What JMC150 Students Should Know about Psychology* Ronald Harvey, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Ronald Harvey, PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychology

rharvey@aubg.edu * according to one psychology professor

What JMC150 Students Should Know about Psychology*

Introduction

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 Media is storytelling – and storytelling has been going on for thousands of years  Journalism is chronicling people’s stories

Introduction

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 Therefore, any insights on how people think, feel, and behave can help you to:  Know what to ask  How to evaluate information from sources  Choose what to write about

Caveats

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 I am not a journalist, but in my ethnology work, I try to think like a journalist  Psychology is ONE critical lens to see interviewees  Take psychology classes! Read psychology books!

Recommended reading…

What is Psychology?

“…the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.” (Myers, 2014)

What consists of your Psychology?

Thoughts

Feelings

Behaviors

Four Principles of Interviewing

• 1. Prepare carefully, familiarizing yourself

with the source

• 2. Establish a relationship the source

conductive to obtaining information

• 3. Ask questions that are relevant to the

source and induce the source to talk

• 4. Listen and watch attentively

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/isaacs/edit/MencherIntv1.html

Things You Should Know*

* according to one psychology professor

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• 1. Journalists should know about the psychology
• f TRUST
• 2. Journalists should know basic social psychology

about BIAS

• 3. Journalists should know about PERSONALITY:

a) what it is, and b) how to recognize personality traits

• 4. Body language

Four Principles of Interviewing

• 1. Prepare carefully, familiarizing yourself

with the source

• 2. Establish a relationship the source

conductive to obtaining information

Know the psychology of

TRUST

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/isaacs/edit/MencherIntv1.html

The Psychology of Trust

Trust is believing that a person will do what is expected These beliefs stem from three qualities:

• Ability
• Benevolence

(kindness)

• Integrity

It is a fragile dynamic of interaction between parties!

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Trustworthiness

results when the behavior of the interviewer aligns with the expectancies

• f the interviewee

You MUST work both

sides of the equation!

RESEARCH on your

subject to will flatter, influence, and shape their trust of you

Similarities is a

dependable predictor of trust Similarities might be:

gender, ethnicity, age, neighborhood,

• r to our attitudes,

beliefs, and values

Why? When others

agree with us, it affirms us: we all like to be “right.”

The Psychology of Interpersonal Trust

Mutual sharing and the breaking down of personal defenses will build trust, which is a requisite of friendship We feel attracted to the people to whom we have self- disclosed Reciprocity is important early on

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Trust Emerges from three qualities:

• Ability: we have the skills to conduct the

interview

• Benevolence: we mean the interviewee

no harm; will treat them with kindness

• Integrity: we do what we say we are going

to do before, during, and after the interview

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What are Some Specific Behaviors that can Foster Trust?

Human beings are…

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…meaning-making machines! HOWEVER: They are not necessarily accurate meaning-making machines!

Four Principles of Interviewing

1. Prepare carefully, familiarizing yourself with the source - TRUST 2. Establish a relationship the source conductive to obtaining information - TRUST

• 3. Ask questions that are relevant to the

source and induce the source to talk

BIAS and PERSONALITY

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/isaacs/edit/MencherIntv1.html

We are all amateur psychologists!

• “The human brain is an engine of belief”
• Michael Shermer, neuroscientist
• Our minds continually consume, produce,

and attempt to make sense about

• urselves and others
• We all construct our social reality – mostly

to serve our own needs!

A Very Quick Example:

• Self-serving bias:

–“I got an ‘A’ in JMC 150!” –“Professor Kelly gave me a ‘C-’ in JMC 150.”

Social Psychology

Sample social psychology question: Why might students speak up in class, or hesitate to speak? To answer this, we can study emotions, cognitions, motivations, reinforcers, and more:

• Personality Psychologists could study

the traits that might make one person more likely than another to speak, and

• Social Psychologists might examine

aspects of the classroom situation that would influence any student’s decision about speaking.

Social Thinking

Attribution: Identifying causes

Attribution Theory: We explain

• thers’ behavior with two types of

attributions:

• Situational Attribution (factors
• utside the person doing the

action, such as peer pressure), or

• Dispositional Attribution (the

person’s stable, enduring traits, personality, ability, emotions) Attribution: a conclusion about the cause of an

• bserved behavior/event.

Most people tend to make the Fundamental Attribution Error

Fundamental Attribution Error

See if you can find the error: Sheila failed her final exam. Rita noticed Shelia is gone most weekends and automatically assumes Sheila is partying and not serious about her studies. Hint: Next day… Rita: “You had better get serious about your studies!” Shelia: “I had to go home every

• weekend. My mom is very sick. I

had to take care of her.” Rita: ”…I’m so sorry!”

Social Thinking:

The Fundamental Attribution Error: When we go too far in assuming that a person’s behavior is caused by their individual traits. We think a behavior demonstrates a trait. We tend to overemphasize __________ attribution and underemphasize __________ attribution.

Confirmation Bias

Definition: not bothering to seek out information that contradicts your ideas Elections: prior to Clinton/Trump election, many commentators actively ignored enthusiastic Trump rallies Benefits and downsides: enables quick solutions, but misses finding out when first guesses are wrong There must be a cause: bigotry, stupidity, prejudice, racism, sexism – which are easily “confirmed” again

Examples

Confirmation Bias: A Case Study

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Pesky details…

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 There were 2 attacks, not 3  A local bar was often noisy with screams and fighting  The 2 attacks were difficult to see from windows  At least 5 people called the police  In1964 NYPD were less likely to respond than in today’s 112 and 911 culture

The Result:

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 The case has become a parable or a warning – not a case study  It fit into the growing anxiety of de-personalization of “modern life”  The Genovese Case appears frequently

 Used by politicians as “apathy” to influence us into action  By existential nihilists into giving up

Four Principles of Interviewing

1. Prepare carefully, familiarizing yourself with the source - TRUST 2. Establish a relationship the source conductive to obtaining information - TRUST

• 3. Ask questions that are relevant to the

source and induce the source to talk BIAS and PERSONALITY

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/isaacs/edit/MencherIntv1.html

#4: Personality - An individual’s characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors persisting over time and across situations

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Sensitive, Reactive Naïve Agreeable, Open

Introverted

Neurotically irritable

Conscientious

Contentedly lethargic

Personality: An individual’s

characteristic – it is part of that person’s core identity patterns – personalities are remarkably consistent

• f thoughts, feelings, and behaviors – people tend to

think, feel, and behave consistently; it is remarkably difficult to change persisting over time and across situations - the best predictor of what people do today is what they did yesterday

Let’s deconstruct “personality”

The “Big Five” Personality Factors

• Personality includes a

person’s sense of self.

• “Self” as the core of

personality, the organizer and reservoir of our thoughts, feelings, actions, choices, attitudes.

• These include: self-talk, self-

esteem, self-awareness, self-monitoring, self-control.

• Conscientiousness:

self-discipline, careful pursuit of delayed goals

• Agreeableness:

helpful, trusting, friendliness

• Neuroticism: anxiety,

insecurity, emotional instability

• Openness: flexibility,

nonconformity, variety

• Extraversion:

Drawing energy from

• thers, sociability

The “Big Five”/ C.A.N.O.E. Personality Dimensions

Impulsive Trusting Anxious Conforming Fun-Loving

• To get at the person behind the personality,

good interviewers talk to the friends, associates, relatives of the subject.

• Samuel Johnson, the brilliant 18thcentury

English writer, advised writers that:

– “more knowledge may be gained of a man's real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.”

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What is behind the Personality?

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/isaacs/edit/MencherIntv1.html

Four Principles of Interviewing

1. Prepare carefully, familiarizing yourself with the source 2. Establish a relationship the source conductive to obtaining information 3. Ask questions that are relevant to the source and induce the source to talk

• 4. Listen and watch attentively

BODY LANGUAGE

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/isaacs/edit/MencherIntv1.html

Five Myths about Body Language

32 https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2012/07/24/busting-5-body-language-myths/#52b950b23922

1.93% of communication consists of body language

• Could you view a movie in a foreign language

and accurately guess 93 percent of the content by watching body language?

• Most body language reveals clues about liking

and disliking!

Five Myths about Body Language

33 https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2012/07/24/busting-5-body-language-myths/#52b950b23922

• 2. Liars don't make eye contact.
• Very culturally dependent!
• After speaking, some liars immediately look

down and away, then back at you again in a brief glimpse to see if you bought the falsehood.

Five Myths about Body Language

34 https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2012/07/24/busting-5-body-language-myths/#52b950b23922

• 3. Crossed arms always means resistance
• VERY context dependent!
• People are Meaning-making Machines!
• Since most people believe this myth, don't be

surprised when you are judged to be resistant

• r unapproachable when (for any reason) you

fold your arms across your chest

35 https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2012/07/24/busting-5-body-language-myths/#52b950b23922

4.Eye direction is correlated with lying.

• Popularized by Neurolinguistic Programming

(NLP, aka BS)

• better off "baselining" each individual
• HOWEVER: Pay attention to

meaningful changes in body positions

• These MAY indicate a shift in comfort,

trust, attention, boredom, etc.

Myths about body language

36 https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2012/07/24/busting-5-body-language-myths/#52b950b23922

• 5. Using body language to make a positive impression

is inauthentic.

• Very culturally dependent!
• In a thirty-minute business discussion, two people can

send over eight hundred different nonverbal signals.

• And it is no more (or less) inauthentic to prepare for

this second conversation than it is to prepare for the first.

• HOWEVER: Some deliberate non-verbal

communication is obvious and prone to backfire and invite mockery

Myths about body language

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Questions?

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The Third-person Effect

The belief that others are influenced by the media while they themselves are not. (Davison,

1983) 1) Almost everyone is affected by this – even YOU! 2) It affects behavior – what people choose to pay attention to 3) It serves to rationalize “blaming the media” for harmful thoughts and behavior 4) It serves as a rationale for restricting and policing the media 5) It feeds the idea of social disparity – that less educated people are most affected by media influence – when in fact, all education levels believe in the Third-person effect

Thank you for your attention! 

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