbolic communication influences human thought, affect and action. Communications systems operate through two pathways. In the direct pathway, they promote changes by informing, enabling, motivating, and guiding participants. In the socially mediated pathway, media influences link participants to social networks and community settings that provide natural incentives and continued personalized guidance, for desired change. Social cognitive theory analyzes social diffusion of new styles of behavior in terms of the psychosocial factors governing their acquisition and adoption and the social networks through which they spread and are supported. Structural interconnectedness provides potential diffusion paths; sociocognitive factors largely determine what diffuses through those paths.
2,904 citations
TL;DR: Examination of health promotion and disease prevention from the perspective of social cognitive theory finds the areas of overlap with some of the most widely applied psychosocial models of health are identified.
Abstract: This article examines health promotion and disease prevention from the perspective of social cognitive theory. The areas of overlap with some of the most widely applied psychosocial models of health are identified. The models of health promotion and disease prevention have undergone several generational changes. We have shifted from trying to scare people into health, to rewarding them into health, to equipping them with self-regulatory skills to manage their health habits, to shoring up their habit changes with dependable social supports. These transformations have evolved a multifaceted approach that addresses the reciprocal interplay between self-regulatory and environmental determinants of health behavior. Social cognitive theory addresses the socio structural determinants of health as well as the personal determinants. A comprehensive approach to health promotion requires changing the practices of social systems that have widespread detrimental effects on health rather than solely changing t...
2,716 citations
"Can a television series change atti..." refers background in this paper
...Bandura’s best known work concerns the effects of televised violence, but mass communication researchers also have linked observational learning with attitude change in other areas, such as gender roles, homosexuality, family planning, and preventive health care ( Bandura, 2000; Bussey & Bandura,1999; Flerx, Fidler, & Rogers,1976; McGhee & Frueh, 1980; O’Bryant & Corder-Bolz, 1978; Perry & Bussey, 1979; Riggle, Ellis, ......
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...…linked observational learning with attitude change in other areas, such as gender roles, homosexuality, family planning, and preventive health care (Bandura, 2000; Bussey&Bandura,1999; Flerx, Fidler, &Rogers,1976;McGhee&Frueh, 1980; O’Bryant & Corder-Bolz, 1978; Perry & Bussey, 1979; Riggle,…...
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TL;DR: This article presents the social cognitive theory of gender role development and functioning, which specifies how gender conceptions are constructed from the complex mix of experiences and how they operate in concert with motivational and self-regulatory mechanisms to guide gender-linked conduct throughout the life course.
Abstract: Human differentiation on the basis of gender is a fundamental phenomenon that affects virtually every aspect of people's daily lives. This article presents the social cognitive theory of gender role development and functioning. It specifies how gender conceptions are constructed from the complex mix of experiences and how they operate in concert with motivational and self-regulatory mechanisms to guide gender-linked conduct throughout the life course. The theory integrates psychological and sociostructural determinants within a unified conceptual structure. In this theoretical perspective, gender conceptions and roles are the product of a broad network of social influences operating interdependently in a variety of societal subsystems. Human evolution provides bodily structures and biological potentialities that permit a range of possibilities rather than dictate a fixed type of gender differentiation. People contribute to their self-development and bring about social changes that define and structure gender relationships through their agentic actions within the interrelated systems of influence.
1,973 citations
"Can a television series change atti..." refers background in this paper
...Bandura’s best known work concerns the effects of televised violence, but mass communication researchers also have linked observational learning with attitude change in other areas, such as gender roles, homosexuality, family planning, and preventive health care (Bandura, 2000; Bussey & Bandura,1999; Flerx, Fidler, & Rogers,1976; McGhee & Frueh, 1980; O’Bryant & Corder-Bolz, 1978; Perry & Bussey, 1979; Riggle, Ellis, ......
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