Televised news media exposure, fear of terrorism, and social problem-solving /

by Greenberg, Jeffrey H.; Nezu, Christine M.; College of, Drexel University.

Media Exposure, Fear of Terrorism, and Social Problem-Solving Jeff Greenberg Christine Maguth Nezu, Ph.D. The modern threat of terrorism has become a stark reminder for the American populace of the dangerous world that we live in today. Each day Americans are exposed to significant quantities of information via various forms of media which are proposed to influence their subjective feelings of fear. Undergraduate students completed measures of social problem solving, televised news media exposure, fear of terrorism, stressful life experiences, and state and trait anxiety. It was proposed that televised news media exposure would be positively correlated with fear of terrorism. Additional positive relationships were proposed to exist between negative problem orientation and fear of terrorism, avoidant problem solving style and fear of terrorism and impulsive problem solving style and fear of terrorism. Negative relationships were proposed to exist between positive problem orientation and fear of terrorism, rational problem solving style and fear of terrorism and total problem solving and fear of terrorism. Finally, total problem solving was proposed to moderate the relationship between televised news media exposure and fear of terrorism. Negative problem orientation was found to be significantly correlated with self-reported fear of terrorism. Additionally, impulsive/careless problem solving style was correlated with self reported fear of terrorism. Implications for psychological interventions and future directions for research are discussed. 1