ma thesis communication sciences - why enjoyment may be more than the pursuit of pleasure

Why Enjoyment May Be More

than the Pursuit of Pleasure

On the Role of Prior Experience and Emotions

in Media Enjoyment

Rianne Wijmenga (1539817)

[email protected]

August 11th

2011

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Social Sciences

Master’s thesis, department of Communication Science

Supervisor: prof. dr. Elly A. Konijn

Second reader: dr. Cees M. Koolstra

mailto:[email protected]

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ABSTRACT

This research tried to gain new insights in the sad movie paradox by combining the perspectives

of three earlier studies: 1) Nabi, Finnerty, Domschke, and Hull (2006) on the therapeutic effects

of media; 2) Konijn, Walma van der Molen, and Van Nes, (2009) on emotions bias perceptions;

and 3) Oliver and Raney (in press) on eudaimonic media use. Through a quasi-experiment

embedded in a questionnaire (N = 236) data were collected among adolescents, testing the

influence of prior experience with having been bullied, emotional responsiveness to thinking

about bullying, and being exposed to a bullying-related film clip on media preference, enjoyment,

coping, information value, perceived realism, and eudaimonic viewing motives. The results

showed that prior experience with having been bullied affected adolescents’ preference for

bullying-related films, and their enjoyment of it. Coping with emotions, and both perceived

realism and information value had a positive influence on enjoyment. Results are discussed

suggesting enjoyment is more than the pursuit of pleasure, because media use is affected by

users’ interest in gaining new insights through media.

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INDEX

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 4

Theoretical background .................................................................................................................... 7

Bullying, emotions, and media use .............................................................................................. 7

Insight through emotion theory .................................................................................................... 8

Coping with emotions ................................................................................................................ 10

The main hypotheses .................................................................................................................. 11

Enjoyment and coping styles ...................................................................................................... 13

Perceived realism and information value ................................................................................... 14

Eudaimonic viewing motivations ............................................................................................... 17

Method ........................................................................................................................................... 20

Participants ................................................................................................................................. 20

Design ......................................................................................................................................... 20

Stimulus materials ...................................................................................................................... 21

Measures ..................................................................................................................................... 23

Procedure .................................................................................................................................... 26

Results ............................................................................................................................................ 28

Preliminary analyses .................................................................................................................. 28

Testing H1: media preference .................................................................................................... 31

Testing H2: enjoyment ............................................................................................................... 33

Testing H3: coping with emotions ............................................................................................. 35

Analyzing the RQ: coping and enjoyment ................................................................................. 38

Testing H4: perceived realism and information value ............................................................... 40

Testing H5: perceived realism, information value, and enjoyment ........................................... 44

Testing H6: eudaimonic viewing motives .................................................................................. 46

Conclusions and discussion ............................................................................................................ 51

Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 51

Discussion .................................................................................................................................. 52

Answering the research question ................................................................................................ 57

Limitations and future research .................................................................................................. 57

Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ 60

References ...................................................................................................................................... 61

Appendix ........................................................................................................................................ 66

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INTRODUCTION

The words “entertainment” and “enjoyment” are frequently used together (Oliver & Raney, in

press). Sometimes the use of entertainment media even seems equal to media enjoyment.

Enjoyment also is a major focus of media psychology research (Vorderer, Klimmt, & Ritterfeld,

2004); the current study focuses on media enjoyment as well. But there is a gap in media

enjoyment research. Researchers seem to have a tendency to forget media consumers do not just

watch comedy films, or romantic films with a happy ending. People are also drawn to films that

scare them to death, or make them cry; not the kind of entertainment media that immediately

brings the word “enjoyment” into mind. Even people that themselves have experienced the most

difficult events someone can experience in life, like losing a loved one, seem to be able to endure

watching a film character experience something similar. Perhaps they even seek out such media

fare themselves?

The present research examines whether media enjoyment is more than the pursuit of

pleasure. Why should people want to watch a film about an experience that is associated with

negative emotions? The experience the present study is about is experience with having been

bullied by classmates. According to studies by Leymann (1996; Leymann & Gustafsson, 1996),

bullying is highly destructive for an individual who is a victim of this kind of behavior. The

negative actions inflicted on someone can lead to life-long damage (Leymann, 1996). Bullying has

even been connected to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Leymann, & Gustafsson, 1996).

This does not sound like a fun topic someone would want to watch a film about; especially not

when the media user in question is a bullying victim him- or herself.

The question why people enjoy counter-hedonic media is sometimes called the sad movie

paradox (Oliver, 1993). Several researchers already tried to explain the use of counter-hedonic

media (e.g., Kim & Oliver, 2011; 2007; Knobloch, Weisbach, & Zillmann, 2004; Knobloch, &

Zillmann, 2003). Nabi, Finnerty, Domschke, and Hull (2006) belong to the scholars who assume

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that media users may choose media for other reasons than just for pleasure. They studied the

therapeutic effects of TV viewing on feelings of regret, taking into account the difference

between people who actually cheating on their partner, and people who did not. By integrating

emotion theory into media theory, Nabi et al. (2006) offered a new approach to the issue of the

enjoyment of sad films in general, and to the enjoyment of media content that may confront

people with painful memories in particular.

The study by Nabi et al. (2006) provided us with interesting results. Their results showed

that watching a cheating-related TV show may help someone to cope with his or her feelings of

regret due to having cheated on one’s partner in the past. But the study lacked certain crucial

elements. Firstly, Nabi et al. (2006) did not use a specific measurement to measure coping with

emotions. They tested the coping of their participants through comparing their level of regret

prior to watching a cheating-related TV show with their level of regret after watching the show.

The conclusion that the show worked therapeutically because the feelings of regret were

diminished may seem a bit too simple, especially since it is well-known that people use media as

a distraction, trying to forget about their problems (Katz, Gurevitch, & Haas, 1973). In addition,

Nabi et al. (2006) assumed that gaining new insight made people enjoy the TV show, but they did

not measure how information participants gained from watching to the TV show. Nor did they

test the effect of gaining new insights on enjoyment.

The current research will draw on the study by Nabi et al. (2006). Yet in the present study

another emotional experience will be studied among a different target group, and an improved

research design will be used. Instead of studying the effect of having experience with cheating on

one’s partner, the present study will focus on the emotional experience of having been bullied by

classmates among adolescents. Although bullying occurs among all age groups, a large majority

of the research is targeted on minors, children and adolescents (Tokunaga, 2010; Espelage, &

Swearer, 2003). This study focuses on bullying among adolescents. Adolescents are large media

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consumers (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2010). To them it would probably make perfectly sense to

turn to media for coping with their emotions.

The improvement of Nabi et al.’s (2006) research design will consist of a measurement

for coping with emotions. The measurement will not replace the comparison of the level of

emotions prior to and after experience-relevant film exposure, but complement it. Additionaly,

the present study will introduce the insights of a study by Konijn, Walma van der Molen, and

Van Nes (2009), adding measurements of perceived realism and information value to the research

design. For both additions, their connection to enjoyment will be tested. Finally, since the

enjoyment of media through gaining information may point to having a meaningful life

experience, it is a small step to involving eudaimonic viewing motives. This will be done based

on a study by Oliver and Raney (in press).

By combining the three studies of Nabi et al. (2006), Konijn et al. (2009), and Oliver and

Raney (in press), the current research will integrate three recent innovative lines of research in

order to increase our understanding of how viewers may enjoy sad, gruesome, or terrifying media

offerings. The different perspectives should lead to an answer to the main research question of

the present study: Can enjoyment be more than the pursuit of pleasure? Two subquestions are

attached to this main question: What influence do media users’ prior experiences and emotional

responsiveness have on their preference for and enjoyment of experience-related counter-hedonic

media? and What is the effect of coping with emotions through media and the information value

of that media content on the enjoyment of it?

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THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

The present study will focus on the influence of prior experience and emotional responsiveness

when thinking about that experience on media preference and enjoyment, and to what extent this

affects the “learning experience” media can be. This section will start with looking into the

experience the present study focuses on: experience with having been bullied. The following

paragraphs will successively describe literature related to media preference and enjoyment,

coping with emotions, the perceived realism and information value, and eudaimonic viewing

motives. It will be argued that users do not just choose certain kinds of media to fulfil their

emotional needs. Media can also serve as a source of information about one’s emotions, and how

to handle them.

Bullying, emotions, and media use

The present study focuses on adolescents with experience with having been bullied. A widely used

definition of bullying is by one of the most prominent researchers on this type of child behavior,

Dan Olweus (1993). Olweus defines being bullied as repeatedly and over time being exposed to

negative actions of classmates, whereas a negative action can be described as some kind of

intentionally inflicted injury or discomfort upon another. These actions can be carried out by

physical contact, by words, or in other ways, such as intentional exclusion from a group (Olweus,

1993). Prior research on both bullying and media tended to focus on the negative influence of

media on bullying behavior (e.g., the emerging problem of cyberbullying; David-Ferdon &

Feldman Hertz, 2007; see review by Tokunaga, 2010). However, the present study will examine

whether media can also have a positive effect on adolescents who are victims of bullying behavior;

on how to handle of the emotions that are connected to bullying to be precisely.

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What kind of emotions are associated with bullying? Various researchers already studied

bullying among adolescents in relation to negative emotions (e.g., Hunter, Boyle, & Warden,

2004). Several studies showed having experience with being bullied results in feeling sad most

days (Glew, Fan, Katon, Rivara, & Kernic, 2005), or even really unhappy and distressed (Rigby,

2003). Furthermore, anger was connected to bullying (Ireland & Archer, 2004). Sadness and anger

may also be aroused by bullying-related media. However, no-one would connect these negative

emotions with media enjoyment. Based only on the above, adolescents would probably not be

interested in bullying-related media.

Taking Zillmann’s (1988) influential Mood Management Theory (MMT) into account

confirms the assumption. MMT posits that people use media to influence their affective states: to

alter negative moods as well as to maintain and prolong positive ones (Zillmann, 1988). An

important starting-point of this theory is the idea that people are driven by hedonistic desires, or,

stated differently, the pursuit of pleasure: people will always try to maximize pleasant feeling

states, and minimize unpleasant one. A large amount of research supports MMT (see review by

Oliver, 2003), and many researchers turn to MMT to make predictions about media use.

However, one may wonder why people would want to watch a film about an experience that is

associate with negative emotions.

Insight through emotion theory

Films about experiences that are associated with negative emotions may count as counter-hedonic

media: media that do not seem to meet the demands MMT, namely the pursuit of pleasure (Kim

& Oliver, 2007). Examples of counter-hedonic media are the horror film or the so-called

tearjerker: films that respectively intend to scare viewers with shock effects and usually lots of

blood, or to bring them to tears (Oliver, 1993). The present research follows a study by Nabi et al.

(2006) that tried to gain a bit more insight in the enjoyment of counter-hedonic media by

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studying the therapeutic effects of TV viewing. Nabi et al. focused on Zillmann’s (2000) attempt

to explain counter-hedonic media use. Zillmann (2000) identified four options people have when

confronted with counter-hedonic media: (a) avoidance of emotion-relevant media content, (b)

avoidance of entertainment media altogether, (c) watching informational/educational media

content to aid coping, or (d) exposure to entertainment media driven by informational needs. But

Zillmann (2000) made no suggestions about which option would be accurate in which situation,

and for whom.

Nabi et al. (2006) suggested that emotion theory may provide the additional information

necessary to make more precise predictions of which of Zillmann’s (2000) four options people

will choose when confronted with counter-hedonic media. Emotion theorists showed there is a

connection between negative emotional experiences, and both coping needs and information-

seeking goals (Nabi, 2003; 1999; Lazarus, 1991 in Nabi et al., 2006). Based on this, Nabi et al.

(2006) reasoned that emotion-relevant entertainment programs might serve as potential sources of

information for those seeking to cope with their distress. Therefore, media use may be affected by

the need to gather knowledge about how to cope with emotions, instead of being directed by

certain emotional needs (Nabi et al., 2006).

Nabi et al. (2006) pointed out specific theory on the emotion under investigation should

be used, as will be done in the present study. In their study, Nabi et al. focussed on the feelings of

regret that are connected to cheating on one’s partner, or being cheated on. According to them,

regret is associated with cognitive preoccupation, keeping a person stuck in a past experience,

and preventing him or her from moving forward (Landman, 1993 in Nabi et al., 2006). To deal

with cognitive preoccupation, it may be useful for someone to learning from past mistakes. This

is where media comes in. Nabi et al. (2006) reasoned that cheating-related media content can

provide people with the required information. Although reopening a wound is not pleasant, from

an informational standpoint experience-related entertainment can be enjoyable, since it might

help a person to move on with his or her life.

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Coping with emotions

The reasoning that Nabi et al. (2006) used may also be applied to the experience of having been

bullied and media use. Like people cannot move forward without dealing with their feelings of

regret, experience with having been bullied is connected to extreme emotions people want to deal

with (Rigby, 2003). Nabi et al. (2006) used the term coping to denote gaining new insights

regarding handling emotions. But what actually is coping? Coping originated from stress

research, and can be placed under the broad definition of emotion regulation (Garnefski, Kraaij &

Spinhoven, 2001). Emotion regulation can be specified as strategies that influence one’s

emotions; what we feel, how intense we feel it, and how we cope with these emotions (Gross,

1998). It is most often used to control the unpleasant effects of negative emotions, like anger,

sadness, or loneliness (Gross et al., 2006 in Konijn & Ten Holt, 2010). These emotions are also

linked to experience with having been bullied.

Coping specifically refers to behavior that protects people from being psychologically

harmed by problematic social experiences (Pearlin & Schooler, 1978). It may be defined as

“cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are

appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person” (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984 in

Gross, 1998, p.274). Two major functions of coping are distinguished: problem-focused coping

and emotion-focused coping (Compas, Orosan & Grant, 1993). Problem-focused coping

strategies refer to attempts to act on the stressor, the source of the (negative) emotion. Emotion-

focused coping, refers to attempts to manage the emotions associated with the stressor. The latter

is of importance for the present study, because of its focus is on dealing with emotions. Gaining

insights in how to deal with these emotions may happen through media use. Knowledge of how

to handle emotions that are upsetting may help someone to break out of the cognitive

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preoccupation caused by these emotions. In turn, this may lead to appreciation for, or even

enjoyment of the media content that provides one with the knowledge.

The main hypotheses

The theory outlined in the previous paragraphs leads to the main hypotheses of the present study,

related to media preference, media enjoyment, and coping. First, it is assumed that adolescents

will be interested in watching bullying-related films. Both adolescents with experience with

having been bullied and adolescents who were not bullied will experience negative emotions

when they think about being bullied themselves. Bullying-related films may help them to gain

insights in how to handle these emotions. This effect will probably be stronger among

adolescents with experience with having been bullied, since they have their actual experience to

deal with. Following MMT, adolescents without experience with having been bullied will

probably anticipate the negative effect watching a bullying-related film will have on their mood.

This would probably diminish their interest in bullying-related media. It seems likely to assume

the effect of prior experience is affected by the level of emotions adolescents experience when

thinking about bullying. Based on this, the following hypotheses were formulated relating to

media preference:

H1a: Adolescents who were bullied will be more interested in watching bullying-related

films than those without experience with having been bullied.

H1b: Emotional responsiveness when thinking about bullying will interact with experience

with having been bullied, such that the effect of H1a will be larger among those high on

negative emotions than among those low on negative emotions.

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Although watching a bullying-related film may bring back painful memories, adolescents who

have been bullied may be able to endure it to gain new insights about how to handle the negative

emotions they experience due to the bullying. This will probably also be the reason why they enjoy

a bullying-related film. MMT will once more diminish this enjoyment among adolescents without

experience with having been bullied. Again, it seems likely to assume both effects are stronger

among adolescents high on negative emotions than on adolescents low on negative emotions.

Based on this, the following hypotheses were formulated relating to media enjoyment

H2a: Adolescents who were bullied will enjoy watching a bullying-related film clip more

than those without experience with having been bullied.



emotions than among those low on emotions.

The present study will look into the effects of experience with having been bullied and emotional

responsiveness on coping with bullying-related emotions. Adolescents who actually experienced

bullying by classmates will probably have more to cope with than those without experience with

bullying. The actual bullying victims have to protect themselves from the emotional

consequences of a problematic social experience (Garnefski, Kraaij & Spinhoven, 2001). But

having no experience with bullying does not mean those adolescents do not get emotional when

being confronted with bullying-related media. So they may use media to cope with those

emotions. Regarding being either high or low on emotions when thinking about bullying, it

would also make sense that more emotions to cope with would lead to more coping. This effect is

possibly even stronger among adolescents that actually experience having been bullied than

among adolescents who have no experience. Based on this, the following hypotheses were

formulated relating to coping with emotions

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H3a: Adolescents who were bullied will score higher on coping than adolescents without

experience with having been bullied.



negative emotions than among those low on negative emotions.

Enjoyment and coping styles

Nabi et al. (2006) assumed that being able to cope with emotions would automatically result in

media enjoyment. This appears to be a logical assumption: knowing how to deal with negative

emotions makes life easier. Hence, one enjoys the source of this information. This may also be

connected to the assumptions of MMT: using media to minimize unpleasant feeling states

(Zillmann, 1988). Knowing how to deal with negative emotions implies minimizing these

negative emotions, which results in feeling better.

However, there is not enough research on this topic to confirm this statement. There are a

lot of different ways people may handle their emotions; a lot of different emotion regulation

strategies people may use. Research showed different strategies were associated with different

outcomes (Garnefski, Kraaij, & Spinhoven, 2001). This may possibly affect the media

enjoyment. Examples of emotion regulations strategies that are of relevance to this study are

rumination and reflection. Both are a kind of self-attentiveness, and associated with identity

exploration: what does someone think about oneself (Luyckx, et al., 2007; Trapnell & Campell,

1999). The motivations of both strategies are different. Rumination is defined as neurotic self-

attentiveness, motivated by perceived threats, losses, or injustices to the self. Reflection was

designated as intellectual self-attentiveness, motivated by curiosity or epistemic interest in the

self (Trapnell & Campell, 1999). When described in terms of emotion regulation, rumination

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would translate to hanging onto negative emotions. Someone who reflects on his or her emotions

would try to find out what went wrong, and what can be learned out of the situation (Luyckx, et

al., 2007).

The use of both strategies was associated with different outcomes. Rumination tended to

be associated with higher levels of neuroticism, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms

(Nolen-Hoeksema, Parker, & Larson, 1994). Reflection is related to higher levels of personal

identity, perspective-taking, and openness to experience (Luyckx et al., 2007). When “learning” a

certain strategy through media use, the outcomes of the strategy may also affect the enjoyment of

the media content. Reflecting on one’s emotions may therefore be associated with a more positive

outcome, and may therefore have a positive effect on media enjoyment, that ruminating one’s

emotions. To examine this assumption, the following research question will be implemented:

RQ: What is the relationship between enjoying media content about bullying and coping

styles, in particular the coping strategies rumination and reflection?

Perceived realism and information value

To make predictions about how informative people think certain media content is, it is essential

to measure the information value of that content. To do this, the present study introduces the

study by Konijn, Walma van der Molen, and Van Nes (2009). They defined information value as

“the weight or importance a viewer ascribes to the content that reaches him or her via a media

program (both in words, sounds, and images) and the judgment of the importance of that content

for one’s own life or worldview” (p. 316).

Prior research assumed the information function of media, and that media influence how

people perceive the world around them (e.g., Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 2002;

Shapiro & Lang, 1991). Especially with the blurring of borders between fact and fiction on

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television and in films, people may increasingly use entertainment media as reliable source of

information (Konijn et al., 2009). Besides “learning” facts about their environment, people may

also “learn” about emotions by watching films. For example, using media can serve as a so-called

vicarious experience: viewers of narrative media content adopt the perspective of the characters,

and experience emotions that reflect their evaluation of events from the characters' perspective

(Bartsch & Viehoff, 2010).

Every media experience is personal and may differ from one person to the other. The

information value that is perceived by a user is also subjective, and may be influence by several

other factors. This is where a study by Konijn et al. (2009) comes at hand. They investigated

whether emotions induced in TV-viewers would increase viewers’ perception of realism in a fake

documentary and affect the information value that viewers would attribute to its content. Their

study demonstrated that experiencing emotions while watching visual media may bias the

perceptions of its content. The information value of a fake documentary was influenced by the

emotions viewers experience while watching. The induction of negative emotions in viewers lead

participants to perceive the documentary as more realistic and holding more information than

viewers who did not experience such emotions. This may apply to the bullying-related emotions

in this study as well.

Besides being influenced by emotions, Konijn et al (2009) also found that perceived

realism was a better predictor of how informative viewers thought a television segment was than

how it was framed, either reality-based or fiction. The effect of perceived realism on information

value may also be of importance for this study. With having the experience with a certain

situation, people may gain a more critical attitude towards the media content. They know what

the situation is like in real life. The media content would need to meet their higher demands,

while people without experience will more easily believe what they see on screen. Perhaps people

with experience also feel like there is less for them to learn about the situation than there is for

people without experience. The present study suggests that adolescents with experience with

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having been bullied will perceive lower levels of realism when watching the bullying-related film

clip than adolescents without experience with having been bullied. In turn, this may affect the

information value they attribute to the film.

As mentioned above, Konijn et al (2009) showed that the induction of negative emotions

in viewers lead participants to perceive the documentary as more realistic and holding more

information than viewers who did not experience such emotions. It may be argued that when

people have experience with a certain situation that arouses negative emotions, they may perceive

an experience-related films as more realistic than people that have no experience and are just

aroused with anticipated emotions. Regarding the different exposure conditions, adolescents that

reflect on their emotions may regard the information value and perceived realism as higher than

their rumination colleagues. Reflection is associated with being more likely to look for the

information value of something (Luyckx et al., 2007). Adolescents in the reflection condition

may be more willing to learn than adolescents in the rumination condition. Based on this, the

following hypotheses were formulated related to perceived realism and information value:

H4a: Adolescents who were bullied will 1) perceive lower levels of realism and 2)

attribute less information value to the bullying-related film clip than adolescents without

experience with having been bullied.

H4b: Adolescents who are high on negative emotions will 1) perceive higher levels of

realism and 2) attribute more information value to the bullying-related film clip than

adolescents low on negative emotions.

H4c: Adolescents in the reflection film clip condition will 1) perceive higher levels of

realism and 2) attribute more information value to the bullying-related film clip than

adolescents in the rumination film clip condition.

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In addition to the direct influence of prior experience and emotional responsiveness on perceived

realism and information value, this study will also examine whether a relationship can be found

between the latter variables and enjoyment. Besides Nabi et al. (2006), various researchers also

showed learning something from media can lead to the enjoyment of that media content. For

example, the above mentioned vicarious learning experiences have proven to be gratifying for

media users (e.g., Busselle & Bilandzic, 2009). The following hypothesis was formulated related

to the relationship between enjoyment and both perceived value and information value:

H5: Both perceived value and information value will have a positive influence on

enjoyment.

Eudaimonic viewing motivations

It is a small step to involving eudaimonic viewing motives when trying to provide more insight in

the sad movie paradox, as this study is attempting. Emotions that may affect media use can be

associated with the pursuit of pleasure (MMT; Zillmann, 1988). But emotions can also be

functional within the broader context of social and cognitive gratification (Bartsch & Viehoff,

2010). People may also enjoy media because it can help them in their search for deeper insight,

meaning, and purpose in life (Bartsch & Viehoff, 2010). The term to describe these kinds of

motivations is “eudaimonia” (Oliver, 2008; Waterman, 1993): gaining happiness through striving

to become a better person.

While both hedonism and eudaimonia were already under discussion in the Ancient Greece

(Bartsch, 2010), studying eudaimonic viewing motives and emotions in addition to hedonistic

motivations is one of the recent developments in Media Psychology (Oliver & Woolley, 2010). In

early uses and gratification studies, individuals reported using media as a means of experiencing

beauty and raising morale, in addition to using media for purposes of entertainment and relaxation

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(Katz et al., 1973). Eudaimonia is not new in connection to research on film either. Individuals’

interest in viewing films to experience strong emotions and to understand how others think and feel

was also identified as a motivation for enjoying films by Tesser, Millar, and Wu (1988).

To complement Nabi et al., this study chooses to use the approach of Oliver and Raney (in

press) as starting-point for gaining insight in eudaimonic media use motivations. Oliver and Raney

(in press) tried to broaden the conceptualization of entertainment motivations; to identify pleasure-

seeking as a motivator, but also to recognize the notion that individuals may choose media for

eudaimonic reasons. They characterized eudaimonic concerns as “meaningfulness-seeking”. This

may be linked to the new therapeutic insights that media may provide according to Nabi et al. But

according to Oliver and Raney, the eudaimonic need for insight is broader than the fulfilment of

needs focused on the self. So people may choose certain media content not just to “learn” how to

handle their emotions, but to find answers to meaning-of-life questions.

Although eudaimonic motivations can explain the enjoyment of counter-hedonic media,

Oliver and Raney (in press) also believe insight in issues of the meaning of life may, at times, be

somewhat painful. But the viewing of a film may result in simultaneously experiencing both

negative and positive affect. Similarly, Nabi et al. (2009) suggested that the confrontation with

painful memories may be endured to gain the new therapeutic insights that media may provide.

Viewers may be aware of the reopening of wounds that might occur when they turn to media

content about something painful they have experience with. They are willing to endure it in favour

of their search for deeper insight, and meaning, specifically about that painful experience.

Perhaps this reasoning also works the other way round: when confronted with media

content that brings back painful memories, viewers will willingly choose to enjoy the content for

eudaimonic reasons. They will try to use it in their dealing with their bullying experience. The

present study will test this, assuming bullied adolescents will score higher on eudaimonic viewing

motivations than adolescents without experience with having been bullied. The same will probably

apply to adolescents who are more emotional when thinking about bullying.

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Thirdly, the present study will compare the different viewing conditions. Eudaimonic

viewing motivations may also be more common among adolescents who reflect on their emotions

than among adolescents who use rumination as coping strategy. Prior research already associated

reflection with more meaningful life experiences and working on one’s identity (Trapnell &

Campell, 1999). This suggestion is supported by findings of Oliver and Raney (in press), who also

connected eudaimonia with more contemplative and reflective tendencies. This lead to the

following, those being the final hypotheses of this study related to eudaimonic viewing motives:

H6a: Adolescents who were bullied will score higher on eudaimonic viewing motives than

adolescents without experience with having been bullied.

H6c: Adolescents who are high on negative emotions will score higher on eudaimonic

viewing motives than adolescents who are low on negative emotions.

H6c: Adolescents in the reflection film clip condition will score higher on eudaimonic

viewing motives than adolescents in the rumination film clip condition.

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METHOD

To test the hypotheses, a quasi-experiment embedded in a questionnaire was developed.

Adolescents attending secondary schools the Netherlands participated in the study. Besides

answering questions about their experience with having been bullied, and emotional

responsiveness when thinking about bullying, they were randomly assigned to the experimental

part of the questionnaire: the exposure to two different bullying-related film clips. After the

exposure to the film clip, the dependent variables of this study were measured. Further details are

explained below.

Participants

For this study, three different secondary schools were visited in the north of the Netherlands. A

total of 236 students participated in the experiment. The participants were between 11 and 19

years old (M = 15.12, SD = 1.85), and the majority had a Dutch cultural background (94.1%).

52.1% was female, 47.9% was male. Regarding educational level, the largest group of

participants indicated to attend so-called “higher general continued education” (havo, 38.1%),

followed by pre-university secondary education (vwo, 27.5%), and the so-called theoretical

learning path of “preparatory middle-level vocational education” (vmbo theoretische leerweg,

20.8%). The smallest group attented a grammar school (gymnasium, 10.6%). The data collection

took part in June and July 2011.

Design

Like the study by Nabi et al. (2006), this study was split up in two parts: one part testing one

hypothesis prior to the bullying-related film clip exposure, and the other part for testing

21

hypotheses after the exposure, it can be regarded as a mixed design study. To the first part of the

study, on preference for storylines about bullying, belonged a 2 (experience with being having

been bullied: yes or no) x 2 (emotional responsiveness to thinking about bullying: high or low)

between-participants design. Participants were distributed among the different conditions based

on their scores on the bullying questions and the questions about how emotional they were when

thinking about being bullied. In the second part of the study a 2 (experience with having been

bullied: yes or no) x 2 (emotional responsiveness to thinking about bullying: high or low) x 2

(bullying-related exposure: rumination or reflection) between-participants design was used.

Participants were were randomly assigned to the bullying-related exposure conditions they when

started the online questionnaire. The dependent variables of this part of the study were the

enjoyment of a bullying-related film clip, coping through media (i.e., either coping through

rumination or reflection), evaluation of the film clip with regard to perceived realism and

information value, and eudaimonic motivations for watching a film.

Stimulus materials

The bullying-related exposure consisted of a 4:30-minute clip from the Dutch television film

Bluebird (2004) by Mijke de Jong. This film is about Merel, a highly talented thirteen year old

girl, who gets bullied at school. Since she doesn’t confide in anyone about the bullying, she has

to deal with it on her own. This makes her balance on the thin line between what’s right and

what’s wrong. There were several reasons why Bluebird was chosen. First of all, it was a film

about bullying, appropriate for adolescents. Besides that, the film is not well known in the

Netherlands; it’s theatrical release in 2005 attracted just 2 000 visitors. Although the film was

broadcasted on Dutch television twice (in 2004, and in 2010 on an early Sunday morning in

August), it is not likely that many students are familiar with the film, so they will not be

influenced by prior knowledge about the entire film.

22

Two clips were edited from segments of the film Bluebird to represent the different

coping conditions, rumination and reflection. The clips contained three bullying scenes, in which

Merel was (1) told she smelled, (2) beaten, and (3) found her new bike completely destroyed.

These scenes were followed by some kind of response by the protagonist. The responses were

different for both coping conditions. In the rumination clip, Merel responded to the bullying by

crying, and scratching over all the faces of her classmates in their school photograph. In the

reflection clip, Merel secludes herself from other people, and seems to be lost in her own

thoughts. The variations were emphasized by an introduction in which it was explained that

Merel either didn’t like to think about the bullying (the rumination condition) or actually did like

to take long walks to think about her life (the reflection condition; see the whole questionnaire in

the Appendix). After watching one of the film clips, participants completed several manipulation

check questions about the film clip.

As a way of validating the self-reports of participants about having been bullied, a

“manipulation check” using the film clip was integrated in the questionnaire. This “check” was

based on Nabi et al. (2006), and investigated whether bullied participants identified more with the

bullied protagonist of the film clip than participants who had no experience with bullying. It

would make sense that participants who indicate they were bullied will identify more with the

bullied protagonist of the film clip, which would validate the division of the participants in a

group with experience with having been bullied and a group without experience. Five questions

were asked based on Cohen’s (2001) identification items, and they referred to both positive and

negative values (three positive, two negative). Examples of items were “I think I can understand

Merel”, and “For Merel’s sake, I hope the film will have a happy ending”. The items were rated

on a five-point scale of 1 (doesn’t apply to me at all) to 5 (does apply to me very well) and the

scale proved to be reliable (Cronbach’s α = .72, M = 3.22, SD = .88).

23

Measures

Preference for storylines about bullying. As the researchers did in Nabi et al. (2006),

media preference was operationalized by asking participants to rate storylines on a five-point

scale of 1 (I don’t want to watch this at all) to 5 (I really want to watch this). The eight storylines

used in this study were introduced as storylines of films. They were based on actual films or

books that are popular among adolescents, for example the novel Spijt! by Carry Slee (1996), and

the Dutch football film In Oranje (directed by Joram Lürsen, 2004). The actual plot descriptions

were adjusted and protagonist names were changed so participants wouldn’t recognize the

originals straight away, and they all had an open ending. Three out of eight were storylines about

bullying; the scores on these storylines were combined into a preference variable (Cronbach’s α =

.75, M = 2.63, SD = 1.02). The other five, used as a distraction, were about becoming a famous

dancer, having a fatally ill mother, moving to another town, divorcing parents, and about

continuing with your live after the death of a parent (Cronbach’s α = .74, M = 2.49, SD = .89).

The storyline of Bluebird was not part of the eight storylines (for the eight storylines and the rest

of the questionnaire, see the Appendix). Pretesting the storylines among adolescents that were not

participating in the actual study showed bullying storylines were significantly preferred (M =

3.37, SD = .63) over the storylines about other topics (M = 2.94, SD = .52), t(16) = 2.39, p < .05.

So when testing the influence of the independent variables on the preference for storylines about

bullying, the preference for other storylines should be entered into the regression as covariate.

Enjoyment. The extent to which the participants enjoyed watching the film clip was

measured on a five-point scale of 1 (doesn’t apply to me at all) to 5 (does apply to me very well).

The four enjoyment items were based on the enjoyment items in Nabi at al. (2006). Two out of

four questions referred to negative values. Examples of the items are “I liked the film clip”, and

“I didn’t enjoy watching the film clip”. The item “To me watching the film was unpleasant” (“Ik

24

vond het onplezierig om naar het filmpje te kijken”) was deleted to improve the reliability of the

scale, but the Cronbach’s alpha remained a bit low (Cronbach’s α = .64, M = 2.56, SD = .94).

Coping. To measure coping through either rumination or reflection, a shortened version

of the Rumination-Reflection Questionnaire (RRQ; Trapnell & Campbell, 1999) was used. The

RRQ was translated in Flemish by Luyckx (2007), and adjusted for Dutch participants by Den

Hamer (work in progress). In the current study, the RRQ consisted of twelve items: six

rumination questions and six reflections questions, both positively and negatively formulated (a

total of seven positive and five negative items). Participants were asked to indicate how much the

items applied to them personally on a five-point scale of 1 (doesn’t apply to me at all) to 5 (does

apply to me very well). The general statements of the RRQ were adjusted to fit the watching

experience. Examples of items are “This film clip makes me worry about how I behaved in a

certain situation” (rumination), and “After watching the film clip, I would like to think about my

life” (reflection). The rumination items were combined into a single variable for coping by

rumination (Cronbach’s α = .63, M = 2.01, SD = .62), and the reflection items were combined

into a single variable for coping by reflection (Cronbach’s α = .74, M = 2.57, SD = .78).

Perceived realism. The levels of realism participants perceived while watching the

bullying-related film clip were measured using the perceived realism items from Konijn et al.

(2009). The items were rated on a five-point scale of 1 (do not agree at all) to 5 (totally agree),

and adapted to fit the content of the Bluebird film clip. Examples of items are “The film clip

provided me with an unrealistic image of bullying in school”, and “The story about Merel is

fabricated.” Items reflected both positive and negative values (two positive and two negative),

and provided a reliable variable for perceived realism (Cronbach’s α = .75, M = 3.61, SD = .86).

Information value. The information value of the clip was measured using the information

value items from the study of Konijn et al. (2009). The items were rated on a five-point scale of 1

(do not agree at all) to 5 (totally agree) and reliable (Cronbach’s α = .72, M = 3.66, SD = .75).

Obviously, the statements were adapted to fit the content of the Bluebird film clip, for example

25

“The film makers give their viewers meaningless a picture of bullying in school”, and “The film

clip didn’t teach me anything about bullying or being bullied.” Items reflected both positive and

negative values, two positive and three negative.

Eudaimonic viewing motives. The eudaimonic motives for watching the film clip were

measured with the eudaimonia items by Oliver & Raney (in press). The items were adjusted to fit

the film clip watching experience, and rated on a five-point scale of 1 (do not agree at all) to 5

(totally agree). Examples of items are “I like this film clip because it focuses on meaningful

human conditions”, and “I’m very moved by this film clip, because it’s about the search for

greater understanding in life”. The scale appeared to be quite reliable (Cronbach’s α = .82, M =

2.11, SD = .89) after deleting two items: “I don’t like it about this film clip that it makes me think

about being bullied” (“Ik vind het niet prettig dat dit filmpje mij stil doet staan bij gepest

worden”) and “I don’t like film clips like this, that make me reflect on things” (“Ik heb helemaal

niets met een filmpje als dit, dat mij aan het denken zet”).

Experience with having been bullied. Bullying experience was operationalized through

peer victimization, victimization by classmates to be precisely. Participants were asked to rate the

seven items of the peer victimization scale (VIC) by Schwartz, Farber, Chang, and Lee-Shim

(2002) on a five-point scale of 1 (never) to 5 (daily). Examples of items are “How often do your

classmates hit or kick you?”, and “How often do your classmates ignore you?” After the items,

there was the opportunity to respond to the previous items, in case people would really want to

get something off their chest. This open ended question was not compulsory. As a scale for

experience with having been bullied, the VIC was very reliable (Cronbach’s α = .89, M = 1.54,

SD = .65). To be able to talk about participants with out without experience with having been

bullied, a median split (Mdn = 1.29) was conducted to divide the variable in two equal groups,

representing “bullied” and “not bullied”.

Emotional responsiveness when thinking about bullying. Emotional responsiveness was

operationalized following Nabi et al. (2006). The emotions that had to be rated on a scale of 1

26

(doesn’t apply to me at all) to 5 (does apply to me very well) were angry, out of energy, fearful,

and sad. All items were negatively valenced, and rated by all participants (both with and without

experience with having been bullied, measuring anticipated emotions among the non-bullied

participants). For this study, the items were adapted to match bullying: “When I think about being

bullied myself, it makes me feel…”. After these items participants were given the opportunity to

respond to the previous items, again in case people would really want to get something off their

chest. This open ended question was not compulsory. The scale conducted with the emotion item

was very reliable, (Cronbach’s α = .84, M = 2.03, SD = 1.00). At the very end of the

questionnaire the same emotion questions were asked again, also resulting in a reliable scale

(Cronbach’s α = .86, M = 2.20, SD = 1.09). To be able to talk about participants high or low on

negative emotions, a median split (Mdn = 1.75) was conducted to divide the variable in two equal

groups, representing “high on negative emotions” and “low on negative emotions”.

Procedure

Upon arriving at a school, the participants were invited in the computer classrooms, where the

questionnaire was available via a link to the Examine website (Roelofsma, Bottema, & Smeets,

2005). Prior to starting the questionnaire, a teacher introduced the researcher, and she herself

introduced the study as a study about adolescents and sad media. With starting the questionnaire,

the participants were randomly assigned to one of the two experimental exposure conditions.

After a short introduction and some notifications, participants started with demographic

questions, and some for this study irrelevant questions about their TV viewing habits. These

questions were asked first, since it seemed a bit confrontational to start off with asking

participants about ever being bullied. The peer victimization questionnaire was next, followed by

the items on how one felt when thinking about being bullied. Then, a list of eight storylines was

presented, which participants were asked to rate in terms of how interested they were in watching

27

each. After completing this, participants watched the film clip, either the rumination or the

reflection version of it, followed by some questions testing whether they actually paid attention to

the clip. Next, they were asked to indicate how much the film clip inspired them to either

ruminate their emotions or reflect to reflect on them. Then they had to provide how realistic and

informative they found the film clip, and how much they enjoyed the clip, both in general and on

an eudaimonic level. The questionnaire ended with repeating the questions on how they felt when

thinking about being bullied. In the final screen of the questionnaire, the respondents were

thanked for their participation. Overall, the session lasted about fifteen minutes.

28

RESULTS

As described above, this study focuses on the effects of experience with having been bullied

among adolescents, the level of emotional responsiveness when thinking about bullying, and

watching either the rumination or the reflection version of a bullying-related film clip.

Hypotheses were formulated in terms of the influences on preference for bullying storylines,

enjoyment, coping, information value, perceived realism, and eudaimonic viewing motives.

Several hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses.

Preliminary analyses

Prior to conducting the analyses to test the hypotheses, some preliminary analyses were

conducted. To check whether the “manipulation” of experience with having been bullied worked,

a “manipulation check” analysis was conducted. The results were tested with an analysis of

variance (ANCOVA) with experience with having been bullied as independent variable, and

identification with the protagonist of the film clip as dependent variable. The results showed that

participants who had experience with bullying identified marginally significantly more with the

protagonist in the film clip (M = 3.35, SD = .88) than participants were not bullied in the past (M

= 3.12, SD = .86), F(1,234) = 3.87, p = .05. These results support the reasonable validity of the

self-report measure of experience with having been bullied.

To check for relationships between the dependent and the independent variables in this

study, a correlation analysis was run. The analysis concerned all variables that would be used to

test the hypotheses and research question: the independent variables experience with having been

bullied, and emotional responsiveness when thinking about bullying, and the dependent variables

preference for watching films about bullying, enjoyment, coping through both rumination and

reflection, perceived realism, information value, and eudaimonic viewing motives. To check the

29

relation between the two types of storylines, the preference for watching other storylines was also

added to the analysis.

Table 1 – Means, and standard deviations of, and correlations

between all variables relating to H1-6 and the RQ

M

SD

BE

ER

BSP

OSP

EN

RUM

REFL

PR

IV

EU

bullying experience (PE)

1.54

.65

1

emotional responsiveness (ER) 2.03 1.00 .36** 1

bullying storyline preference (BSP) 2.63 1.02 .25** .27** 1

other storyline preference (OSP) 2.49 .89 .09 .24** .73** 1

enjoyment (EN) 2.56 .94 .12^ .23** .42** .36** 1

coping through rumination (RUM) 2.01 .62 .32** .31** .32** .33** .35** 1

coping through reflection (REFL) 2.57 .78 .17** .32** .43** .43** .48** .61** 1

perceived realism (PR) 3.61 .86 .12^ .22** .18** .12^ .34** .26** .30** 1

information value (IV) 3.66 .75 .06 .19** .21** .14* .31** .27** .38** .69** 1

eudaimonic viewing motives (EU) 2.44 .80 .32** .45** .50** .41** .51** .45** .55** .32** .31** 1

Note. ^ p < .10, * p < .05, ** p < .01

In the correlation analysis most of the correlations were significant (see Table 1), indicating there

are relationships between the variables that can be tested. Five correlations were just marginally

significant, or not significant at all, three of which are of relevance to the hypotheses testing in

this study. The correlations between experience with having been bullied and both enjoyment (r

= .12, p < .10), and perceived realism (r = .12, p < .10) were only marginally significant, and the

correlation between bullying experience and information value (r = .06, p = .33) was not

significant at all. This may affect the testing of H2 and H4; especially the testing of H4, since the

non-significant correlation between experience with having been bullied and information value

might indicate there is no relation between these variables at all.

Besides that, there was also a significant correlation that may affect the testing of the

hypothesis: the correlation between the two types of storylines in the questionnaire (r = .73, p <

.01). This high correlation may suggest there was not too much difference between participants’

preference to watch films about either bullying or other topics, which may have consequences for

30

the testing of H1. Using a repeated measures t-test, participants’ preference for bullying-related

storylines was compared to their preference for other storylines. Participants were significantly

more interested in storylines about bullying (M = 2.63, SD = 1.02) than in storylines about other

topics (M = 2.49, SD = .89), t(235) = 2.90, p < .01. Since the pretest also showed participants

significantly preferred the bullying storylines, preference for other storylines was entered into the

regression that was used for testing H1, to control for the influence of this variable.

As final part of the preliminary analyses, the hierarchical regressions that were going to be

conducted were run including the demographic variables age, gender, and education as

covariates. The results of the regression analyses showed that the covariate age and education had

to be excluded when testing the influences on bullying storyline preference, coping through

reflection, information value, perceived realism, and eudaimonic viewing motives. The

influences of these covariates were not significant (see the results of the concerning regressions

below for the values of the excluded covariates). The results were different regarding the analyses

with enjoyment and coping through rumination as dependent variables. The covariate education

was not included in the regression testing the influence on enjoyment, t(236) = .54, p = .59,

b(SEb) = .05 (.08), = .04, and the covariate age was not included in the regression testing the

influence on rumination, t(236) = -.09, p = .93, b(SEb) = -.002 (.02), = -.01. Based on these

results, it makes sense to enter the covariate gender into all the regressions. Besides that, the

covariate age will be entered into the regression with enjoyment as dependent variable, and the

covariate education will be entered into the regression with rumination as dependent variable.

To summarize this section, a few things can be concluded from the preliminary analyses.

First of all, the “manipulation” of experience with having been bullied was not that successful,

which means conclusions regarding the influence of prior experience should be drawn carefully.

Besides that, the preliminary analyses showed that the preference for other storylines should be

taken into consideration when testing the hypothesis about the preference for bullying storylines.

31

Finally, the results showed the importance of including gender in the testing of all the hypotheses.

The testing of hypotheses will be next.

Testing H1: media preference

To test H1, a hierarchical regression was conducted with preference for bullying storylines as

dependent variable, with gender and preference for other storylines in Block 1, experience with

being bullied and emotional responsiveness when thinking about bullying in Block 2, and the

interaction-effect between experience and emotions in Block 3. The covariates age, t(236) = -

1.67, p = .10, b(SEb) = -.04 (.03), = -.08, and education, t(236) = -.40, p = .69, b(SEb) = -.03

(.07), = -.02, were not included, because those influences were not significant.

Table 2 – Hierarchical regression analysis (Block 2 and 3) of the influences

on preference for bullying storylines

variable t p b(SEb)

gender

1.66

.10

.16 (.10)

.08

preference other storylines 15.45 .00 .78 (.05) .68

bullying experience 3.67 .00 .27 (.07) .17

emotional responsiveness .45 .66 .02 (.05) .02

gender

1.62

.11

.15 (.10)

.08

preference other storylines 14.58 .00 .78 (.05) .68


emotional responsiveness 1.70 .09 .16 (.10) .16

experience X emotions -1.71 .09 -.08 (.05) -.24

Note. R² Block 2 = .75, R² Block 3 = .76

H1a stated that adolescents who were bullied would be more interested in watching bullying-

related films than those without experience with being bullied. The results of the regression

showed there was a significant influence from experience with having been bullied on preference

32

for storylines about bullying, t(236) = 3.67, p < .01, b(SEb) = .27 (.07), = .17 (see Table 2).

Participants who were bullied were more interested in watching bullying-related films (M = 2.77,

SD = .96) than those without experience with being bullied (M = 2.51, SD = 1.06). Thus, H1a was

confirmed: participants who were bullied were more interested in watching bullying-related films

than those without experience with being bullied.

H1b stated that emotional responsiveness would interact with experience with having been

bullied, such that the effect of H1a would be larger among those high on negative emotions than

among those low on negative emotions. The results showed no significant main influence of

emotional responsiveness, t(236) = .475, p = .66, b(SEb) = .02 (.05), = .02. But when controlling

for the interaction between experience and emotions, this effect was marginally significant, t(236)

= 1.70, p < .10, b(SEb) = .16 (.10), = .16. Participants high on negative emotions were slightly

more interested in bullying storylines (M = 2.79, SD = .96) than participants low on negative

emotions (M = 2.43, SD = 1.06). The interaction between experience and emotions was just

marginally significant as well, t(236) = -1.71, p < .10, b(SEb) = -.08 (.05), = -.24. Participants that

were bullied and low on negative emotions were more interested in storylines about bullying (M =

2.54, SD = 1.08) than participants who were also low on negative emotions, but had no experience

with bullying (M = 2.37, SD = 1.04). Among participants high on negative emotions, participants

who were bullied were also more interested in storylines about bullying (M = 2.91, SD = .86) than

participants who had no experience with bullying (M = 2.67, SD = 1.05; see Figure 1). Thus, H1b

was confirmed: there was an interaction between experience with having been bullied and

emotional responsiveness, causing the effect as claimed in H1a to be slightly larger among

participants high on negative emotions than among those low on negative emotions.

33

Figure 1 – Influence of the interaction between experience with having been bullied and

emotional responsiveness on preference for bullying storylines

Testing H2: enjoyment

To test H2, a hierarchical regression was conducted with enjoyment as dependent variable, the

covariates age and gender was entered in Block 1, experience with having been bullied,

emotional responsiveness when thinking about bullying, and the exposure conditions in Block 2,

the interaction-effect between the independent variables in Block 3, and the three-way interaction

in Block 4. The covariate education was not included, because its influence was not significant,

t(236) = .54, p = .59, b(SEb) = .05 (.08), = .04.

H2a stated that adolescents who were bullied would enjoy watching a bullying-related film

clip more than those without experience with being bullied. The results showed a non-significant

main influence of experience with having been bullied, t(236) = 1.15, p = .25, b(SEb) = .11 (.10),

= .08 (see Table 3). Thus, H2a was rejected: there was no difference between participants with and

without experience regarding their enjoyment of the bullying-related film clip.

34

Table 3 – Hierarchical regression analysis (Bock 2 and 3) of the influences on enjoyment

variable t p b(SEb)

age 2.96 .00 .09 (.03) .19

gender 4.45 .00 .53 (.12) .28



exposure condition 1.36 .18 .16 (.11) .08

age 4.50 .00 .53 (.12) .29

gender 3.01 .00 .10 (.03) .19

bullying experience .98 .33 .20 (.20) .14


exposure condition -1.30 .20 -.42 (.33) -.23

experience X emotions -1.34 .18 -.08 (.06) -.27

experience X exposure 1.75 .08 .33 (.19) .31

emotions X exposure .26 .80 .03 (.12) .04


H2b stated that emotional responsiveness would interact with bullying experience, such that the

effect of H2a would be larger among those high on negative emotions than among those low on

negative emotions. The results showed a marginally significant main influence emotional

responsiveness when thinking about bullying on enjoyment, t(236) = 2.00, p < .10, b(SEb) = .13

(.06), = .13. Participants who were high on negative emotions enjoyed the film clip more (M =

2.70, SD = .91) than participants low on emotions (M = 2.38, SD = .94). In the interaction model,

there was even more influence of emotional responsiveness, t(236) = 1.68, p < .10, b(SEb) = .25

(.15), = .27. But the model that included the interactions did not explain more of the variability

in enjoyment than the model without the interactions, R² = .41, R² = .02, Fchange (3,227) = 1.84,

p = .14. This was reflected in the non-significant interaction between experience with having

been bullied and emotional responsiveness, t(236) = -1.34, p = .18, b(SEb) = -.08 (.06), = -.27.

Thus, H2b was rejected: emotional responsiveness did not interact with experience with having

35

been bullied, although participants were high on negative emotions enjoyed the film clip more

than participants that were low on negative emotions.

Testing H3: coping with emotions

To complement Nabi et al. (2006), a measure for coping was introduced in the current study. But

prior to testing the hypotheses connected to this, the emotional responsiveness of the participants

when thinking about bullying prior to watching the bullying-related film clip were compared to

their emotional responsiveness after watching the clip, like Nabi et al. did to measure coping. A

repeated measures analyses of variance (GLM Repeated Measures) was conducted with

emotional responsive prior to and after watching as the within-subject factors, and experience

with having been bullied as the between-subjects factor. The results of the analysis showed that

participants that were bullied were significantly more emotional after watching (M = 2.42, SD =

1.11) than prior to watching (M = 2.28, SD = 1.09), F(1,234) = 15.36, p < .01. They were also

significantly more emotional than the participants without experience with bullying, F(1,234) =

11.25, p < .01, who in turn were also more emotional after watching (M = 2.03, SD = 1.04) than

prior to watching (M = 1.83, SD = .87). These results would suggest the bullying-related film

clip did not help participants cope with their emotions, but made them more emotional.

Next, the hypotheses about coping through either rumination or reflection were tested

using the measured coping data. Two hierarchical regressions were conducted, one with coping

through rumination as dependent variable, the other with coping through reflection as dependent

variable. In both regressions, the covariate gender was entered in Block 1, experience with having

been bullied, emotional responsiveness when thinking about bullying, and the exposure

conditions in Block 2, the interaction-effect between the independent variables in Block 3, and

the three-way interaction in Block 4. In the regression with rumination as dependent variable the

covariate age was not included, because its influence was not significant t(236) = -.09, p = .93,

36

b(SEb) = -.002 (.02), = -.01, while both the covariates age, t(236) = 1.10, p = .27, b(SEb) = .03

(.03), = .07, and education, t(236) = .24, p = 81, b(SEb) = .02 (.07), = .02, were not included

in the regression with reflection as dependent variable.

Table 4 – Hierarchical regression analysis (Block 2 and 3)

of the influences on rumination, and on reflection

Rumination Reflection

variable

t

p

b(SEb)

t

p

b(SEb)

gender

1.76

.08

.14 (.08)

.11

4.40

.00

.42 (.10)

.27

education -2.72 .01 -.14 (.05) -.17 - - - -

bullying experience 3.55 .00 .22 (.06) .23 .83 .41 .06 (.08) .05

emotional responsiveness 3.54 .00 .15 (.04) .24 3.60 .00 .18 (.05) .24

exposure condition .18 .86 .01 (.07) .01 -1.36 .18 -.13 (.09) -.08

gender

1.77

.08

.14 (.08)

.11

4.37

.00

.42 (.10)

.27

education -2.51 .01 -.13 (.05) -.15 - - - -

bullying experience -.34 .73 -.04 (.13) -.05 .70 .49 .11 (.16) .09

emotional responsiveness -.59 .56 -.06 (.10) -.09 1.37 .17 .17 (.12) .22

exposure condition -1.17 .24 -.25 (.21) -.20 -1.25 .21 -.33 (.27) -.22

experience X emotions 2.23 .03 .09 (.04) .43 -.38 .71 -.02 (.05) -.07

experience X exposure .52 .60 .07 (12) .09 .10 .92 .02 (.16) .02

emotions X exposure 1.03 .31 .08 (.08) .17 .89 .37 .09 (.10) .15

Note. Rumination: R² Block 2 = .43, R² Block 3 = .46

Reflection: R² Block 2 = .43, R² Block 3 = .43

H3a stated that adolescents that were bullied would score higher on coping with emotions than

adolescents without experience with bullying. The results of the regression with rumination as

dependent variable showed a significant influence of experience with having been bullied on

rumination, t(236) = 3.55, p < .01, b(SEb) = .22 (.06), = .23 (see Table 4). Participants with

experience with bullying scored higher on coping by ruminating their emotions (M = 2.14, SD =

.67) than participants without experience with bullying (M = 1.91, SD = .56). But the results of

the regression with reflection as dependent variable showed no significant influence of

37

experience with having been bullied on reflection, t(236) = .83, p = .41, b(SEb) = .06 (.08), =

.05. Thus, H3a was confirmed for the coping strategy rumination, but rejected for the coping

strategy reflection: participants who were bullied scored higher on coping through rumination

than participants without experience with bullying, but as high on coping through reflection.

H3b stated that emotional responsiveness would interact with bullying experience, such

that the effect of H3a would be larger among those high on negative emotions than among those

low on negative emotions. First, the results of the regression with rumination as dependent

variable showed a significant main influence of experience with having been bullied on

rumination, t(236) = 3.54, p < .01, b(SEb) = .15 (.04), = .24. Participants who were high on

negative emotions scored significantly higher on coping by ruminating their emotions (M = 2.12,

SD = .65) than participants who were low on negative emotions (M = 1.87, SD = .55). The results

of the regression with reflection as dependent variable also showed a significant main influence

of experience with having been bullied on reflection, t(236) = 3.60, p < .01, b(SEb) = .18 (.05),

= .24. Participants who were high on negative emotions scored higher on coping by reflection on

their emotions (M = 2.73, SD = .74) than participants who were low on negative emotions (M =

2.37, SD = .78).

But H3b was not about the main effect of emotional responsiveness, but claimed there

would be an interaction with prior experience. Including the interaction variables into the

regression explained more of the variability in coping for rumination, R² = .46, R² = .02, Fchange

(3,227) = 2.26, p < .10, but not for reflection, R² = .43, R² = .004, Fchange (3,228) = .41, p = .75.

The latter was reflected by the non-significant influence of the interaction experience with having

been bullied and emotional responsiveness on reflection, t(236) = -.38, p = .71, b(SEb) = -.02

(.05), = -.07. But the interaction had a significant influence on rumination, t(236) = 2.23, p <

.05, b(SEb) = .09 (.04), = .43. Participants that were bullied and low on negative emotions

scored higher on coping through ruminating their emotions (M = 2.02, SD = .55) than participants

38

who were also low on negative emotions, but had no experience with bullying (M = 1.79, SD =

.53). Among participants high on negative emotions, participants who were bullied also scored

higher on rumination (M = 2.21, SD = .73) than participants who had no experience with bullying

(M = 2.03, SD = .56; see Figure 2).

Figure 2 – Influence of the interaction between experience with having been bullied

and emotional responsiveness on coping through rumination

Thus, H3b was confirmed for the coping strategy rumination: there was an interaction between

experience with having been bullied and emotional responsiveness, although the effect did not

seem to be larger among those high on negative emotions than among those low on negative

emotions as the hypothesis claimed. Regarding the coping strategy reflection, H3b was rejected:

emotional responsiveness did not interact with experience with having been bullied, although

participants who were high on negative emotions scored higher on coping by reflection on their

emotions than participants low on negative emotions.

Analyzing the RQ: coping and enjoyment

Regarding the connection between enjoyment and the coping strategies rumination and reflection,

a research question was formulated. This was investigated by adding both coping strategies to the

39

hierarchical regression that was conducted previously to test H2. With age and gender already in

Block 1, and experience with having been bullied and emotional responsiveness when thinking

about bullying in Block 2, the different coping strategies rumination and reflection were entered

in Block 3.

Table 5 – Hierarchical regression analysis (Block 3)

of the effect of coping through rumination and reflection on enjoyment

variable t p b(SEb)

age

2.53

.01

.07 (.03)

.15

gender 2.70 .01 .31 (.12) .17


emotional responsiveness 68 .50 .04 (.06) .04

rumination .94 .35 .11 (11) .07

reflection 4.78 .00 .44 (.09) .36

Note. R² Block 3 = .53

The model with the separate coping strategies was significant, F(6,229) = 14.67, p < .01, and

explained significantly more of the variability in enjoyment than the model without any coping

variables, R² = .53, R² = .14, Fchange (2,229) = 21.35, p < .01. But only more reflection on one’s

emotions tended to be positively related to enjoyment, t(236) = 4.78, p < .01, b(SEb) = .44 (.09),

= .36 (see Table 5). Rumination had no significant influence on enjoyment, t(236) = .94, p = .28,

b(SEb) = .11 (.11), = .07. Thus, to formulate an answer on the research question, the coping

strategy reflection was positively related to enjoyment, but there was no influence of rumination

on enjoyment.

40

Testing H4: perceived realism and information value

The next hypotheses were about the effect of experience with having been bullied, emotional

responsiveness when thinking about bullying, and the different exposure conditions on perceived

realism and information value. Two hierarchical regressions were conducted: one with perceived

realism as dependent variable, the other with information value as dependent variable. Gender was

entered in Block 1, experience with having been bullied, emotional responsiveness when thinking

about bullying, and the exposure conditions in Block 2, the interaction-effect between the

independent variables in Block 3, and the three-way interaction in Block 4. In the regression with

perceived realism as dependent variable the covariates age, t(236) = -1.06, p = .29, b(SEb) = -.03

(.03), = -.07, and education, t(236) = .67, p = .50, b(SEb) = .05 (.08), = .05, were not included,

because those influences were not significant. The same went for the regression with information

value as dependent variable, since age, t(236) = -.79, p = .43, b(SEb) = -.02 (.03), = -.05, and

education, t(236) = .75, p = .46, b(SEb) = .05 (.07), = .05, were no significant influences in this

regression as well.

H4a stated that adolescents who were bullied would 1) perceive lower levels of realism

and 2) attribute less information value to the bullying-related film clip than adolescents without

experience with having been bullied. The results of the regressions showed no significant

influence of experience with having been bullied; neither on perceived realism, t(236) = .71, p =

.48, b(SEb) = .06 (.09), = .05 (see Table 6), nor on information value, t(236) = -.20, p = .84,

b(SEb) = -.02 (.08), = -.01. Thus, H4a was rejected: bullied participants perceived the same

levels of realism and attributed as much information value to the film clip were as participants

without experience with bullying.

41

Table 6 – Hierarchical regression analyses (Block 2, 3, and 4) of the influences

on perceived realism, and on information value

Perceived realism Information value

variable

t

p

b(SEb)

t

p

b(SEb)

gender

3.57

.00

.39 (.11)

.23

4.12

.00

.39 (.10)

.26

experience .71 .48 .06 (.09) .05 -.20 .84 -.02 (.08) -.01

emotions 2.12 .04 .12 (.06) .14 1.93 .06 .10 (.05) .13

exposure 2.52 .01 .27 (.11) .16 1.36 .18 .13 (.10) .09

gender

3.57

.00

.39 (.11)

.23

4.03

.00

.39 (.10)

.26

experience .58 .56 .11 (.19) .08 -.78 .44 -.13 (.16) -.11

emotions 1.67 .10 .24 (.14) .27 .92 .36 .11 (.12) .15

exposure 1.39 .17 .43 (.31) .25 .19 .85 .05 (.27) .03

experience X emotions -.47 .64 -.03 (.06) -.10 .31 .76 .02 (.05) .06

experience X exposure .27 .79 .05 (.18) .05 .98 .33 .15 (.16) .18

emotions X emotions -1.00 .32 -.12 (.12) -.17 -.77 .44 -.08 (.10) -.13

gender

3.73

.00

.41 (.11)

.24

4.26

.00

.41 (.10)

.27

experience -.53 .60 -.12 (.23) -.09 -1.93 .05 -.38 (.10) -.33

emotions .35 .73 .06 (.17) .07 -.56 .57 -.08 (.15) -.11

exposure -.79 .43 -.47 (.60) -.27 -1.84 .-7 -.96 (.52) -.64

experience X emotions .82 .42 .06 (.08) .22 1.74 .08 .12 (.07) .48

experience X exposure 1.65 .10 .60 (.37) .61 2.44 .02 .78 (.32) .91

emotions X emotions 1.02 .31 .24 (.24) .35 1.57 .12 .32 (.20) .54

experience X emotions X exposure -1.74 .08 -.20 (.12) -.62 -2.25 .03 -.23 (.10) -.81

Note. Perceived realism: R² Block 2 = .12, R² Block 3 = .12, R² Block 4 = .14

Information value: R² Block 2 = .11, R² Block 3 = .11, R² Block 4 = .13

H4b stated that adolescents who were high on negative emotions would 1) perceive higher levels

of realism and 2) attribute more information value to the bullying-related film clip than

adolescents low on negative emotions. The results of the regression with perceived realism as

dependent variable showed a significant main influence of emotional responsiveness, t(236) =

2.12, p < .05, b(SEb) = .12 (.06), = .14. Participants who were high on negative emotions

perceived higher levels of realism (M = 3.70, SD = .75) than adolescents low on negative

42

emotions (M = 3.49, SD = .97). The results of the regression with information value as dependent

variable showed a marginally significant main influence of emotional responsiveness, t(236) =

1.93, p < .10, b(SEb) = .10 (.05), = .13. Participants who were high on negative emotions

attributed more information value to the film clip (M = 3.73, SD = .67) than adolescents low on

negative emotions (M = 3.57, SD = .82). Thus, H4b was confirmed: participants who were high

on negative emotions perceived higher levels of realism and attributed more information value to

the bullying-related film clip than participants low on negative emotions.

H4c stated that adolescents in the reflection film clip condition would 1) perceive higher

levels of realism and 2) attribute more information value to the bullying-related film clip than

adolescents in the rumination film clip condition. The results of the regression with perceived

realism as dependent variable showed a significant main influence of emotional responsiveness,

t(236) = 2.52, p < .05, b(SEb) = .27 (.11), = .16. Participants in the reflection condition perceived

higher levels of realism (M = 3.73, SD = .86) than participants in the rumination condition (M =

3.48, SD = .85). But there was no significant influence of the exposure condition on information

value, t(236) = 1.36, p = .18, b(SEb) = .13 (.09), = .09. Thus, H4c was confirmed for perceived

realism, but rejected for information value: participants in the reflection film clip condition

perceived the bullying-related film clip as being more realistic than adolescents in the rumination

film clip condition, but in both conditions the participants attributed as much information value to

the clip.

43

Figure 3 – Influence of the three-way interaction between experience with having been bullied, emotional

responsiveness and the exposure conditions on perceived realism, and on information value

Although there were no significant two-way interactions (see Table 6), taken together experience

between having been bullied, emotional responsiveness, and the exposure conditions significantly

affected perceived realism, t(236) = -1.74, p < .10, b(SEb) = -.20 (.12), = -.62, and information

value, t(236) = -2.25, p < .05, b(SEb) = -.23 (.10), = -.81, as three-way interaction. The

participants, perceived higher levels of realism and attributed more information value to the film

clip higher when they were in the reflection film clip condition than those in the rumination film

clip condition, whether they were with or without experience with having been bullied, either high

or low on negative emotions (see Figure 3, and Table 7). Thus, there was a three-way interaction

between experience between having been bullied, emotional responsiveness, and the exposure

conditions: participants perceived higher levels of realism and attributed more information value to

the bullying-related film clip in the reflection condition than in the rumination film condition.

44

Table 7 – Means and standard deviations for the influence of the three-way interaction between experience

with having been bullied, emotional responsiveness and the exposure conditions

on perceived realism, and on information value

Perceived

realism

Information

value

M

SD

M

SD

Not bullied

Low on emotions

Rumination clip

3.27

.98

3.50

.93

Reflection clip 3.61 .97 3.57 .87

High on emotions Rumination clip 3.52 .71 3.71 .50


Bullied Low on emotions Rumination clip 3.38 .99 3.54 .75


High on emotions Rumination clip 3.71 .73 3.64 .71


Testing H5: perceived realism, information value, and enjoyment

Regarding the connection between enjoyment and both perceived realism and information value,

a hypothesis was formulated. H5 stated that both perceived value and information value would

have a positive relation with enjoyment. These relations were investigated by adding perceived

realism and information value to the hierarchical regression that was conducted previously to test

H2, and the research question testing the effect of coping on enjoyment. With age and gender

already in Block 1, experience with having been bullied and emotional responsiveness when

thinking about bullying in Block 2, and the coping strategies rumination and reflection in Block

3, information value was entered in Block 4, and perceived realism in Block 5. Information value

was entered into the regression analysis prior to perceived realism to be able to see whether

perceived realism mediated the effect of information value on enjoyment.

45

Table 8 – Hierarchical regression analysis (Block 4 and 5)

of the influences of information value and perceived realism on enjoyment

variable t p b(SEb)

age 2.79 .01 .08 (.03) .16

gender 2.33 .12 .27 (.12) .14



rumination .80 .43 .09 (.11) .06

reflection 4.23 .00 .39 (.09) .32

information value 2.28 .02 .18 (.08) .14

age 2.95 .00 .09 (.03) .17

gender 2.20 .03 .25 (.11) .13



rumination .63 .53 .07 (.11) .05

reflection 4.33 .00 .40 (.09) .33

information value .19 .85 .02 (.10) .02

perceived realism 2.55 .01 .21 (.08) .20


The model to which information value was added was significant, F(7,228) = 13.54, p < .01, and

had a significantly higher explained variance than the model with age, gender, experience with

having been bullied, emotional responsiveness, and the coping strategies, R² = .54, R² = .02,

Fchange (1,228) = 5.18, p < .05. Higher levels of information value tended to be positively related

to enjoyment, t(236) = 2.28, p < .05, b(SEb) = .18 (.08), = .14 (see Table 8). Entering perceived

realism also produced a significant model, F(7,228) = 12.94, p < .01, again explaining

significantly more of the variability in enjoyment than the previous model, R² = .56, R² = .02,

Fchange (1,227) = 6.48, p < .05. But while higher levels of perceived realism were positively

46

related to enjoyment, t(236) = 2.55, p < .05, b(SEb) = .21 (.08), = .20, the effect of information

value on enjoyment was no longer significant, t(236) = .19, p = .85, b(SEb) = .02 (.10), = .02.

Thus, H5 was confirmed: both information value and perceived realism were positively related to

enjoyment, but perceived realism mediated the effect of information value. When taking into

account perceived realism, information value had no direct influence on enjoyment anymore, but

only indirectly through perceived realism.

Testing H6: eudaimonic viewing motives

The final hypotheses were about eudaimonic viewing motivations. A hierarchical regression was

conducted with eudaimonic viewing motives as dependent variable, with gender in Block 1,

experience with having been bullied, emotional responsiveness when thinking about bullying,

and the exposure conditions in Block 2, the interaction-effect between the independent variables

in Block 3, and the three-way interaction in Block 4. The covariates age, t t(236) = .98, p = .33,

b(SEb) = .03 (.03), = .07, and education, t(236) = 1.13, p = .26, b(SEb) = -.08 (.07), = .08,

were not included, because those influences were not significant.

H6a stated that adolescents who were bullied would score higher on eudaimonic viewing

motives than adolescents without experience with bullying. The results showed a significant

influence of experience with having been bullied, t(236) = 2.90, p < .01, b(SEb) = .22 (.07), =

.17 (see Table 9). Participants with experience with bullying scored higher on eudaimonic

motives for enjoying the film clip (M = 2.28, SD = .96) than participants without experience with

bullying (M = 1.97, SD = .82). Thus, H6a was confirmed: bullied participants scored higher on

eudaimonic viewing motives than participants without experience with bullying.

47

Table 9 – Hierarchical regression analysis (Block 2, 3, and 4) of the influences

on eudaimonic viewing motives

variable t p b(SEb)

gender

3.82

.00

.36 (.10)

.22

experience 2.90 .00 .22 (.07) .17

emotions 5.29 .00 .26 (.05) .33

exposure .46 .65 .04 (.09) .03

gender

3.84

.00

.36 (.09)

.22

experience .24 .82 .04 (.16) .03

emotions .72 .47 .09 (.12) .11

exposure -1.02 .31 -.27 (.26) .24

experience X emotions 1.28 .20 .06 (.05) .24

experience X exposure .27 .79 .04 (.15) .04

emotions X emotions 1.25 .21 .12 (.10) .19

gender

4.02

.00

.37 (.09)

.23

experience -.92 .36 -.18 (.19) -.14

emotions -.54 .59 -.08 (.15) -.10

exposure -2.19 .03 -1.11 (.51) -.69

experience X emotions 2.25 .03 .15 (.07) .56

experience X exposure 1.82 .07 .56 (.31) .61

emotions X emotions 2.30 .02 .46 (.20) .72

experience X emotions X exposure -1.94 .05 -.19 (.10) -.63

Note. R² Block 2 = .27, R² Block 3 = .28, R² Block 4 = .30

H6b stated that adolescents who were high on negative emotions would score higher on

eudaimonic viewing motives than adolescents who were low on negative emotions. The results

showed a significant influence of emotional responsiveness when thinking about bullying on,

t(236) = 5.29, p < .01, b(SEb) = .26 (.05), = .33. Participants who were high on negative emotions

scored significantly higher on eudaimonic viewing motives (M = 2.33, SD = .93) than participants

who were low on negative emotions (M = 1.83, SD = .76). Thus, H6b was confirmed: participants

48

who were high on negative emotions scored higher on eudaimonic viewing motives than

participants who were low on negative emotions.

H6c stated that adolescents in the reflection film clip condition would score higher on

eudaimonic viewing motives than adolescents in the rumination film clip condition. The results

showed no significant influence of the exposure conditions, t(236) = .46, p = .65, b(SEb) = .04

(.09), = .03. Thus, H6c was rejected: participants in both conditions scored equally high on

eudaimonic viewing conditions.

Besides the main influences of experience with having been bullied, emotional

responsiveness when thinking about bullying, and the exposure conditions, interactions between

these variables were also entered into the regressions. Although entering the two-way interactions

into the regession did not explain more of the variability in eudaimonic viewing motives, explained

variance did not improve, R² = .28, R² = .01, Fchange (3,228) = 1.19, p = .31. entering the three-

way interaction into the model did, R² = .30, R² = .01, Fchange (1,227) = 3.76, p < .10. The three-

way interaction between experience with having been bullied, emotional responsiveness when

thinking about bullying, and the different exposure conditions had a significant influence on

eudaimonic viewing motives, t(236) = -1.94, p < .10, b(SEb) = -.19 (.10), = -.63.

Table 10 – Means and standard deviations for the influence of the three-way interaction

on eudaimonic viewing motives

M SD

Not bullied

Low on emotions

Rumination clip

1.88

.69

Reflection clip 1.64 .66

High on emotions Rumination clip 2.12 .87


Bullied Low on emotions Rumination clip 1.80 .87


High on emotions Rumination clip 2.42 .95


49

Participants low on negative emotions that were not bullied scored higher on eudaimonic viewing

motives in the rumination condition (M = 1.88, SD = .69; see also Table 10) than in the reflection

condition (M = 1.64, SD = .66), while bullied participants low on negative emotions scored

higher eudaimonic viewing motives in the reflection condition (M = 2.18, SD = .89) than in the

rumination condition (M = 1.80, SD = .87). Comparing the participants high on negative

emotions, showed that participants that had no experience with bullying scored higher on

eudaimonic viewing motives in the reflection condition (M = 2.32, SD = .92) than in the

rumination condition (M = 2.12, SD = .87), and bullied participants scored slightly higher on

coping in the reflection condition (M = 2.47, SD = .98) than in the rumination condition (M =

2.42, SD = .95; see also Figure 4).

Figure 4 – Influence of the three-way interaction between experience with having been bullied, emotional

responsiveness and the exposure conditions on eudaimonic viewing motives

Thus, taken together, experience between having been bullied, emotional responsiveness, and the

exposure conditions had a negative relationship with eudaimonic viewing motives: while

participants with experience with bullying who were low on negative emotions scored higher on

eudaimonic viewing motives in the rumination condition than in the reflection condition, all the

other participants scored higher on eudaimonic viewing motives in the reflection condition than

in the rumination condition.

50

Summarizing the results

Since the results of the testing of a lot hypotheses were discussed in this chapter, an overview of

the results is presented below (see Table 11).

Table 11 – Overview of the hypotheses tested in this study

H1a Bullied adolescents were more interested in bullying-related films than non-bullied adolescents.

H1b An interaction was found between experience with having been bullied and emotional responsiveness

when thinking about bullying, influencing preference of bullying-related films.

H2a Bullied adolescents did not enjoy the bullying-related film clip more than non-bullied adolescents.

H2b No interaction was found between experience with having been bullied and emotional responsiveness

when thinking about bullying, influencing the enjoyment of the bullying-related film clip.

H3a Bullied adolescents scored higher on coping through rumination than non-bullied adolescents, but as

high on coping through reflection.

H3b An interaction was found between experience with having been bullied and emotional responsiveness

when thinking about bullying, influencing coping through rumination. No interaction was found

influencing coping through reflection.

RQ Coping through reflection had a positive influence on enjoyment, but coping through rumination had no

influence on enjoyment.

H4a Bullied adolescents 1) did not perceive lower levels of realism and 2) did not attribute less information

value to the than non-bullied adolescents.

H4b Adolescents high on negative emotions 1) perceived higher levels of realism and 2) attributed more

information value to the bullying related film clip than adolescents low on negative emotions.

H4c Adolescents in the reflection film clip condition 1) perceived higher levels of realism, but 2)did not

attribute more information value to the bullying-related film clip than adolescents in the rumination film

clip condition.

Results showed a three-way interaction that significantly influenced perceived realism and information value.

H5 Both perceived value and information value had a positive influence on enjoyment. with perceived

realism mediating the influence of information value.

H6a Bullied adolescents scored higher on eudaimonic viewing motives than non-bullied adolescents.

H6b Adolescents high on negative emotions scored higher on eudaimonic viewing motives than adolescents

low on negative emotions.

H6c Adolescents in the reflection film clip condition did not score higher on eudaimonic viewing motives

than adolescents in the rumination film clip condition.

Results showed a three-way interaction that significantly influenced eudaimonic viewing motives.

51

CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION

The present study focused on the effects of experience with having been bullied among

adolescents, the level of negative emotions when thinking about bullying, and watching a

bullying-related film clip showing either one of the coping strategies, rumination or reflection.

The experimental film clip conditions were embedded in an electronic questionnaire to gather the

data for testing the effects of these conditions. The dependent variables in this study were media

preference, enjoyment, coping, information value, perceived realism, and eudaimonic viewing

motives. The study by Nabi et al. (2006) served as a model for the current research, with the

additional perspectives of Konijn et al. (2009), and Oliver and Raney (in press).

Conclusions

Summarizing the main conclusions of the present study, prior experience and emotional

responsiveness proved to have an influence on media preference. In such a way that adolescents

with a certain experience were more interested in experience-related media than adolescents

without that experience. Being high on emotions when thinking about the experience amplified

this effect. At first sight, prior experience and emotional responsiveness did not seem to affect the

enjoyment of the experience-related media. But why this nevertheless could be interpreted as an

influence is discussed below. Enjoyment was affected by the level of coping that was inspired by

the experience-related film, and by the level of realism and information value users attributed to

the film. Besides that, both being experience and responding emotional when thinking about that

experience resulted in more eudaimonic viewing motives for watching an experience-related

film. The research question of this study will be answered below. Some of the main results need

to be elaborated on before it is possible to properly answer the question.

52

Discussion

The first hypotheses of this study were based on the main hypotheses in Nabi et al. (2006). The

influences of experience with having been bullied and emotional responsiveness when thinking

about bullying on adolescents’ preference for and enjoyment of bullying-related media were

tested. Nabi et al.’s hypotheses were confirmed, but our results only clearly showed adolescents’

interest in bullying-related films being influenced. Adolescents who were bullied were more

interested in watching bullying-related films than those without experience. The difference

between them was larger among those who were high on emotions when thinking about bullying.

These results strengthened the assumptions made by Nabi et al. (2006): people may turn to media

for its therapeutic effect.

However, in their study, Nabi et al. (2006) assumed that gaining new insights in how to

cope with experience-related emotions would lead to enjoyment. This assumption cannot be

confirmed based on the results of the present study. Adolescents with experience with having

been bullied did not enjoy the bullying-related film clip more than adolescents without

experience. This contradicted the study by Nabi et al. (2006). Their results showed experienced

participants enjoyed the experience-related TV show more than the participants without

experience. Our findings seem to challenge the assumption about the enjoyment of coping

through media. But please note that the bullied adolescents enjoyed the bullying-related film clip

as much as the adolescents who were not bullied. They did not enjoy the film clip less, as would

be expected based on MMT (Zillmann, 1988).

The results of the present study also showed that adolescents with experience with

bullying scored higher on coping with their emotions than adolescents who were not bullied.

Besides that, the relationship between enjoyment and coping was tested. Coping through

reflection had a positive influence on enjoyment. This confirmed what Nabi et al. (2006)

intuitively assumed: enjoyment of media may be caused by the therapeutic effects using media.

53

Then why did this not result in bullied adolescents enjoying the bullying-related film clip more

than the adolescents without experience with having been bullied? They scored higher on coping

after watching the bullying-related film clip, which suggested they were more coping with their

emotions than the adolescents without experience with having been bullied. Should that not lead

to more enjoyment?

Experience with having been bullied is an extremely negative experience (Rigby, 2003;

Leymann & Gustafsson, 1996). Perhaps it is a more extreme experience than cheating or being

cheated on, the experience studied by Nabi et al. (2006). Maybe this makes it harder to

compensate the pain of reliving the experience with the joy of gaining new insights in how to

handle the experience-related emotions. Furthermore, there are a few important differences

between our target group and their experience with having been bullied, and the cheating students

studied by Nabi et al. (2006) It may be argued that students are in a period of their life in which

they experiment with relationships. Hurting a partner along the way is regrettably, but perhaps

not something that hunts them in their sleep. Besides that, maybe the bullying is not a past

experience for the adolescents in our study. The bullying may still be going on. Research on

bullying also showed negative actions inflicted on someone can lead to life-long damage, making

the bullying seem like it happened just yesterday (Leymann, 1996; Leymann & Gustafsson,

1996). Therefore, it may be harder for bullying victims to enjoy bullying-related media than for

cheating students to enjoy media related to their past experience. This does not mean gaining new

insights from the experience-related media did not improved the enjoyment of the bullying-

related film clip by adolescents. Perhaps the bullied adolescents would not have enjoyed the film

clip at all when they would not have had the “learning experience” they now had.

The idea of bullying being an extreme experience is strengthened by other results. The

level of emotional responsiveness when thinking about bullying prior to watching the bullying-

related film clip was compared to the level of emotions after watching. The results showed

showed that all adolescents, whether they were bullied or not, were more emotional after

54

watching than they were prior to watching. The coping with emotions did not immediately

reduces the level of negative emotions when thinking about bullying. Perhaps watching the

protagonist of the film clip being the victim of bullying was too painful to be compensated by the

joy of gaining new insights.

The results may also suggest that the therapeutic effect of watching a bullying-related film

clip if more of a long-term process. Prior research showed ruminating emotions or reflecting on

them is something that takes time. It is associated with identity exploration, not something that

happens overnight (Trapnell & Campell, 1999). Adolescents indicated the film clip made them

want to go either ruminate their emotions or reflect on them. This does not mean they

immediately did it, which may suggest the effect of this kind of coping is more of a long-term

effect. The initial shock of the confrontation with bullying in a film might wear down, and be

replaced by new insight in how to handle the bullying-related emotions. Maybe adolescents will

rate their enjoyment of the film clip higher when they were asked again after some time. This

long-term effect may partly explain of the equal enjoyment of the bullying-related film clip by

both bullied and non-bullied adolescents. But whether it actually works like this, should be

investigated in future research.

Another remark regarding the above is based on the differences between the two coping

strategies that were included in the present study: rumination and reflection. While reflection had

a positive influence on enjoyment, rumination had no influence at all. This may indicate it is too

easy to state that coping though media equals the enjoyment of media. Reflection having a

positive influence on enjoyment made sense. Prior research already connected positive outcomes

with reflecting on one’s emotions, like perspective-taking, and openness to experience (Luyckx et

al., 2007). But prior research associated rumination with higher levels depression, among other

negative things (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 1994). Although coping in general may be enjoyable, a

specific coping strategy like rumination may diminish the joy of gaining new insights. Whether

55

other emotion regulation strategies also have different effects on media enjoyment should be

investigated in future studies.

Perceived realism and information value also had a positive influence on the enjoyment of

the bullying-related film clip. This strengthened the assumption that enjoyment is more than just

the pursuit of pleasure. Gaining information also influenced the enjoyment of certain media

content. These results can be connected to prior research by Tesser, Millar, and Wu (1988), or

more recently by Oliver & Bartsch (2010). They identified “self-development” as a motivational

factor for film enjoyment. This points to the enjoyment of media because it can provide the user

with a more meaningful life experience. Which brings us to the eudaimonic viewing motives

studied in the present study.

The eudaimonic viewing motives were affected by prior experience and emotional

responsiveness. Bullied adolescents indicated to have more eudaimonic viewing motives than

adolescents without experience with bullying. Being high on emotions when thinking about

bullying also resulted in having more eudaimonic viewing motives being low on emotions.

Again, this can be connected to the idea that people may search for other reasons to enjoy certain

media content. Maybe they need to have those other reasons, since they cannot enjoy certain

media content hedonistically. Media users who are confronted with painful memories may

willingly choose to enjoy the media content for different reasons, because the content does not

match their hedonistic aspirations.

The latter assumption is strengthened by the influence of prior experience, emotional

responsiveness and the exposure conditions together on eudaimonic viewing motivations. Just

participants that were not bullied and low on negative emotions scored higher on eudaimonic

viewing motives in the rumination condition than in the reflection condition. The other

participants indicated to have more eudaimonic viewing motives when they were in the reflection

condition. This may suggest that emotional participants (everyone scoring high on emotions, and

those having experience with bullying) are more able to see a film clip that is related to negative

56

emotions as a meaningful experience when they reflect on their emotions; that is, when they are

motivated by curiosity through the induction of the coping strategy reflection (Luyckx, et al.,

2007).

Reflection induced curiosity can be connected to results of the present study regarding the

influence of the exposure conditions on the level of realism and the information value adolescents

attributed to the film clip. The results showed that participants in the reflection condition thought

the realism and the information value of the film clip were higher than the participants in the

rumination condition. Perhaps adolescents who are keen on gathering information pick more

information from certain media content than adolescents who are focused on themselves. This

makes sense when connecting these results to the theory on reflection. While rumination is

defined as neurotic self-attentiveness, reflection was designated as intellectual self-attentiveness,

motivated by curiosity (Luyckx, et al., 2007; Trapnell & Campell, 1999). This may lead to people

that use reflection being more attentive to what they see, being more eager to learn, and possibly

less critical on whether what they see is realistic; as long as they can learn something from it, it is

okay.

A practical implication of this finding is that when using media for educational purposes,

adapting the media content to a kind of “learning mode” can improve the success of the lesson.

This may even be applied to using media in bullying prevention. Additional evidence for this

suggestion is provided by the influence that experience with having been bullied, emotional

responsivess and the exposure conditions together had on eudaimonic viewing motives. These

results may suggest that emotional participants are more able to see a film clip that is related to

negative emotions as a meaningful experience when they reflect on their emotions. When trying

to teach adolescents something about a topic that may inflict negative emotions, inducing them

with a “learning mode” possibly makes the lesson more successful. More research should be done

on this topic before being able to state this will actually work.

57

Answering the research question

To conclude this section, an answer will be formulated to the research questions of the present

study. Two subquestions were attached to this main question: What influence do media users’

prior experiences and emotional responsiveness have on their preference for and enjoyment of

experience-related counter-hedonic media? and What is the effect of coping with emotions

through media and the information value of that media content on the enjoyment of it? Starting

with the first subquestion, it can be concluded that among adolescents both the preference for and

the enjoyment of bullying-related media is affected by prior experience and emotional

responsiveness. As was suggested by Nabi et al. (2006), media can have a therapeutic effect. This

may lead to the enjoyment of media that one would not immediately think of as enjoyable,

especially not among people who themselves lived through the painful experience the film is

about.

Thus, gaining new insights, either in handling experience-related emotions or in the

experience in general, may be the reason people can enjoy this kind of counter-hedonic media.

This helps in answering the main question of this study: Can enjoyment be more than the pursuit

of pleasure? The answer to this is: yes, enjoyment can be more than the pursuit of pleasure.

Whether they actually know what they are doing or not, people may be drawn to counter-hedonic

media to have a “learning experience”. And not just any “learning experience”. This study

showed people are even willing to endure reliving their painful experiences to gain new insights

in their experience and in how to handle the emotions connected to it.

Limitations and future research

A limitation of this study may be the “manipulation” of the experience with having been bullied.

The “manipulation check” showed it was not really successful. Two things may account for the

failed “manipulation”: the “manipulation” induction, and the film clip. First, this study used the

58

VIC (Schwartz et al., 2002), a questionnaire that asked several questions about bullying. This is a

common way to measure peer victimization, or, in other words, being bullied by classmates.

Bullying can happen in so many ways: by physical contact or by words, or by being ignored and

excluded from a group (Olweus, 1993). The approach Nabi et al. (2006) used, just asking

participants whether they had a certain experience, seemed a bit too simple to us. Besides that, as

already discussed above, bullying among adolescents may be less of a past experience than

cheating on one’s partner, the experience tested by Nabi et al. (2006). Bullying victims in

secondary school might even be still in the middle of being bullied. Both may have lead to a less

distinct bullied participants group than just asking a yes-or-no question. This may have affected

the outcomes of the “manipulation check”, and of the overall influence of experience with having

been bullied.

The “manipulation check” may also have failed because of the bullying-related film clip.

The film used in the present study, Bluebird, was not like the Hollywood or Disney productions

to which our participants would probably be more familiar. The images in Bluebird tell the story,

while Hollywood/Disney films are more explicit about the messages they want to share with their

viewers. Perhaps participants associated the film more with a documentary than with the fiction

films they are familiar with. This may have lead to less involvement in the clip and less

identification with the protagonist, which may have caused the “manipulation check” to fail.

The film clip also is a limitation in itself. Two clips were edited from segments of the film

Bluebird to represent the different coping conditions, rumination and reflection. But those coping

strategies represent processes that happen internally. Films usually work with a third person view,

unlike novels that often have a first person storyteller. This makes it easier to have a look in

someone’s head. Bluebird is a third person film, which tells the story by pointing the camera on

the protagonist. Merel does not tell what is going on in her head. This made it hard to make two

clearly distinct clips. A rumination/reflection introduction to the clip attempted to make the

difference a bit more explicit. But this may not have worked as it was supposed to be. Better

59

distinguishable film clips may have provided us with better results regarding the influence of the

exposure conditions.

Another limitation was that the participants of the present study were adolescents. It is the

question whether the effects found in this study are the same among different age groups. The

effects may also be different when participants do not watch just one short film clip, but an entire

film, or series of films on the same topic. Studying it may lead to implications about media not

just having a short-term therapeutic effect on users, but having long-term of lasting outcomes.

Perhaps film can even be used in the professional treatment of bullying-victims.

Whether or not studying the effects of media use in actual therapy, future research on

coping through media would be interesting anyway. As discussed above, it is possible the effects

of coping with emotions through bullying-related media may lead to even more enjoyment of the

media content in the long run. It would be interesting to be able to test this suggestion. Besides

that, there are more emotion regulation strategies than the two used in this study. There is still

research to be done on this, and possibly future research can also study the relation of those

strategies to enjoyment, to further improve our understanding of the therapeutic effects of media.

Future research may also focus on the implications of some other findings of our study

regarding the coping strategies: the different exposure conditions had an effect on the perceived

realism and the information value of media. Therefore, research may focus at the implications of

these findings for using media for educational purposes. As already mentioned above, it might be

effective to edit media content to induce users with a kind of “learning mode”. The participants in

the reflection condition of this study were stimulated to actively search for useful information,

and eventually reported higher perceived realism and information values. This might be

interesting for the makers of educational television programs, or for teachers that like to use

media in their classes. But prior to being able to integrate reflection inducting film in the

educational system straight away, more studies should reaffirm these finding. Future reseach

60

should also look into the effects of media on longer term, for example by looking at the effects on

school grades.

In all, the present study contributed to our understanding of counter-hedonic media use.

New evidence was provided for the assumption enjoyment is more than the pursuit of pleasure.

People are also searching for information, which affects their media use. Maybe this is not our

first thought when thinking of enjoyment, but it is definitely something that should not be

overlooked when studying media enjoyment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank my supervisor Elly Konijn for her feedback along the way. I also thank my unofficial

supervisors: my parents, because they are always available; Anouk den Hamer and Rianne van

Eijk, because we were in this together. Last but not least, I thank my favourite school teachers:

Minke Veeneman and Anne Beth Peerdeman. Because it’s sometimes not about what you know,

but about who you know.

61

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66

APPENDIX

The quasi-experimental questionnaire that was developed to collect the data used in this study

BEGINSCHERM

Welkom bij dit onderzoek, fijn dat jij ook mee doet!

Deze vragenlijst gaat over serieuze, soms moeilijke onderwerpen in de media. Hierbij kun je

denken aan films over pesten, familieproblemen of geweld. Vinden jongeren dit eigenlijk wel

interessant?

Om daar achter te komen, willen wij graag jouw mening horen! Door op VERDER te klikken,

start je de vragenlijst.

~

INTRO

Je hoeft niet lang na te denken bij de vragen. Er zijn geen goede of foute antwoorden - alleen wat

jij er zelf van vindt, is belangrijk.

Je hoeft je naam nergens in te vullen, dus al je antwoorden zijn geheim.

Heb je je geluid goed hard staan of je koptelefoon op, zodat je van het filmpje straks alles kunt

volgen? Dan kun je nu beginnen. Succes!

~

Eerst willen we graag een paar dingen over jou weten.

Hoe oud ben jij?

Ben jij een jongen of een meisje?

Jongen

Meisje

Welke opleiding doe je?

vmbo - praktische leerweg

vmbo - theoretische leerweg

havo

vwo

gymnasium

anders namelijk ...

Doe je op school mee aan deze vragenlijst? Vul dan hier de code in die je hebt gekregen. (Als je geen code hebt, kun je deze vraag overslaan.)

~

67

In welk land ben jij geboren?

Nederland

Suriname

Nederlandse Antillen of Aruba

Duitsland

Marokko

Turkije

anders namelijk ...

Is één van jouw ouders of grootouders in een ander land dan Nederland geboren? Zo ja, waar? (Als jouw ouders en grootouders allemaal in Nederland geboren zijn, vul dan NEE in.)

~

Hoeveel uur televisie kijk jij gemiddeld op een doordeweekse dag?

Ongeveer 0 tot 1,5 uur per dag

Ongeveer 1,5 tot 3 uur per dag



Meer dan 6 uur per dag

Hoeveel uur televisie kijk jij gemiddeld op een dag in het weekend? Van vrijdagavond 17.00 uur tot maandagochtend 06.00 uur






Hoeveel uur kijk jij gemiddeld op een doordeweekse dag via internet naar films of tv-series?






Hoeveel uur kijk jij gemiddeld op een dag in het weekend via internet naar films of tv-series? Van vrijdagavond 17.00 uur tot maandagochtend 06.00 uur






~

68

Hieronder staan een aantal uitspraken over jouw klas en in hoeverre daar pestgedrag voorkomt.

Geef bij elke uitspraak aan hoe vaak dit jou overkomt.

Nooit Zelden Soms Vaak Dagelijks

Hoe vaak plagen klasgenoten jou of maken

ze grappen over je

Hoe vaak pesten klasgenoten jou? Hoe vaak slaan of schoppen klasgenoten jou? Hoe vaak roddelen klasgenoten over je

of zeggen ze gemene dingen?

Hoe vaak doen klasgenoten jou pijn? Hoe vaak sluiten klasgenoten je buiten? Hoe vaak negeren klasgenoten jou?

Wil je nog iets over kwijt naar aanleiding van de vragen op het vorige scherm? Dan kan dat hier.

V8 (Als je niets kwijt wilt, kun je deze vraag overslaan.)

~

Bij de volgende vragen kun je uit de volgende antwoordmogelijkheden kiezen, van links naar

rechts:

- dit past echt niet bij mij

- dit past een beetje bij mij

- dit past best wel bij mij

- dit past goed bij mij

- dit past heel goed bij mij

Dus hoe meer naar rechts jij een bolletje aanklikt, hoe beter de uitspraak bij je past.

Dit past

echt niet

bij mij

Dit past

een beetje

bij mij

Dit past

best wel

bij mij

Dit past

goed

bij mij

Dit past

heel goed

bij mij

Als ik eraan denk dat ik gepest word,

maakt dat mij boos


voel ik me energieloos


maakt dat mij bang


maakt dat mij verdrietig

Als ik eraan denk dat ik gepest word, voel ik me... (Als je niets toe te voegen hebt, kun je deze vraag overslaan.)

~

69

Nu volgen enkele korte omschrijvingen van films. Geef bij elke omschrijving aan hoe graag jij

deze film zou willen zien.

Na deze vragen krijg je ook echt een stukje film te zien. Klik op VERDER om naar de

omschrijvingen te gaan.

~

Hieronder staan de eerste omschrijvingen. Geef voor elk van deze films aan hoe graag jij ze wilt

zien.

Het is Jasmines grote droom beroemd te worden. Dan wordt haar dansgroepje gevraagd om mee

te dansen in de nieuwe videoclip van een bekende zanger. Er zit ook een danssolo in de clip. Hoe

ver zal Jasmine gaan om die te mogen dansen?

Dit wil ik echt niet zien Dit wil ik heel graag zien

De moeder van Annebel en Mike is ernstig ziek. De tweeling mist de energieke moeder die ze

zich van vroeger kunnen herinneren, maar ze doen hun best haar zo goed als het kan op te

vrolijken. Dan blijkt bij een controlebezoek aan de dokter dat moeder nog maar twee maanden te

leven heeft.


Erg gelukkig voelt David zich niet in de tweede klas. Hij is het mikpunt van getreiter. Op een

ochtend krijgt zijn klas van de rector te horen dat David na de klassenavond niet is thuisgekomen.

Twee klasgenoten gaan op onderzoek uit. Onderweg ontmoeten ze allerlei vreemde figuren, die

hun een hele nieuwe kijk op de wereld geven.


~

Hier zijn de volgende omschrijvingen. Geef weer voor elk van de films aan hoe graag jij ze wilt

zien. Na deze ben je over de helft!

Het gezin van Alfredo moest voor het werk van vader naar de andere kant van het land verhuizen.

Alfredo wil niets liever dan terug naar hun oude huis. Wanneer hij met zijn klas op fietskamp

gaat, besluit hij in zijn eentje naar zijn vroegere woonplaats te fietsen voor de jaarlijkse kermis.

Maar dat is gemakkelijker gezegd dan gedaan.


Als Niels op een middag thuis komt van school, moeten zijn ouders met hem praten. Ze vertellen

hem dat ze gaan scheiden omdat ze niet meer genoeg van elkaar houden. Aan Niels stellen ze de

vraag bij wie hij wil wonen: bij mamma of bij pappa?


Op de eerste schooldag na de zomervakantie hoort Tessa ineens niet meer bij haar oude groepje

vriendinnen. Plotseling vinden de jongens in de klas dat ze stinkt en maken de meisjes er een

sport van haar te laten struikelen op de gang. Tessa besluit dat er iets moet veranderen. Maar is de

keuze die ze maakt wel de juiste?


~

70

Hieronder dan de laatste filmomschrijvingen. Geef nog één keer aan hoe graag jij deze films wilt

zien.

Jeffrey is een getalenteerde en fanatieke voetballer met maar één droom: te mogen spelen in het

Nederlands Elftal. Zijn vader Erik is minstens net zo fanatiek in het coachen van Jeffrey. Maar

als zijn vader plotseling sterft, stort Jeffrey’s wereld in. Hoe moet dat nu met zijn carrière in de

voetbalwereld?


De buurkinderen Thomas en Anne worden beiden gepest op school. Samen bedenken ze een

magisch koninkrijk in het bos achter hun huizen, waar ze spannende avonturen beleven. Tot de

grootste pestkop van school het schrift waar Thomas en Anne hun avonturen in opschrijven in

handen krijgt...


~

“RUMINATION CONDITION” “REFLECTION CONDITION”

n het volgende scherm krijgt je een kort

fragment van de film Bluebird te zien.

In het volgende scherm krijgt je een kort

fragment van de film Bluebird te zien.

De film gaat over Merel. Merel (13) wordt

gepest. Het begint met opmerkingen over

dat ze stinkt, maar gaat al snel van kwaad

naar erger. Waarom moeten ze haar toch

hebben? Ondanks dat het gepest haar

verdrietig maakt, trekt Merel zich graag

terug om hier over na te denken.

De film gaat over Merel. Merel (13) wordt

gepest. Het begint met opmerkingen over

dat ze stinkt, maar gaat al snel van kwaad

naar erger. Waarom moeten ze haar toch

hebben? Merel kan niet stoppen met

piekeren en trekt zich steeds vaker terug,

ondanks dat ze het liefst helemaal niet

nadenkt over het gepest. Het gepieker maakt

haar alleen maar verdrietiger en bozer.

Dan is het nu tijd je geluid hard te zetten,

zodat je alles goed kunt verstaan. Voor

meer kijkplezier, kun je het scherm

beeldvullend maken. Het is ook belangrijk

dat je het filmpje helemaal bekijkt!

Dan is het nu tijd je geluid hard te zetten,

zodat je alles goed kunt verstaan. Voor meer

kijkplezier, kun je het scherm beeldvullend

maken. Het is ook belangrijk dat je het

filmpje helemaal bekijkt!

Wanneer je op VERDER klikt, kan het

gebeuren dat je computer een

beveiligingswaarschuwing geeft

(afhankelijk van je instellingen). We hebben

het gecontroleerd en dit filmpje is helemaal

veilig. Je kunt dus rustig op JA klikken.

Wanneer je op VERDER klikt, kan het

gebeuren dat je computer een

beveiligingswaarschuwing geeft

(afhankelijk van je instellingen). We hebben

het gecontroleerd en dit filmpje is helemaal

veilig. Je kunt dus rustig op JA klikken.

~

HET FILMPJE

~

71

Wat is je opgevallen in het filmfragment?

Wat was de naam van de hoofdpersoon?

Annabel

Merel

Ellen

Renee

Wat was de kleur van de jas van de hoofdpersoon?

Rood

Groen

Blauw

Zwart

Wat is de reden dat de hoofdpersoon geslagen werd?

Ze had weer eens een 10 voor Frans

Ze wil de goede antwoorden van het proefwerk niet geven

Ze heeft iemand laten struikelen

Ze deed de sprong over de kast het beste bij gym

Wat doet de hoofdpersoon nadat haar fiets is gesloopt?

Langs de rivier lopen

De hoofden van haar klasgenoten wegkrassen van de schoolfoto

Met het openbaar vervoer naar huis

Haar kapotte fiets melden aan haar favoriete docent

~

72

De volgende vragen gaan niet meer over de inhoud van het filmpje, maar over wat jij van het

filmpje vindt.

Geef bij de volgende stellingen aan hoe goed de uitspraak bij je past.

Dit past

echt niet

bij mij

Dit past

een beetje

bij mij

Dit past

best wel

bij mij

Dit past

goed

bij mij

Dit past

heel goed

bij mij

Dit filmpje laat mij stilstaan bij dingen die ik heb

gezegd of gedaan heb

Na dit filmpje is het moeilijk voor mij om te

stoppen met nadenken over mezelf

Dit filmpje zal zeker niet nog lang in mijn hoofd

zitten

Door het zien van wat Merel meemaakt, ga ik

piekeren over dingen die gebeurd zijn

Dit filmpje maakt dat ik inzit over hoe ik me in

een bepaalde situatie gedragen heb

Niets in dit filmpje maakt dat ik ga nadenken over

iets wat ik gedaan heb

Ik vind het prettig om naar aanleiding van dit

filmpje na te denken over wie ik precies ben

Ik vind het niet interessant stil te staan bij hoe ik

denk en hoe ik me voel over wat Merel in het

filmpje meemaakt

Na het zien van dit filmpje ga ik zeker niet over

mezelf nadenken

Ik vind het prettig om me naar aanleiding van dit

filmpje te bezinnen op waarom ik bepaalde dingen

doe

Ik vind er niets aan om stil te staan bij de

betekenis van dit filmpje

Na het zien van dit filmpje wil ik graag nadenken

over mijn leven

~

73

Geef bij de volgende uitspraken over het filmpje aan in hoeverre jij het er mee eens bent of niet.

Dit past

echt niet

bij mij

Dit past

een beetje

bij mij

Dit past

best wel

bij mij

Dit past

goed

bij mij

Dit past

heel goed

bij mij

De situatie van Merel in het filmpje gaf mij een

goed beeld van hoe het is om gepest te worden

Van de situatie van Merel leer ik niets over hoe

iemand die gepest wordt zich voelt

De makers van de film geven de kijkers een

onzinnig beeld van pesten op school

Wat de pesters in het filmpje doen met Merel leert

mij iets over de manieren waarop iemand gepest

kan worden

Van het filmpje heb ik eigenlijk niets geleerd over

pesten of gepest worden

Het filmpje gaf mij een onrealistisch beeld van

pesten op school

Het verhaal van Merel is geloofwaardig

Het verhaal van Merel is nep

Zoals de situatie van Merel in het filmpje is, zou

het ook in het echt kunnen zijn

~

Let op: de volgende vragen gaan weer over wat jij van het filmpje vond. Geef dus aan hoe goed

de uitspraak bij je past.

Dit past

echt niet

bij mij

Dit past

een beetje

bij mij

Dit past

best wel

bij mij

Dit past

goed

bij mij

Dit past

heel goed

bij mij

Ik vond het filmpje leuk

Ik vond onplezierig om naar het filmpje te kijken

Ik vond het filmpje boeiend

Ik heb me niet vermaakt met het kijken van het

filmpje

Tijdens het bekijken van het filmpje ging ik

helemaal op in het verhaal

Ik denk dat ik Merel goed begrijp

Ik kon niet goed met Merel meeleven

Tijdens het kijken kon ik de emoties van Merel

niet voelen

Ik hoop dat het aan het einde van de film goed

komt met Merel

~

74

Geef ook voor deze uitspraken aan hoe goed ze bij je passen.

Dit past

echt niet

bij mij

Dit past

een beetje

bij mij

Dit past

best wel

bij mij

Dit past

goed

bij mij

Dit past

heel goed

bij mij

Dit filmpje spreekt mij aan omdat Merel op

dezelfde manier in het leven staat als ik

Ik vind het niet prettig dat dit filmpje mij stil doet

staan bij gepest worden

Dit filmpje spreekt mij aan omdat het gaat over

betekenisvolle, menselijke kwesties

Ik heb helemaal niets met een filmpje als dit, dat

mij aan het denken zet

Omdat dit filmpje gaat over de zin en betekenis

van het leven, heeft het mij diep geraakt

Dat dit filmpje een diepere betekenis en een

boodschap heeft, bevalt mij

~

Tot slot nog deze vragen. Hierbij geldt ook weer: hoe hoger het getal dat jij kiest, hoe beter de

uitspraak bij je past.

Dit past

echt niet

bij mij

Dit past

een beetje

bij mij

Dit past

best wel

bij mij

Dit past

goed

bij mij

Dit past

heel goed

bij mij


maakt dat mij boos


voel ik me energieloos


maakt dat mij bang


maakt dat mij verdrietig

Als ik eraan denk dat ik gepest word, voel ik me... (Als je niets toe te voegen hebt, kun je deze vraag overslaan.)

~

Dit was het! Hartelijk bedankt voor het invullen van de vragenlijst.

Klik op VERDER om de vragenlijst af te sluiten.

~

EINDSCHERM

Klik nu op STOPPEN om de vragenlijst af te sluiten.

Nogmaals hartelijk bedankt!