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Personality and Individual Media Dependency Goals
Bryant M. Paul, Assistant Professor
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Jae Woong Shim, Doctoral Student
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Zheng Wang, Doctoral Student
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Department of Telecommunications
Indiana University
1229 East seventh St.
Bloomington, IN 47405-5501
(812) 856-2575
March 31, 2004
Paper submitted to the Communication Theory and Methodology Division of the
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.
Personality and Individual Media Dependency Goals
AB
Ts h rpt PEN model, a. ee s u sft"-g
INTRODUCTION
Many researchers have pointed out the necessity of personality study in
communication research to understand the nature of people's media use . For
example, addressing the importance of personality traits in relation to the
uses and gratifications people associate with media consumption,
Rosengren argues that audience personality characteristics have a
pervasive impact throughout the various stages of media selection, use, and
consequence, and that the need to incorporate such individual difference
factors in media research seems "almost self-evident" (p. 273). Criticizing
that the majority of media research has primarily posited that the media
shape behavior and interest, Zuckerman and Litle point out the importance
of recognizing that it is also true that "people select from media
according to their personalities and needs" (p. 55). Further,
Weaver specifically suggests that personality traits are key elements for
the study of media use. It should be noted however, that considering the
apparent importance of personality characteristics in the media use
process, few researchers have explored this relationship in depth .
There are two important, general assumptions underlying the work of most
scholars who attempt to explain and predict the behavior of individuals
based on personality characteristics. The first is that individuals hold
relatively stable and consistent personality types. The other is that these
personality types can be identified by quantitative measure . Based
largely on these two assumptions, a modest amount of research has been
undertaken to examine whether individual media use varies in relation to
personality type .
Researchers have tried to investigate the relationships between personality
traits and media use. Weaver et al. explored the links between personality
and television remote control device (RCD) use. They found that Eysenck's
personality traits were important mediators of the uses and gratifications
expected from the television remote control device. Other studies more
clearly examine the relationship between personality traits and media use .
One study showed that personality traits are associated with different
television viewing motives . For example, neuroticism is strongly related
with such motives as passing time, companionship, relaxation, and
stimulation. Other research shows that personality traits can be applied
to other types of media use. For example, Zuckerman and Litle found that
both sensation seeking and psychoticism correlated positively with watching
atypical media events, such as morbid and sexual events, as well as
attendance of films featuring such events. Persegani et al. showed that
children's TV-related preferences were related to their different
personality traits measured by Costa and McCrae's (1992) five personality
types.
Interestingly, higher levels of extraversion, operationalized as greater
levels of social interest and general positive affect, do not tend to be
correlated with mass media use . Weaver (2003) found that "those in the
extravert group are those who most strongly rejected the notion that
television can serve as an adequate substitute for interpersonal
interactions" (p. 1434). Considering that the media in general is the most
dominant source of information or entertainment, we should ask why such a
personality type does not correlate with media use.
One possible answer will be that every personality trait is basically
related to media use, but that each individual trait is related to
different media consumption goals (or motivations). In other words, for
example, those who are high in extraversion will definitely more actively
use the media with different goals from those who are high in neuroticism
or psychoticism.
The present study explores the under-examined relationship between
personality traits and individual media dependency goals.
PERSONALITY
Generally scholars define personality traits as a more or less stable and
enduring organization of a person's character, temperament, intellect, and
physique. These characteristics play a major role in determining a
person's unique ability to adjust to the environment . As can be expected,
personality study focuses largely on categorizing personality types and
their related traits.
An example of a personality model is Eysenck's widely used, biologically
based, PEN model. This model holds that personality is comprised of three
dimensions: psychoticism (relating to likelihood to experience a cognitive
break with reality and aggression), extroversion (relating to level of
social interest and positive affect), and neuroticism (relating to
emotional stability, especially when faced with stressors in the
environment). All individuals fall somewhere (ranging from high to low) on
each of these three factors. Eysenck et al. (1985) claim that traits are
"intervening variables or mediating variables that are useful in explaining
individual differences in behavior to the extent that they are incorporated
into an appropriate theoretical framework" (p. 33).
Within the PEN model Extraversion (E) is comprised of nine sub-elements,
including s .T r.Ne( n,n,n,n,d .ap at.Tan individuals' tendencies toward
egocentricity, sensation-seeking, socially unacceptable behavior, and
autonomy .
Eysenck et al. (1985) claim that "the personality dimensions of
extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism all have predictive and
explanatory power across a heterogeneous collection of real-life
situations" (p. 342). Because the personality types are closely related to
emotional and motivational factors (p. 343), it is also reasonable to
assume that the goals individuals seek to fulfill through media consumption
will serve an intervening role in the relationship between personality
traits and media content preferences.
IN(
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IMD provides a comprehensive conceptualization of these motivational goals
in a typology of the three exhaustive, but not mutually exclusive,
categories of understanding, orientation, and play. Each of these three
categories is divided into a self versus social focus (see Table 1).
Understanding refers to gaining knowledge from using media resources. It
consists of two levels: self vs. social understanding. Those who have
self-understanding as a goal tend to use the information resources to
increase personal knowledge such as learning about themselves (e.g.,
beliefs, behavior, and personalities) and growing as a person. Those who
have social-understanding as a goal want to increase social knowledge, such
as knowing about and interpreting the world or community.
Orientation refers to obtaining behavioral guidance from using media
resources. It also has two levels: action vs. interaction orientation.
Those who have an action orientation want to know specific behaviors such
as eating, dressing, voting, and making a decision. Those who have an
interaction orientation want to know ways in which to act or interact with
others in such cases as personal relationships (lovers, siblings, or
parents) or professional positions (an employer or clergy) .
Play as a motivation refers to obtaining entertainment from information
resources. Play has two dimensions: solitary vs. social play. Those who
have solitary play as a goal use the media alone for stimulation or
relaxation, while social play involves the media-focused recreation one
participates in with others . Those who have social play as a goal use the
media as part of a shared play experience where the presence of others is
necessary for the attainment of goals, for example, establishing and
maintaining relationships .
These types and intensity of dependency may differ by medium (i.e.,
television vs. newspaper), media genre (i.e., game shows, news, drama), and
particular program within genres (i.e., Wheel of Fortune vs. Jeopardy).
Empirical support for dependency theory has been limited but fairly
consistent . Grant et al. found that viewer relationships with television
in general, home shopping shows, and the genre personae (show host) are
associated with viewing behavior and are highly predictive of purchasing
behavior. Additional research into IMD has demonstrated that certain media
effects, such as parasocial interaction , can be enhanced when IMD is
particularly intense.
To date, no research has explored the relationships between individual's
personality traits and individual media dependency. Whereas IMD postulates
that individual's goals are related to active media use, research on
personality seems to suggest that these goals will be different based on
differences in individuals' character traits.
P
Extroversion and the IMD
Extraversion refers to the outgoing, cheeriness, and sociable dimension of
personality . Those high in extraversion are those who have high needs for
social contact, attention, and fun. High extraverts prefer the outer world
of action, objects, and people, and are energized by being with others. In
contrast, individuals low in extraversion (i.e., high in introversion)
prefer the inner world of concepts and ideas, and are more energized by
being alone . Thus it can be assumed that extraverts may show greater
attention to and deeper processing of pleasant external stimuli than will
introverts.
Ryff explores the correlations between extraversion traits and six
psychological well-being items[1], where extraverts showed significant
positive correlations over all items. This implies that individuals high in
extraversion positively appraise themselves and their past life, think of
themselves as able to manage effectively their lives and environment,
believe that their lives are purposeful and meaningful, they have a sense
of continued growth and development as an individual, and have a sense of
self-determination.
According to McCrosky et al. , extraverts are not shy or apprehensive about
touch, tend to perceive themselves as more competent, view themselves as
assertive and responsible, and express greater degrees of self-acceptance.
With this in mind, Argyle and Lu found that extroverts would prefer
non-mediated social activities to mediated communication if they could
choose one of them. However, results of other studies seem to indicate a
different relationship between media use and level of extraversion. For
example, Nias found that extroversion was associated with social
entertainments such as talking to friends and drinking, as well as the
liking for films genres such as adventure, romantic, and crime. Recently,
Finn (1997) found that individuals high in extraversion preferred
non-mediated activities (e.g. parties) to media use. However, those who are
in low extraversion enjoyed reading and movies more, and showed a greater
tendency to depend on television and radio in general.
With regard to IMD, it seems reasonable to predict that those who are
extraverts will seek the media-focused recreation one participates in with
others (social play), rather than seek the media alone for stimulation or
relaxation (solitary play). Extraverts will prefer television when it
creates an opportunity for fun and interaction with family and friends, or
allows them, without having to be there, to be part of events that they enjoy.
Hypothesis 1
Individuals with higher levels of extraversion will use television to
address "social" aspects of IMD goals such as social understanding,
interaction orientation, and social play than will those with lower levels
of extraversion.
Neuroticism and IMD
Individuals who exhibit high levels of neuroticism are characterized as
being anxious, moody, worried, and unable to sleep, which alone or in
combination generates higher levels of negative affect . Those who are high
in neuroticism are characterized as low in self-confidence, as well as in
personal and social adjustment . According to Ryff , neuroticism is
negatively correlated with psychological well-being measured by six items:
self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental
mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. As a result, neurotics can
be conceptualized as persons who are strongly susceptible to the influence
of others and perceive themselves as controlled by forces outside of their
own influence. Several researchers point out depressed individuals are
cognitively inclined to process negative information better (Beck, ) and
pay grater attention to negative-content stimuli (Gotlib & McCabe, ; Rogers
& Revelle, ).
However it is still debatable whether neuroticism is related to media use.
Canary and Spitzberg argue that chronically lonely individuals have an
aversion to media as an escape. Finn (1997) found that individuals high in
neuroticism depend heavily on non-mediated communication (e.g.,
conversation), rather than media use. Weaver et al. (1996) found that
neurotics make special efforts to avoid television content that might
simulate their anxious, emotional tendencies. The latter two studies argue
that neurotics are not willing to use media that they fear may upset them.
Other studies assert that neuroticism can predict a propensity to favor
certain media. According to Singer , neuroticism seems to generate the
necessary motivations for using mass media as a form of escape or
distraction. Zillmann and Bryant showed that those who are high in bad
mood prefer entertainment programming to news programming to balance their
mood.
Weaver et al. (1993) expect that neurotics will prefer media content that
helps them manage their anxieties. It is because neurotics need behavioral
guide from television to balance their negative mood. Thus, it is expected
that neurotics will select television genres for action orientation. For
instance, they will try to get information helpful for figuring out what to
buy and for planning where to go for weekend activities
Weaver (2003) found that neuroticism was correlated to such television
viewing motives as pass time, companionship, and relaxation. Companionship
includes such items as "I won't be alone" and "It makes me feel less
lonely"; the relaxation includes, for example, "I can forget about my
worries and responsibilities." The two factors are similar to solitary play
goal of IMD. Based on these ideas we predict the following
Hypothesis 2
Individuals with higher levels of neuroticism will use television to
address "personal" aspects of IMD goals such as self understanding, action
orientation, and solitary play than will those with lower levels of
neuroticism.
P
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Hypothesis 3
Individuals with higher levels of neuroticism will use television to
address "personal" "personal" aspects of IMD goals such as solitary play
and self understanding than will lower level of psychoticism.
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Overview
Participants were recruited from introductory-level communication courses
at a large university in the Midwestern United States. They received
research credit for participation. A total of 410 students initially
volunteered for participation in the study.
Participants were asked to log on to a website in order to complete the
questionnaire. Online data gathering is becoming popular even in
experimental studies . It also has advantages in experimental power, low
cost, and convenience of testing . Some criticize online data collection
for higher rates of drop out and of repeated participation . This problem
was dealt with by assigning an identification number and a password to each
participant.
We gathered the data for a month from February to March of 2004. A total of
381 students participated in the survey. But 25 students who answered less
than half of the questions and 6 students who answered twice were dropped
from the analysis. As a result, the total number of participants was 350.
The number of male and female participants were similar, with slightly more
females than males (159 male and 179 female). The average age of
participants was 20 years old.
Measurement
Personality Traits
The personality types, extroversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism were
assessed using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire . Participants
received the short-form version of the inventory (EPQ-R), which involved 36
questions (12 items for each personality type). They were required to
respond to each question by clicking one of two boxes marked "Yes" or "No"
next to the item. The maximum score of each personality type was 12. We
computed each participant's personality score summing their answers to the
three groups of 12 questions. Nine of the 36 questions were reverse
coded. The average scores for each personality were: E (M = 9.45, SD =
2.77), N (M = 6.40, SD = 2.98), and P (M = 3.28, SD = 1.71).
Individual Media Dependency
IMD was measured by the scale developed by Grant. (1996)[2]. The scale has
eighteen items. Each of the six IMD goals were represented with three
separate items. Participants rated the eighteen items with a five-point
scale depending on each participant's self report on how helpful the
television medium is for attaining their goals (see appendix A). To create
the six IMD goal variables, we averaged the three items addressing each of
the six goal types. Reliability coefficients for each of the six variables
reached acceptable levels. (the lowest case was action orientation,
Cronbach's a = .74).
R
Tas (2)
The level of neuroticism revealed a positive zero-order correlation with
the goal of self understanding (r=.13, p<. 05). This offers some support
for hypothesis 2, which predicted that higher levels of neuroticism would
be related to "personal" aspects of IMD goals such as self understanding,
action orientation, and solitary play.
Psw ehs w o ili w .
Iht,t)wu( Mw s wiu p as i ls d i r=p<r=p<r=p< . es i s r=p< .
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Ils aa m hun t Mi s e Discover better ways to communicate with others)
than those with lower levels. Males with lower levels of psychoticism were
more likely to use television with the goals of self understanding and both
types of play goals. (solitary and social). Interestingly, the level of
extraversion and neuroticism of women did not show any significant
correlations with IMD goals. Although psychoticism in females, as was the
case for males, showed a significant negative correlation with likelihood
for using television for goals related to social understanding.
CONCLUSION
This research showed that, to varying degrees, certain personality traits
are related to the goals individuals seek to fulfill with television
use. Future research on television exposure and content choice would do
well to at least consider the role of both individual personality traits in
tandem with individual media dependency goals. Certainly the role of
gender in the individual media dependency process warrants further
consideration. This study should be replicated with an eye towards
examining the underlying cause(s) for the gender differences we
discovered. Further, a more representative sample should be utilized in
any such further research. Participants should be sampled from non-college
populations.
References
<Table 1> Patterns of motivational goals
Goals dimensions
Social-focused
Self-focused
Understanding
Social understanding
Self-understanding
Orientation
Interaction orientation
Action orientation
Play
Social play
Solitary play
<
E
N
P
1
2
3
4
5
6
Extraversion
-
-.24**
-.03
.05
.07
.05
.02
.06
.08
Neuroticism
-
-.01
.13*
.02
.07
.09
.04
-.01
Psychoticism
-
-.05
-.21**
.02
.04
-.17**
-.15**
Self Understanding (1)
-
.24**
.34**
.59**
.19**
.33**
Social Understanding (2)
-
.29**
.01
.20**
.23**
Action Orientation (3)
-
.49**
.16**
.29**
Interaction Orientation (4)
-
.19**
.42**
Solitary Play (5)
-
.60**
Social Play (6)
-
** p< .01; * p< .05
<
Self Understanding
Social Understanding
Action Orientation
Interaction
Orientation
Solitary Play
Social Play
Male
E
.12
.17*
.11
.03
.16*
.13
N
.19*
-.09
.05
.24**
.01
.04
P
-.07
-.18*
.04
.02
-.22**
-.26**
Female
E
-.01
-.02
-.02
.03
-.07
.04
N
.05
.04
.08
-.03
.04
-.06
P
-.01
-.22**
.04
.06
-.08
-.03
** p< .01; * p< .05
<Appendix A> Individual Media Dependency Questions
The next 18 items ask you to evaluate how helpful you think television is
in your life. Using a scale where "1" refers to "not at all helpful" and
"5" refers to "very helpful" please check the number which represents how
helpful you think television is in your life in doing the following things.
Items
Not at all Very
Helpful Helpful
Gain insight into why you do some of the things you do
1 2 3 4 5
Imagine what you'll be like when you grow older
1 2 3 4 5
Observe how others cope with problems or situations like yours
1 2 3 4 5
Stay on top of what is happening in the community
1 2 3 4 5
Find out how the country is doing
1 2 3 4 5
Keep up with world events
1 2 3 4 5
Decide where to go for services such as health, financial, or household
1 2 3 4 5
Figure out what to buy
1 2 3 4 5
Plan where to go for evening and weekend activities
1 2 3 4 5
Discover better ways to communicate with others
1 2 3 4 5
Think about how to act with friends, relatives, or people you work with
1 2 3 4 5
Get ideas about how to approach others in important or difficult situations
1 2 3 4 5
Unwind after a hard day or week
1 2 3 4 5
Relax when you are by yourself
1 2 3 4 5
Have something to do when nobody else is around
1 2 3 4 5
Give you something to do with your friends
1 2 3 4 5
Have fun with family or friends
1 2 3 4 5
Be a part of events you enjoy without having to actually be there
1 2 3 4 5
Source: from Grant
[1] ,
[2] IMD scale was originally developed by Ball-Rokeach et al. (1984) and
later Grant et al. (1991) refined the scale. Here, we used more recently
developed version by Grant (1996).
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