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Dissertation Information for Robert Kubey

NAME:
- Robert Kubey

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Human Development

SCHOOL:
- University of Chicago (USA) (1984)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected

Title: LEISURE, TELEVISION, AND SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE

Abstract: One hundred seven adult workers' subjective experiences were studied via the Experience Sampling Method (ESM). Respondents were supplied with radio controlled paging devices and signalled to report experiential states at random times over the course of a normal week. Radio signals were emitted according to a predetermined random schedule from a transmitting tower with a 50-mile effective transmission radius. On average, each volunteer was signalled eight times each day for a full week. In response to each signal, the respondents filled out a self-report form, reporting what time of day it was, where they were, what they were doing, what they were thinking about, who they were with, whether they wanted to be doing what they were doing, features of their cognitive state, and their mood and physical state on 13 semantic differential scales.

The research sought a more complete and balanced understanding of the immediate gratifications of leisure and television experience, the interplay of these gratification with other life activities, and their role in personal adaptation.

Television viewing was found to be an unchallenging but freely chosen, low involvement activity distinguished by feelings of relaxation and minimal mental investment. Respondents reported slightly lower relaxation and mood shortly after viewing than they did before they began to view. As time spent in a session of viewing increased, viewing became less rewarding, concentration dropped further, and it simultaneously became more dufficult to concentrate. It was concluded that viewing TV is less than completely fulfilling because it is generally a passive and uncreative deversion that offers few opportunities for a sense of personal control or efficacy.

Respondents reported significantly lower affect before a heavy night of TV viewing than before a light night. Few differences were discernible the day after. Thus, negative affect predicted far better that TV would be viewed than that TV had been viewed. For subjects with fewer social and economic resources available for coping, television was frequently used as a parasocial substitute and to fill unstructured time. Rather than concluding that TV viewing is a significant cause of alienation, this research has shown that TV viewing is more properly understood as an escape from undesirable experience.

MPACT Scores for Robert Kubey

A = 6
C = 6
A+C = 12
T = 6
G = 1
W = 6
TD = 6
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:10:15

Advisors and Advisees Graph