The Media Psychology Blog

Psychology at the Intersection of Media and Human Experience

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Entries Tagged as 'Culture'

California Prop 8: Minorities vote to block rights of other minorities

By: Pamela Rutledge · November 7th, 2008 · 3 Comments

I’m supposed to be packing because moving vans come tomorrow, but I had to remark on this story in the Washington Post: Most Calif. blacks backed proposition 8: 53% of Latinos Also Supported Proposition 8
In it, Vick and Surdin write:
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 6 — Any notion that Tuesday’s election represented a liberal juggernaut must [...]

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Tags: Culture · Political Issues · Social Change

Media framing: “Conservative” or Cognitive Inflexibility?

By: Pamela Rutledge · November 6th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Scott Kaufman in a Psychology Today blog discusses research claiming that conservatives are less creative (Are conservatives less creative than liberals?).  Kaufman is fairly even-handed, but I have a problem with research that takes several political policy positions and uses that to establish that some is a “conservative” since that has a much broader social [...]

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Tags: Culture · Media Psychology · Political Issues · Pop Culture · Social Change

Happiness and Its Causes

By: Pamela Rutledge · September 21st, 2008 · No Comments

For those interested in positive psychology, there is a must-attend conference November 24-25 in San Francisco “Happiness and It’s Causes.” In spite of obvious jokes about a happiness conference in San Francisco, this event brings an extraordinary line-up of people taking a wide-ranging look at positive emotions and mental states. While semantically, the word [...]

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Tags: Culture · Positive Psychology · Social Change

Move over Michael Jordan: Shoes are Out, Cell Phones are In

By: Pamela Rutledge · September 15th, 2008 · No Comments

The study “Teenagers: A Generation Unplugged” by the wireless trade association CTIA and Harris Interactive reports that cell phones have become a vital part of a teen’s identity. The coolness of the cell phone is considered a marker for popularity and status and having a phone is essential to a teen’s social life. (While [...]

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Tags: Culture · Social Change · Social Networks · Technology

Internet Addiction: A Sign of the Times?

By: Pamela Rutledge · September 12th, 2008 · No Comments

The question of ‘Internet Addiction’ is big in China. Parents are more worried than ever about their child’s performance–most have only one child to bear the brunt of all that parental pressure–and those same parents are facing a digital divide between themselves and the new generation.
China has its own set of pressures and changes.  But [...]

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Tags: Culture · Media Psychology · Pop Culture