Examining Romantic Relationship Maintenance Behaviors: A Prime Time Television Content Analysis and Audience Perceptions of Mediated Portrayals

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Anderegg, Courtney Elizabeth
Language:English
Published: The Ohio State University / OhioLINK 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366118225
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spelling ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu13661182252021-08-03T05:22:06Z Examining Romantic Relationship Maintenance Behaviors: A Prime Time Television Content Analysis and Audience Perceptions of Mediated Portrayals Anderegg, Courtney Elizabeth Communication Relational maintenance behaviors romantic relationships communication television content analysis social cognitive theory experiment Maintenance behaviors play an important role in sustaining relational states, especially within committed romantic relationships. Limited research, however, has considered media portrayals and audience interpretation of these behaviors. From the framework of social cognitive theory, the content analysis in Study 1 examined relational maintenance behaviors portrayed by committed romantic couples on prime time network television. The frequency of maintenance behaviors (positivity, understanding, self-disclosure, assurances, relationship talks, tasks, and networks) varied by type, valence program genre, and couple type. Results indicated that comedies featured more frequent relational maintenance behaviors than dramas. Additionally, comedies exhibited more frequent negative maintenance behaviors than dramas. Differences also existed between couple types (married/civil union or cohabitating) regarding the types of maintenance behavior exhibited. Despite interesting and significant findings within the content analysis, the examination of mediated portrayals of romantic relationship maintenance should not stop at simply recognizing what is presented on television. Thus, Study 2 examined audience members' perceptions of mediated portrayals in terms of which maintenance behaviors are recognized and how audience recognition fares in comparison to experts (i.e., the content analysis data). Results show that audience members are fairly accurate at recognizing the individual maintenance behaviors that experts coded for in the content analysis. However, audience members also coded for the presence of maintenance behaviors when experts did not. In addition, participants seemed to have trouble connecting the presence of individual maintenance behaviors to the overall picture of relationship maintenance within a television clip. Data examining how individuals learned about maintenance behaviors, audience perceptions of clip conflict, and couple behavior play an important role in audience recognition and interpretation of this essential relational concept. 2013-07-24 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366118225 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366118225 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection NDLTD
language English
sources NDLTD
topic Communication
Relational maintenance behaviors
romantic relationships
communication
television content analysis
social cognitive theory
experiment
spellingShingle Communication
Relational maintenance behaviors
romantic relationships
communication
television content analysis
social cognitive theory
experiment
Anderegg, Courtney Elizabeth
Examining Romantic Relationship Maintenance Behaviors: A Prime Time Television Content Analysis and Audience Perceptions of Mediated Portrayals
author Anderegg, Courtney Elizabeth
author_facet Anderegg, Courtney Elizabeth
author_sort Anderegg, Courtney Elizabeth
title Examining Romantic Relationship Maintenance Behaviors: A Prime Time Television Content Analysis and Audience Perceptions of Mediated Portrayals
title_short Examining Romantic Relationship Maintenance Behaviors: A Prime Time Television Content Analysis and Audience Perceptions of Mediated Portrayals
title_full Examining Romantic Relationship Maintenance Behaviors: A Prime Time Television Content Analysis and Audience Perceptions of Mediated Portrayals
title_fullStr Examining Romantic Relationship Maintenance Behaviors: A Prime Time Television Content Analysis and Audience Perceptions of Mediated Portrayals
title_full_unstemmed Examining Romantic Relationship Maintenance Behaviors: A Prime Time Television Content Analysis and Audience Perceptions of Mediated Portrayals
title_sort examining romantic relationship maintenance behaviors: a prime time television content analysis and audience perceptions of mediated portrayals
publisher The Ohio State University / OhioLINK
publishDate 2013
url http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366118225
work_keys_str_mv AT andereggcourtneyelizabeth examiningromanticrelationshipmaintenancebehaviorsaprimetimetelevisioncontentanalysisandaudienceperceptionsofmediatedportrayals
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