Positive Media Psychology

Positive Media Psychology is a specialized area of media psychology based on the theories and constructs of positive psychology. Its purpose is to explore the potential of media technologies to support human flourishing through research and development. Positive media psychology strives to move away from psychology’s problem-centric medical model to a balanced and holistic approach to understanding mediated experiences. Positive media psychology explores questions such as “How do people benefit?” “How can we make it better?” By using a positive psychology paradigm, researchers and developers will be better able to evaluate and harness the power of media technologies to impact lives and society for the better.

Introduction

Positive Media Psychology is an area within media psychology that emerged to promote the use and development of media technologies that support well-being and human flourishing. Media psychologists are concerned with human experience and the changes that technology brings as people interact with and adapt to the proliferation of technologies in a rapidly changing media landscape. While media psychology research has traditionally reflected society’s concerns about the potential negative impact of an increasingly digital world, positive media psychology takes a different tact. Positive media psychologists seek a more holistic view of mediated experience, searching for the full spectrum of experience, the problems and the benefits in order to pursue the positive potential.

Positive psychology is the theoretical foundation of positive media psychology. Positive psychology is the scientific study of the circumstances and processes that contribute to positive human growth (Gable & Haidt, 2005). Historically, the field of psychology was based on a medical model which focused on identifying pathologies and working to alleviate them. Martin E. Seligman and Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, considered the founding fathers of the positive psychology movement, were inspired to achieve a more balanced view of human functioning by addressing the subjective experiences that make life worth living (Gregory & Rutledge, 2016; Snyder & Lopez, 2011). The result is nearly a half-century of research and practice that are summarized into three main areas: 1) happiness and wellbeing, 2) individual traits and virtues, and 3) positive institutions that form the structural social supports that encourage the development and sustainability of positive emotions and virtues (Seligman, 2002). Positive psychologists have identified, categorized and researched a range of positive emotions, such as happiness and joy, traits and strengths, such as optimism, the facility for love, perseverance, and wisdom, in order to understand how these factors are related to constructs such as self-efficacy, autonomy, social connectedness, engagement and resiliency that have been shown to increase perceptions of well-being. At the societal level, they identified civic virtues, organizational structures and leadership styles that engendered civic participation and reinforced social values such as altruism, responsibility, satisfaction and work ethic that define positive institutions. (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).

Positive media psychology uses positive psychology as the foundation to encourage research, development and validation of technology that supports individual and collective goals and positive growth. Theories from positive psychology, therefore, inform a wide range of activities to achieve positive social impact across media and technology applications, including media consumption patterns, technology-enabled interventions, interaction design, messaging strategies, content creation and product development.

Positive psychology frameworks can enable a new trajectory for how people study, use and develop media technologies by emphasizing their benefit and their ability to amplify human strengths and facilitate the fundamental human goals that impact subjective well-being (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Learning what works can also help offset the problems as people grapple with new ways of being enabled by global access, on-demand information, mobile connectivity and evolving definitions of public and private. As the media environment develops, core assumptions shift, creating new opportunities and raising new challenges. Media enables a variety of individual interactions and behaviors, impacts organizational effectiveness and delivery of services, redefines consumer relationships, and influences electoral outcomes and fuels social change movements. Without a framework that emphasizes values, strengths, empowerment and critical thinking, media can also exacerbate or create social divisions and undermine social systems.

Happiness and Well-Being

Positive psychologists make a distinction between happiness as a fleeting physical pleasure—hedonic happiness—and deeper emotional satisfaction that comes from meaning and creates well-being—eudaimonic happiness. Positive emotions of both kinds have physical and mental benefits. Davidson’s research demonstrated that cultivating positive emotions such as happiness, gratitude and appreciation can drive brain growth by encouraging new neural connections (Davidson, Jackson, & Kalin, 2000; Davidson & Lutz, 2008). Mindfulness meditation has also been shown to increase happiness and engagement, lessen levels of depression and anxiety and help support the immune system (Armenta, Fritz, & Lyubomirsky, 2017; Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005).

Technologies and mobile applications (apps) that have been designed to target the cultivation of positive emotions and mindfulness are among the most popular on iTunes and Google Play. Headspace (n.d.), for example, is a mobile app based on empirically validated protocols offering a series of friendly, guided meditation programs with programs specifically targeted to user goals, such as cultivating joy and gratitude (Puddicombe, 2011). HeartMath produced a series of mobile devices with heartrate sensors that train users to develop Heart-Breath Coherence, shown to increase positive emotions and decrease stress response (Edwards, 2015). A number of wearables, such as the Apple Watch, Fitbit and the Spire Stone, can be used to provide real time haptic feedback to enhance calm and focus through the breath.

Strengths and Virtues

There has been a longstanding interest in identifying strengths and virtues to better match people’s strengths with their situations, from education, relationships, job placement to therapy. The Values in Action (VIA) Classification system, a global collaboration led by Peterson and Seligman (2004), created the ability to define and categorize strengths and virtues so researchers can evaluate outcomes, attitudes and environments (Niemiec, 2013) This framework enables the design of technology and media to support strengths development. Fitness wearables use motivational tools and feedback to encourage persistence (Stragier, Abeele, Mechant, & De Marez, 2016). Online strengths assessments are available to facilitate personal growth and reflection with and without coaching support (Gallup, n.d.). Movies modeling strengths and virtues are assigned by therapists to facilitate client growth (Sharp, Smith, & Cole, 2002).

Strengths are associated with a number of extensively-researched positive outcomes, such as resilience (Martínez-Martí & Ruch, 2017) subjective well-being, optimism (Carver, 1998; Carver & Scheier, 2005) and life satisfaction (Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2004). Since strengths can be cultivated through practice, (Niemiec, 2013) media and technology are used to leverage training from self-directed programs that guide users and reinforce behaviors to access to coaches and therapists via video conferencing. Mobile applications like Happify (n.d.), The Gratitude Journal (n.d.), and SuperBetter (n.d.) each employ different behavioral techniques to cultivate strengths shown to motivate self-improvement and positive change, such as mindset shifting, journaling, and gamification (Armenta, et al., 2017).

Technology-enabled activities can impact a wide variety of positive outcomes. Self-efficacy, agency and competence, the foundations of self-determination theory, are explanatory constructs of need satisfaction that lead to well-being (Ryan, Huta, & Deci, 2008; Schutte, 2014; Tamborini, et al., 2011). Self-determination theory has been used as a framework for video game play and media enjoyment (Przybylski, Rigby, & Ryan, 2010; Wirth, Hofer, & Schramm, 2012). Media experiences have also been shown to influence individual beliefs about agency, self-efficacy, and self-competence enhancing critical thinking about information (Hocevar, Flanagin, & Metzger, 2014), prosocial behavior (Huang, 2016), perceptions of social support that increased self-growth, such as job search behavior (Fieseler, Meckel, & Müller, 2014), and increased perceptions of learning in online courses (Lyons, Reysen, & Pierce, 2012). According to Fredrickson’s (2004) Broaden and Build Theory of positive emotions, positive experiences create an upward spiral that fosters empathy, optimism, intrinsic motivation and resilience. Thus, these technology-enabled positive outcomes become mutually reinforcing.

Social technologies that enable the sharing text, images, video and sound without regard to the constraints of traditional avenues of communication enhance perceptions of competence and efficacy by enabling individual voice. Content in traditional media, such as newspapers and broadcast channels, has broad reach but tends to diminish minority voice (e.g., Vargo & Guo, 2017). By contrast, social media accelerates a variety of information flows (W. X. Zhao, et al., 2011), innovative ideas (Laurell, et al., 2018) and microblogging platforms like Twitter and chat streams can sustain feelings of connectedness among friends, similar others and in workplace teams (e.g., D. Zhao & Rosson, 2009).

Interventions such as digital storytelling are powerful teaching and learning tools, enabling teachers and students to produce powerful personal stories overcoming literacy hurdles of traditional media (Robin, 2008). A program in rural Bhutan increased participants sense of personal agency and community cohesiveness by enabling the articulation of important local issues and by documenting valued rituals and traditions (Gyabak & Godina, 2011). Digital storytelling has also been used as a Trauma Narrative Intervention to share stories and develop new meaning, essential to post-traumatic growth (Anderson & Cook, 2015).

The gaming industry has evolved to offer a wide variety of gaming experiences and content, from simple single player mobile games like Solitaire and Candy Crush to elaborate strategy and skill-based online multi-player worlds, like Minecraft and World of Warcraft. The best game design is structured to achieve player engagement, based on Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow. Games that appropriately balance skill against challenge allow the players to enter a state of flow, or optimal engagement, that has shown to influence mood, self-efficacy and increase subjective wellbeing (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991; Holt, 2000). Repetitive, pattern-based puzzle games like Bejeweled II, where players match continually moving colored squares, have also demonstrated that users entered a state of flow experiencing improved mood and decreased stress (Neal, 2012). The ability to design for flow is also relevant to web site design. Flow lowers cognitive resistance and increases consumer susceptibility to online persuasion.

Many organizations use the motivation of games to influence social attitudes. The Games for Change Organization, founded in 2004, supports the work of game creators, educators and social innovators to impact real-world problems through games and create empathy for causes, such as the realities of farming in an impoverished country or understanding the challenges of LGBTQ youth (G4C, n.d.) .

Emerging technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are used to increase support for social causes by creating empathy through the experience of presence (or “being there”) and embodied cognition (Shin & Biocca, 2017). Empathy has been shown to activate altruism by increasing the desire to take action through volunteerism and financial or political support (Van Lange, 2008). The New York Times, for example, created a VR story, The Displaced, to increase empathy for refugees (Shin & Biocca, 2018; Silverstein, 2015). Similarly, the United Nations has created the United National Virtual Reality Series (UNVR, 2016) to raise support for pressing global challenges, such as Syrian refugees, the threat of climate change to African ecosystems and living in the devastation of Nepal’s 2015 earthquake.

VR has is also used in interventions for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and phobias, where the perception of presence functions as exposure therapy in a safe environment. VR has been successful in treating cases of PTSD due to exposure to military combat and terrorist attacks (Maples-Keller, Yasinski, Manjin, & Rothbaum, 2017; Rizzo, et al., 2015).

Positive Institutions

Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) defined ‘positive institutions’ as institutions that support the ideals that are critical for a well-functioning and equitable society and act as change agents to achieve those goals. These organizations are mediating experiences that can foster satisfaction, encourage civic engagement, empower students and support the development of individual strengths and values.

Education is a natural fit as an institution that exists to support growth and learning (Seligman, Ernst, Gillham, Reivich, & Linkins, 2009). Media technologies have been shown to support individualized learning and increase motivation and self-efficacy. Technology has enabled the rapid rise of the Online Education industry, providing opportunities for large self-directed classes and small faculty-supported learning. The variety of online learning options open the door to education for a wide range of students unable to attend or afford traditional educational institutions. Rich technology, such as video conferencing, recorded lectures, interactivity and online discussion, have been shown to enhance learning and replicate the quality of classroom experiences (Cook & Sonnenberg, 2014; Li & Irby, 2008).

Some organizations use technology to build new business models, launch entrepreneurial ventures and address societal concerns and disparities. Multiple entertainment organizations have formed to address the gender and racial inequalities on both sides of the camera. Increased diversity among writers, directors and actors can change both how a story is told and the meaning and relevance to the viewer. Conscious Media Visionaries (n.d.), a group of entertainment professionals concerned about the impact of media content on attitudes and values, created a consortium to create entertainment that based on prosocial goals.

At the same time, many assumptions about entertainment consumption neglect the subjective meaning people derive from watching, sharing and fan experiences. Research has shown that narrative experience, fan communities and fan engagement can enhance positive emotion (Oatley, 2002) create a sense of community (Obst, Zinkiewicz, & Smith, 2002), normalize interests raising self-esteem (Rutledge, 2011) and enable emotional gratification and personal meaning (Bartsch, 2012).

Technology fuels a number of social entrepreneurial efforts. TOMS Shoes launched a business based on a new model known as ‘One for One’, for every pair of shoes purchased, TOMS donated a pair to a child in need. With no marketing budget, TOMS used only social media. Their strong story with a compelling social purpose created the online traction they needed to raise awareness of their cause and generate sales, launching a trend called “Conscious Marketing” that would have been impossible without social technologies (Chandler, 2016).

Some organizations are putting mobile technology to work with the goal of influencing employee wellbeing and engagement. Tools like Humu, an interactive mobile app that is designed to drive behavior change and increase employee satisfaction, may well revolutionize how organizations approach human resource management. Using machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Humu interacts with employees by providing encouragement and feedback in the form of AI-based “nudges” with helpful questions and suggestions in dialogue format that has been shown to help employees feel connected and make positive changes in their working patterns (e.g., Wakabayashi, 2018).

Mobile technologies have untethered economic activity from bricks and mortar. In rural locations with minimal social services, mobile technologies have provided health care information, delivered literacy programs, opened economic opportunities, facilitated improved water quality, and reconnected families separated by hardship and social unrest (e.g., Beuermann, McKelvey, & Vakis, 2012; Haenssgen & Ariana, 2017; Jukes, et al., 2017; Kimbowa, 2013; Martinez-Santos, et al., 2017; Porter, et al., 2018; Valk, Rashid, & Elder, 2010).

Mobile technologies can disrupt practices that perpetuate disadvantage. The Manobi Development Foundation uses mobile devices designed for low literacy populations to distribute current market prices to rural Senegalese farmers to disrupt the unfair advantage held by middlemen who purchase their crops. The access to this information increased the income of some villages by nearly 400% (Gencer, 2011).

Going Forward

Given the breadth of technologies, there is no limit to the potential for positive impact, from how people learn, to how they navigate their worlds literally and digitally. The ability to use positive psychology to inform the research, analysis, and development of technology and the willingness to mindfully apply its tenets can move individuals and society in a direction that enhances well-being, increases a sense of meaning and supports the institutions necessary for a well-functioning, equitable society.

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Positive Media Psychology