{"id":24,"date":"2014-06-03T02:00:47","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T02:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.emotionsandmedia.com\/?page_id=24"},"modified":"2018-07-01T17:49:13","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T17:49:13","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.emotionsandmedia.com\/?page_id=24","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I study media processes and effects related to emotions and beneficial outcomes, such as improved health behaviors, decreased stigma toward outgroups, and increased civic engagement with environmental issues.<\/p>\n<p>I take a discrete, functionalist approach to researching emotion. That is, I look at emotions like hope, fear, compassion, anger, and more, and try to discern how media use contributes to and shapes our emotional lives and our behavior.<\/p>\n<p>Most of my work is based on experimental methodology, although I also use surveys, content analysis, linguistic analysis, and the occasional qualitative approach to gain insight into the role of emotions in media processes and effects.<\/p>\n<p>Some general research questions I am attempting to answer include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Given ethical and efficacy-related concerns associated with using fear appeals, how might positive and mixed emotions be employed in messages aimed at persuading individuals to change their health-related attitudes and behaviors?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In what ways do health and environmental media evoke emotions in audiences, and how do those emotional responses impact risk perceptions, individual behaviors, policy support, and social sharing?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>How do stories about individuals (i.e., exemplars) impact emotional, cognitive, and behavior reactions to media that ask audiences to take action, particularly if the exemplars are celebrities?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>How do character\/audience involvement processes, such as identification and parasocial interaction, interact with and\/or affect emotions and emotion-related processes, such as empathy, to shape audience perceptions and actions?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>How do emotions and related media use shift over time, be that within messages, immediately between multiple messages, or after days, weeks, or months?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I approach these questions largely on the micro-level. I am a media psychologist trying to discern not just how but also <em>why<\/em> we react to media the way we do. I love numbers, and to answer these questions I enjoy using path analysis and structural equation modeling.<\/p>\n<p>For more on my work, check out my publications on these sites:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=zuTHbzoAAAAJ&amp;hl=en\"><em>Google Scholar Profile<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pennstate.academia.edu\/JessicaMyrick\"><em>Academia.edu Profile<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/profile\/Jessica_Myrick\"><em>ResearchGate.net Profile<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>If you&#8217;d like a PDF of a publication, email me at jfgall@gmail.com \u00a0or jess@psu.edu to request a copy.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I study media processes and effects related to emotions and beneficial outcomes, such as improved health behaviors, decreased stigma toward outgroups, and increased civic engagement with environmental issues. I take a discrete, functionalist approach to researching emotion. That is, I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emotionsandmedia.com\/?page_id=24\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-24","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/Pa5S9h-o","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emotionsandmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emotionsandmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emotionsandmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emotionsandmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emotionsandmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.emotionsandmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291,"href":"https:\/\/www.emotionsandmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24\/revisions\/291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emotionsandmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}