Journal article
Reducing Children's Emotional Reactions to Mass Media Through Rehearsed Explanation and Exposure to a Replica of a Fear Object
Human communication research, Vol.14(1), pp.3-26
09/1987
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.1987.tb00119.x
Abstract
An experiment was conducted to assess the effectiveness of two strategies for reducing emotional reactions to mass media. Children from two grade levels (kindergarten and first versus third through fifth grade) received a desensitization treatment in which a verbally presented explanation of tarantulas that required rehearsal (rehearsed explanation, no explanation) was factorially varied with gradual exposure to a replica of a tarantula (exposure to a replica, no exposure). Subjects then viewed a frightening movie scene inuolving tarantulas. The two strategies reduced emotional reactions in both younger and older children. In contrast, only the rehearsed explanation altered children's conceptions of the dangerousness of tarantulas. The findings had been predicted on the basis of developmental research on rehearsal strategies and on the basis of different levels of processing involved in the two types of fear-reduction techniques.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Reducing Children's Emotional Reactions to Mass Media Through Rehearsed Explanation and Exposure to a Replica of a Fear Object
- Creators
- Barbara J Wilson
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Human communication research, Vol.14(1), pp.3-26
- Publisher
- Blackwell Publishing Ltd
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1468-2958.1987.tb00119.x
- ISSN
- 0360-3989
- eISSN
- 1468-2958
- Number of pages
- 24
- Grant note
- This research was supported by a grant from the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Louisville. The author would like to thank Mark Filbert for serving as one of the experimenters, and Lesa McNeill for helping with the experimental materials. Special thanks are due to Robert Spencer, Principal of Field Elementary School, and Linda Duvall, Director of the Klondike Lane Kinder-Care Learning Center, for allowing the study to be conducted in their schools. Thanks are also due to the teachers, staff, and students at Field Elementary School and Kinder-Care Learning Center
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 09/1987
- Academic Unit
- President; Communication Studies
- Record Identifier
- 9984105917402771
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