Benjamin Johnson, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Advertising assistant professor, is the co-author of “Self-Control and Need Satisfaction in Primetime: Television, Social Media and Friends Can Enhance Regulatory Resources Via Perceived Autonomy and Competence” published in Psychology of Popular Media on April 6.

Johnson, and co-authors Allison Eden, Leonard Reinecke, Tilo Hartmann, studied the complicated relationship between self-control and media usage to see how entertainment and other leisure activities are connected to self-control processes, and how media can or cannot be used to manage responses to daily stress and exhaustion to replenish a strained and depleted self.

They found that participants with stronger self-control generally experienced stronger perceived need satisfaction via all leisure activities.

According to the authors, “Even the behaviors that did not satisfy all basic psychological needs were still able to satisfy some needs for participants, and thus illustrate functional need satisfaction in daily life. In contrast, people suffering from low levels of self-control were less prone to experience their leisure time activities, including media use, as intrinsically rewarding, thus potentially revealing a reinforcing, dysfunctional pattern of leisure time pursuit.”

They added, “These findings leave us with open questions for future research. Among media users in the primetime hours, why does autonomy play a greater role in revitalizing self-control, whereas competence and relatedness do not? Under what conditions do TV and social media, as well as other media such as video games, produce revitalization through different needs? And, when are mediated activities preferred over non-mediated activities?”

Posted: April 16, 2020
Category: College News
Tagged as: Benjamin Johnson