Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more information Leadership, Fifth Edition

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Communication Research
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
0093650209338906v1
36/5/637    most recent
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Greenwood, D. N.
Right arrow Articles by Long, C. R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Psychological Predictors of Media Involvement

Solitude Experiences and the Need to Belong

Dara N. Greenwood

University of Michigan

Christopher R. Long

Ouachita Baptist University

Does intense engagement with entertainment media programs and characters reflect a psychological need for companionship? The research findings to date have been equivocal. The present study investigates how parasocial interaction (PSI) with media characters and transportation into media programs are related to specific kinds of solitude experiences, as well as to the need to belong (NTB). Results of a questionnaire study (N = 301) show that solitude experienced as self-expansion (e.g., self-discovery), diversion (e.g., engaging in distracting activities), and Other orientation (e.g., loneliness) each contribute to increased PSI with favorite TV characters. Self-expansion and Other-oriented solitude each also predicts increased tendency to transport into media programs and identify with characters. Furthermore, Other-oriented solitude appears to account for the significant association between NTB and PSI. Results provide new evidence for both compensatory and complementary uses and gratifications of entertainment media.

Key Words: parasocial interaction • transportation • media • solitude • need to belong

This version was published on October 1, 2009

Communication Research, Vol. 36, No. 5, 637-654 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0093650209338906
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?