Adolescent Development – Lectures 9, 10, 11 & 12
Lecture 9
Media Use – Helen Vossen
Adolescent media use and effects
Media entertainment -> used for pleasure, relaxation, entertainment
It is important to understand the role of media in someone’s life, because it is integrated in our lives
and it is important to know what it does and its effects
Moderate Discrepancy Hypothesis (MDH)
- Children and adolescents are predominantly attracted to entertainment that deviates only
moderately from the things they know, understand, and are capable of
- Children and adolescents are not or less interested in entertainment that deviates too much
from their existing framework and experiences
- -> thus, children and adolescents like to be challenged, however just a bit and not too much
(there need to be elements that they recognize and already have knowledge of)
- Hypothesis is a viable explanation of why media preferences differ so much among different
age groups (-> so, age and the developmental stage are very determinant for the media
preference)
Uses and gratification theory
- Needs -> Gratifications sought -> Use of media -> Needs satisfied
- It is a communications theory
- Everyone has certain needs and everyone selects media that can gratify these needs
o Needs can be depending on different situational and individual factors (personality),
including developmental stage
Five main developmental characteristics that inform needs and gratifications
- Identity exploration
- Autonomy and self-efficacy
- Peer orientation, social/romantic relationships
- Emotionality and sensation seeking
Physical development
- Physical changes, changes in appearance
- Interest in sex (not necessarily engaging in sex)
- Hormones
- Impact on mood, regulation of moods
Link to media?
- Adolescents get insecure and have a lot of question -> media (internet) gives information
- Gratifies the need of information on these topics
Physical development -> next stage of cognitive development
, - Pruning: decline of grey matter in the brain -> more efficient processing (brain is more
efficient), if you don’t use is -> loose it
- Information processes more efficient -> influence on cognitive development
Cognitive development
- Formal operational thinking: logical, abstract, hypothetical, problem-solving, interest in
future
- Only completely in place at the end of adolescence , during adolescence it gradually emerges
- Adolescents will switch between concrete and formal operational thinking
Formal operational thinking
- Advantages
o Abstract thinking
o Scientific thinking
o Future thinking
o Metacognition (thinking about thinking)
- Disadvantages
o Nothing goes without saying
o Question everything, thinking goes in overdrive
o Critical, because you have the skills and use them
o Adolescent egocentrism imaginary audience, they are always thinking about what
other people think
Media implications
- More complexity in story lines -> more ability to process multiple things
- More complex characters -> not one universal personality
- Topics that deal with big world issues
- -> war movies, science fiction, hypothetical worlds
Media implications
- Gaming can start in middle childhood, but in adolescence the amount of games increase and
the type of games changes
- Fast-past media which stimulates problem-solving skills
- Moderate Discrepancy Hypothesis -> when completing a level, the next level becomes more
difficult and challenging
Cognitive development
- Changes in dopamine level + Increased cognitive capacities = boredom
o Dopamine : neurotransmitter, related to feelings of pleasure, happiness, joy and
related to reward system
o In adolescence there is a lower dopamine level, but when doing something exciting it
is extra rewarding
o Increased cognitive capacities : wanting more challenge
o Boredom : bored more easily
- Desire for adventure and excitement
- How can media play into this? And provide the need for excitement?
,Sensation seeking
- Sensation seeking is the tendency to seek out novel, varied, and highly stimulating
experiences, and the willingness to take risks to attain them
- Focus on immediate rewards
- Peaks during adolescence and then decreases
Link to media
- Need for excitement and risk taking, gambling for example
- Imagining the perspectives of others on “overdrive”
- What do others think of me?
Socio-emotional development
- Autonomy: Become autonomous and independent from their parents
- Identity: Become their own person and form own identity
- Intimacy: Form intimate relationships with friends and romantic partners
How is this achieved?
- Communication skills
o Self-presentation: learning how to present yourself also related to the situation you
are in and the audience you have
o Self-disclosure: what kind of personal information do you share, depends on the
person and on the relationship you want to build
- These two skills are learned through social contact and through getting feedback (how do
others respond)
- Social media is built for social interaction and plays a very instrumental role in acquiring these
communication skills
Affordances of social media
- Affordances means what it can do for you
- Affordance The possibility for users to….
o Asynchronicity communicate when it suits them, in real time or delayed
o Identifiability decide to which degree content is anonymous or linked to
true identity
o Cue manageability show or hide visual or auditory cues about the self while
communicating
o Accessibility easily find information and contact other persons
o Scalability choose the size and the nature of their audience
o Replicability copy or share existing online content
o Retrievability store and later retrieve posted content
- How to respond and when to respond, more time to think about what to say
- -> More sense of control over our communication
Autonomy
- Social media provide control over communication
- Media allow individuals to be producers of content
- Media provide information about how to solve problems -> Gratify your need for information
, Identity
- Self-concept (stable sense of self) and self-esteem (feeling good about yourself)
o Exploration
o Developing self-esteem, fluctuations
o Gender identity (gender becomes less rigid and more fluid)
- Need for identity-relevant information
- Need for role models
- Need for identity experiments
Identity exploration
- Media provide relevant identity information
- Media provide role models
- Identity experiments (which aspects of myself will I present more or less prominently)
Intimacy
- Relationships (social relationships)
o Cliques and groups, best friends (more close, more drama)
- Strong need to fit in & validation (social antenna)
- “puppy love”
o Practicing for later sexual relationships
o Fear of rejection
- Need for intimacy
- Subcultures and para-social relationships with idols (feeling like you actually know or have a
bond with a ‘famous’ person)
- Learning about social relationships -> series/tv shows can be informational
Social media effects
- Initial assumption: social media offer poor communication compared to face to face
communication
- However, emotions can be communicated through emoticons
Hyperpersonal theory of communication (Walther, 1996)
- Poses:
- -> CMC (online communication) is friendlier, more social, more personal and more intimate
that FTF communication
- -> this is because of the reduces cues in CMC, not all information shown
- Walther: “it surpasses normal interpersonal levels”
Hyperpersonal theory of communication
- Senders: optimal self-presentation, because you can think about how you present yourself
- Channel: facilities optimal self-presentation, the channel through which you can present
yourself
- Receivers: over evaluation of cues, does not have all information about you but has to fill in
gaps in a positive way
- Feedback: positive feedback circle -> ultimately results in more intimacy and affection
Evidence for hyperpersonal communication theory – experiment
Lecture 9
Media Use – Helen Vossen
Adolescent media use and effects
Media entertainment -> used for pleasure, relaxation, entertainment
It is important to understand the role of media in someone’s life, because it is integrated in our lives
and it is important to know what it does and its effects
Moderate Discrepancy Hypothesis (MDH)
- Children and adolescents are predominantly attracted to entertainment that deviates only
moderately from the things they know, understand, and are capable of
- Children and adolescents are not or less interested in entertainment that deviates too much
from their existing framework and experiences
- -> thus, children and adolescents like to be challenged, however just a bit and not too much
(there need to be elements that they recognize and already have knowledge of)
- Hypothesis is a viable explanation of why media preferences differ so much among different
age groups (-> so, age and the developmental stage are very determinant for the media
preference)
Uses and gratification theory
- Needs -> Gratifications sought -> Use of media -> Needs satisfied
- It is a communications theory
- Everyone has certain needs and everyone selects media that can gratify these needs
o Needs can be depending on different situational and individual factors (personality),
including developmental stage
Five main developmental characteristics that inform needs and gratifications
- Identity exploration
- Autonomy and self-efficacy
- Peer orientation, social/romantic relationships
- Emotionality and sensation seeking
Physical development
- Physical changes, changes in appearance
- Interest in sex (not necessarily engaging in sex)
- Hormones
- Impact on mood, regulation of moods
Link to media?
- Adolescents get insecure and have a lot of question -> media (internet) gives information
- Gratifies the need of information on these topics
Physical development -> next stage of cognitive development
, - Pruning: decline of grey matter in the brain -> more efficient processing (brain is more
efficient), if you don’t use is -> loose it
- Information processes more efficient -> influence on cognitive development
Cognitive development
- Formal operational thinking: logical, abstract, hypothetical, problem-solving, interest in
future
- Only completely in place at the end of adolescence , during adolescence it gradually emerges
- Adolescents will switch between concrete and formal operational thinking
Formal operational thinking
- Advantages
o Abstract thinking
o Scientific thinking
o Future thinking
o Metacognition (thinking about thinking)
- Disadvantages
o Nothing goes without saying
o Question everything, thinking goes in overdrive
o Critical, because you have the skills and use them
o Adolescent egocentrism imaginary audience, they are always thinking about what
other people think
Media implications
- More complexity in story lines -> more ability to process multiple things
- More complex characters -> not one universal personality
- Topics that deal with big world issues
- -> war movies, science fiction, hypothetical worlds
Media implications
- Gaming can start in middle childhood, but in adolescence the amount of games increase and
the type of games changes
- Fast-past media which stimulates problem-solving skills
- Moderate Discrepancy Hypothesis -> when completing a level, the next level becomes more
difficult and challenging
Cognitive development
- Changes in dopamine level + Increased cognitive capacities = boredom
o Dopamine : neurotransmitter, related to feelings of pleasure, happiness, joy and
related to reward system
o In adolescence there is a lower dopamine level, but when doing something exciting it
is extra rewarding
o Increased cognitive capacities : wanting more challenge
o Boredom : bored more easily
- Desire for adventure and excitement
- How can media play into this? And provide the need for excitement?
,Sensation seeking
- Sensation seeking is the tendency to seek out novel, varied, and highly stimulating
experiences, and the willingness to take risks to attain them
- Focus on immediate rewards
- Peaks during adolescence and then decreases
Link to media
- Need for excitement and risk taking, gambling for example
- Imagining the perspectives of others on “overdrive”
- What do others think of me?
Socio-emotional development
- Autonomy: Become autonomous and independent from their parents
- Identity: Become their own person and form own identity
- Intimacy: Form intimate relationships with friends and romantic partners
How is this achieved?
- Communication skills
o Self-presentation: learning how to present yourself also related to the situation you
are in and the audience you have
o Self-disclosure: what kind of personal information do you share, depends on the
person and on the relationship you want to build
- These two skills are learned through social contact and through getting feedback (how do
others respond)
- Social media is built for social interaction and plays a very instrumental role in acquiring these
communication skills
Affordances of social media
- Affordances means what it can do for you
- Affordance The possibility for users to….
o Asynchronicity communicate when it suits them, in real time or delayed
o Identifiability decide to which degree content is anonymous or linked to
true identity
o Cue manageability show or hide visual or auditory cues about the self while
communicating
o Accessibility easily find information and contact other persons
o Scalability choose the size and the nature of their audience
o Replicability copy or share existing online content
o Retrievability store and later retrieve posted content
- How to respond and when to respond, more time to think about what to say
- -> More sense of control over our communication
Autonomy
- Social media provide control over communication
- Media allow individuals to be producers of content
- Media provide information about how to solve problems -> Gratify your need for information
, Identity
- Self-concept (stable sense of self) and self-esteem (feeling good about yourself)
o Exploration
o Developing self-esteem, fluctuations
o Gender identity (gender becomes less rigid and more fluid)
- Need for identity-relevant information
- Need for role models
- Need for identity experiments
Identity exploration
- Media provide relevant identity information
- Media provide role models
- Identity experiments (which aspects of myself will I present more or less prominently)
Intimacy
- Relationships (social relationships)
o Cliques and groups, best friends (more close, more drama)
- Strong need to fit in & validation (social antenna)
- “puppy love”
o Practicing for later sexual relationships
o Fear of rejection
- Need for intimacy
- Subcultures and para-social relationships with idols (feeling like you actually know or have a
bond with a ‘famous’ person)
- Learning about social relationships -> series/tv shows can be informational
Social media effects
- Initial assumption: social media offer poor communication compared to face to face
communication
- However, emotions can be communicated through emoticons
Hyperpersonal theory of communication (Walther, 1996)
- Poses:
- -> CMC (online communication) is friendlier, more social, more personal and more intimate
that FTF communication
- -> this is because of the reduces cues in CMC, not all information shown
- Walther: “it surpasses normal interpersonal levels”
Hyperpersonal theory of communication
- Senders: optimal self-presentation, because you can think about how you present yourself
- Channel: facilities optimal self-presentation, the channel through which you can present
yourself
- Receivers: over evaluation of cues, does not have all information about you but has to fill in
gaps in a positive way
- Feedback: positive feedback circle -> ultimately results in more intimacy and affection
Evidence for hyperpersonal communication theory – experiment
