ABSTRACT

This study investigates audiences’ reflective thoughts about violent media content with the aim of developing a bilingual self-report scale in English and German. Scale development was based on an item pool of statements derived from previous qualitative interviews about individuals’ reflection and meaning-making of violent media content. Two survey samples from the US (N = 431) and Germany (N = 412) rated their agreement with these statements, with an example of violent fiction, violent nonfiction, or the most recent violent content they had seen in mind. Factor analysis of the data revealed five main dimensions including reflective thoughts about: (1) human cruelty and suffering from violence, (2) own or close others’ experiences with violence, (3) moral complexities of violence, (4) the true story behind violent content, and (5) strategies learned for dealing with violence in real life. Scale items selected to represent these five dimensions showed convergent validity with eudaimonic media experiences and perceived realism as well as comparable measurement properties across the two countries (US and Germany). Results are discussed with regard to the role of reflective thoughts as potential buffer against negative effects of exposure to media violence.

摘要

这项研究调查了观众对暴力媒体内容的反思性思考，目的是发展英语和德语双语自我报告量表。量表的开发基于以前的定性访谈中有关个人对暴力媒体内容的反思和含义的定性陈述。来自美国（N = 431）和德国（N= 412）使用暴力小说，暴力非小说或他们所想到的最新暴力内容来评价他们对这些陈述的同意。数据的因素分析揭示了五个主要方面，包括以下方面的反思性思考：（1）人身残酷和遭受暴力侵害；（2）拥有或关闭他人的暴力经历；（3）暴力的道德复杂性；（4）真实故事背后的暴力内容，以及（5）学会处理现实生活中的暴力行为的策略。选择用来代表这五个维度的量表项目显示了在eudaimonic媒体的经验和感知的现实主义方面的收敛性，以及在两个国家（美国和德国）可比较的测量特性。