Research

The chair deals with psychological aspects of media use. In particular, the following topics are the main focus of its research activities:

Privacy, self-disclosure and social support on the social web
knowledge and use of media
media and identity
entertainment and media

In the following, we briefly present these research points by means of selected aspects and projects.

Privacy, self-disclosure and social support on the social web

The disclosure of private or intimate information is an phenomenon in Web 2.0. Especially for users of weblogs and social networking sites, reporting from their own life and from their friends and family is a central usage bonus. How important is privacy in the "Social Web generation" and what are the psychological benefits and costs of making private information freely available on the Internet?

The goal of our research is to understand the psychological impact of the usage of the Social Web on the importance of privacy by analyzing the interaction of users with each other and with the medium.

Related Projects:

Privacy Online
Structural change of the private
Privacy in change, Longitudinal Study about the evolution of Privacy (BMBF-Project)
Perspectives and trends in privacy research(BMBF-Project "Forum Privatheit und selbstbestimmtes Leben in der digitalen Welt")
Longitudinal study about the socialization in the social web (DFG-Projekt)
Young Scholars Network on Privacy and Web 2.0, an international study (DFG-Project)

Knowledge and media use

The political knowledge of younger people is much less pronounced than the knowledge of older generations. It also shows that adolescents use significantly less news media than their parents and grandparents. Does this mean that younger people know less than older people because of their different media use and what influence does this have on general education in Germany?

At the border between communication science research on political knowledge and psychological research on cognitive aging, we explore the influence of news consumption on knowledge acquisition.

Related Projects:

General education in Germany
Survey about the knowledge of people from Germany in cooperation with SPIEGEL
experimental study on the acquisition of knowledge though political discussions
Cooperation with the State University Ohio(DAAD Projekt)
Doctoral thesis project „The social-cognitive pattern of political learning“
It is also topic in our courses.

Media and identity

The question "Who am I?" is usually not often asked publicly. Sometimes it is not asked at all. Yet it is highly capable of motivating our actions. Mass media provides assistance in answering it. They provide an almost immeasurable range of content on different lifestyles, groups and possibilities for action.

Like the service section of a daily newspaper or a health website, fictional television formats contain information that can be useful for identity management because they offer orientation in the search for identity. We investigate how social identity determines media selection and the influence of media content on identity.

Related projects:

Media Psychology
Cooperation with the State University Ohio (DAAD Project)
It is also topic in our courses.

Entertainment and media

Entertainment media fascinates people and lets them set records and cross borders in many ways. 15 million viewers showed interest in the Hamburg "Tatort" in March 2013. Millions of computer gamers organize themselves in electronic sports leagues and thus develop a binding club culture. Edutainment formats are used to provide active development aid in crisis regions and developing countries. Entertainment offers are daily companions and have a considerable influence on human experience and behavior. With our research we try to shed light on the mechanisms, the conditions, the processes and the effects.