Watching Your Troubles Away: Television Viewing as a Stimulus for Subjective Self-Awareness
Abstract
Three studies explored the role of television viewing in eliciting subjective self-awareness and positive self-feelings. Study 1 assessed the effects of self-awareness manipulations via exposure to a neutral television program on actual-ideal discrepancies. Those who watched television showed significantly smaller self-discrepancies than those who did not, independent of mood. Study 2 demonstrated the ecological validity of this finding by replicating it with people watching television in their own homes. Study 3 investigated whether manipulations of self-feelings affected television watching. Results indicated that those who received failure feedback watched television longer than those in a control condition who likewise watched television longer than those who received success feedback. Television appears to be an effective stimulus to direct the focus away from oneself and to render people less aware of how they are falling short of their standards.
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Behavioral manifestations of self-awareness include avoidance, self-harm, increased emotional intensity, and self-regulation.
“Some of the behavioral manifestations found in previous research are avoidance (Moskalenko and Heine 2003), self-harm (Baumeister 1990; Morin and Craig 2000), increased emotional intensity (Silvia 2002), and -particularly pertinent to our research -self-regulation (Bandura 1978; Carver and Scheier 2004; Kanfer 1977).”
From Paradoxical effects of self-awareness of being observed: testing the effect of police body-worn cameras on assaults and aggression against officers (2018) · cites this paper as Moskalenko and Heine 2003
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References 42 · Cited by 98
- Authors
- Moskalenko, S., & Heine, S. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Venue
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2003-01
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 76-85
- ISSN
- 0146-1672 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7433
- OpenAlex
- W2036750069
- Cited by
- 98
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 53.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5r01mh060155-04)
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH060155-01A2)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Media Influence and Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Mind wandering and attention
- Keywords
- television viewing, self-discrepancy, self-feeling, failure feedback, success feedback, self-monitoring, mood, ecological validity
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Affect, Awareness, Female, Humans, Surveys and Questionnaires, Self Concept, Television, Visual Perception
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