Lauren Sousa

Fred Molitor
ComS 100C
11/26/12
Research Assignment 2

The Effects of Watching Scary Movies, and the Stress Levels of Women
1. Linz, D. (1994). Sex and violence in thrasher films: A
reinterpretation. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 38(2),
p.243, 4.
2. Slocum, D. (2000). Film violence and the institutionalization of the
cinema. Social research, 67(3), p649-681, 33p.
3. Sanders, A. (1997). From video hoes to deathbed
divas.Essence, 27(10), p.160.
4. Meischke, H. (1995). Implicit sexual portrayals in the movies:
Interpretations of young women. Journal of Sex Research, 32(1),
Journal of Sex Research.
5. Ballon, B. (2007). American journal of psychotherapy. The
excercist, 61(2), p211-230, 20p.
6. Clark, J. (2009). Womens work, worry and fear: the portrayal of
sexuality and sexual. Culture, health and sexuality, 11(4), p. 415429.
7. Hantke, S. (2007). Academic film criticism, the rhetoric of crisis, and
the current state of american horror cinema: Thoughts on canonicity
and academic anxiety . College literature , 3(4),
8. SRINIVASA MURTHY, R. (2007). Mass violence and mental health
recent epidemiological findings.International review of
psychiatry, 19(3), p.183192.
9. Spar, D. (2012). ) american women have it
wrong.Newsweek, 160(14/15), p38-48, 6p.
10.
Polivy, J. (2010). Upward and downward: Social comparison
processing of thin idealized media images. Psychology of women
quarterly, 34(3), p356-364, 9p.

Lauren Sousa
Fred Molitor
ComS 100C
11/26/12
Research Assignment 2

1) Abstract:
The article evaluates the history and recurrence of film violence. The
author believes that film violence represents cinematic standards and
cultural values regarding the use of force or aggression, and the place
and meaning of cinema in a society. Narrative norms in cinema create
ideological and formal framework for destruction and death. An
aesthetic and social contrast between audiences and filmmakers is
represented by film genres. However, the U.S. film industry continues
to make movies that produce different forms of violence challenging
the values and norms of viewers and mainstream culture.
2)Abstract:
The article evaluates the history and recurrence of film violence. The
author believes that film violence represents cinematic standards and
cultural values regarding the use of force or aggression, and the place
and meaning of cinema in a society. Narrative norms in cinema create
ideological and formal framework for destruction and death. An
aesthetic and social contrast between audiences and filmmakers is
represented by film genres. However, the U.S. film industry continues
to make movies that produce different forms of violence challenging
the values and norms of viewers and mainstream culture.
3) Abstract:
Opinion. Presents the author's view about Black women's role
in movies to music videos. How images of violence and innihilation
have become the most prevalent depiction of AfricanAmerican women in music videos.
4) Abstract:
The article presents information on a study which explores how
young women make interpretations about the implicit portion of an
implicit sex act portrayed in an R-rated movie clip. Content analyses
suggest that television and movie viewers are exposed to numerous
sexual portrayals without references to safer sexual practices and/or
possible negative consequences. Thus, this study investigates how
viewers interpret these portrayals. The inquiry of viewer interpretation
is particularly important for sexual content because most sex acts
portrayed on television are implicit rather than explicit. Also, this study
explores the interpretations of implicit sexual portrayals for a group of
young women. Surveys show that teenagers generally say they get
2

Lauren Sousa
Fred Molitor
ComS 100C
11/26/12
Research Assignment 2

their information about sex from parents, schools, or peers. However,

the media have been cited as the fourth source of information. In the
current study viewers were not provided with a definition of safer sex.
It could be that certain schemata were used to make interpretations
about pregnancy prevention rather than disease prevention.
5) Abstract:
The authors review the literature of cinematic-related psychiatric case
reports and report the case of a 22-year-old woman who presented
with intrusive thoughts of demonic possession and flashbacks of
the film The Exorcist. Cinematic neurosis may be considered a form of
psychological crisis shaped by exposure to a film narrative that is
emotionally and culturally significant to the individual. The structure
of horror films are examined from the perspectives of trauma theory,
narrative theory, and borderline personality organization theories,
using the film The Exorcist as an example. Within this framework,
the horror film can be seen as a cultural tale that provides a
mechanism for attempting mastery over anxieties involving issues of
separation, loss, autonomy, and identity. An individual will identify with
narrative elements that resonate in personal life experiences and
cultural factors embedded within the film, which carry levels of either
stress that will be mastered, or act as a trauma to the viewer. The
outcome of this exposure is related to how the individual's personality
structure is organized in combination with the stresses they are
experiencing.
6) Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to report on an exploratory content
analysis of the
portrayal of sexuality, sexual health and disease in select magazines
designed for
two groups of women: teenagers and women in the 4050-year-old age
category in
the USA. The analysis found that magazine portrayal was both similar
for the
two groups of women and distinctly different. Neither group of
magazines
focused on womens sexual desire. Both kinds of magazines
emphasized that it
was womens work and worry to control sexual expression. Teenagers
were

Lauren Sousa
Fred Molitor
ComS 100C
11/26/12
Research Assignment 2

described as responsible for avoiding sex in order to prevent

pregnancy,
fearsomely described STIs and untrustworthy male sexual partners.
Abstinence
was presented as the only viable option for young women. Women in
the 4050year-old age group were portrayed as responsible for the emotion work
and
sexual relations linked to their responsibility for maintaining their
marriages and
fulfilling their tasks of motherhood, especially through the monitoring
of the
sexuality of their female children. Sex was characterized in terms akin
to womens
7) Abstract
Ask any fans, and they will tell you that
American horror film is in a slump. Not
that no more horror films are being
made; on the contrary, as far as popularity and
profitabihty go, the horror film seems near
the top of its game as Hollywood lavishes a
steady stream primarily of mid-budget films
upon its audience. And yet the vast majority
of these films just aren't any good. The
current slump, according to many fans, began
in the 1990s with the so-called neo-slasher.
Successful with large audiences but received
with apprehension by fans and critics, Wes
Craven's Scream was, depending on who you
asked, either the best or the worst thing to
happen to horror film. According to the
critical voices, Scream's recycling of "classic"
precursors transformed the more politically
8) Abstract
There is growing awareness of the mental health impact of all types of
mass violence. The exposure of large population
groups, mostly having no mental health problems prior to the
exposure, and the subsequent development, in a significant

Lauren Sousa
Fred Molitor
ComS 100C
11/26/12
Research Assignment 2

proportion of the population, of a variety of psychiatric symptoms and

disorders represent both a challenge and an
opportunity for psychiatrists. There is sufficient evidence from the
variety of mass violence/conflict situations, that
a significant proportion of the exposed population develop different
mental disorders. There are vulnerable groups like
women, children, widows, orphans, elderly, disabled, those exposed to
severe pain and loss of body parts. There is also
a consistent finding of the dose-response to the amount of trauma and
the prevalence of mental disorders. There is growing
recognition that there is need to consider a variety of syndromes, in
addition to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) like
acute stress disorder (ASD), depression, complicated bereavement
reactions, substance use disorders, poor physical health,
fear, anxiety, physiological arousal, somatisation, anger control,
functional disability and arrest or regression of childhood
developmental progression. The challenge is to reach all of the ill
persons and provide mental health services.
The opportunity provided by this field is to develop a better
understanding of issues of resilience, recovery and effectiveness
of public health approaches to mental health care.
9)

Abstract:
The author discusses issues facing U.S. women in the 21st century,
and describes the conflict between old-fashioned expectations
for women's role versus modern values of women's independence.
Topics such as women in the workplace and in the media are
discussed, as well as biological differences between men and women.
Social structures, women's attitudes, and gender inequality are also
mentioned, and the author argues against striving for unattainable
perfection.

10)

Abstract:
The present study aimed to investigate the role of social comparison
processing in women's responses to thin idealized images. In
particular, it was predicted that comparison with the images on the
basis of appearance would lead to more negative outcomes than
comparison on the basis of intelligence. A sample of
114 women viewed fashion magazine advertisements featuring thin
and attractive models under one of three instructional set conditions:
control, appearance comparison, and intelligence comparison
instructions. We found that both comparison instructional set
5

Lauren Sousa
Fred Molitor
ComS 100C
11/26/12
Research Assignment 2

conditions led to decreased mood relative to the control condition, but

they had no effect on subsequent body dissatisfaction. However,
regression analyses indicated that the form of processing in which
individuals (irrespective of experimental condition) actually engaged
was crucial. In particular, both appearance comparison processing
(positively) and intelligence comparison processing (negatively) were
associated with increased body dissatisfaction. In addition, poorer
recall of both products and their brand names was associated with a
greater impact of the media images on mood and body dissatisfaction.
We concluded that the dimensions on which social comparison takes
place are critical in women's response to media-portrayed thin ideal
images, with comparisons on the basis of intelligence or education
associated with more positive reactions. More generally, the results
offer strong support to appearance social comparison as the
mechanism by which idealizedmedia images translate into body
dissatisfaction for many women.