scholarly journals The Psychology of Morbid Curiosity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Coltan Scrivner
Keyword(s):  
Horror Films ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Psychological Literature ◽  
Psychological Trait ◽  
Psychometric Tool ◽  
True Crime

The success of horror films, popularity of true crime, and prevalence of violence in the news implies that morbid curiosity is a common psychological trait. However, research on morbid curiosity is largely absent from the psychological literature. In this paper, I present a novel psychometric tool for assessing morbid curiosity, defined as a motivation to seek out information about dangerous phenomena, and use it to investigate the psychological nature of morbid curiosity. In studies 1 and 2 (n_total = 1370), the Morbid Curiosity Scale was developed and its relationship to personality was assessed. Morbidly curious individuals were rebellious, socially curious, and low in animal reminder disgust. Study 3 (n = 317) demonstrated that trait morbid curiosity is stable over 4-6 weeks and that morbidly curious individuals prefer movies where threat is a central theme. In Study 4 (n = 137), participants were presented with a choice between a morbid stimulus and a highly controlled non-morbid stimulus. Morbid curiosity predicted over half the variance (r2 = .53) in decisions to further investigate a morbid stimulus. These four studies provide evidence that morbid curiosity is a normally occurring psychological trait that can be accurately assessed using the new 24-item Morbid Curiosity Scale.

scholarly journals Horror Films and Grief

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 171-182
Author(s):  
Becky Millar ◽  
Jonny Lee
Keyword(s):  
Horror Films ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Psychological Benefits ◽  
The Core

Many of the most popular and critically acclaimed horror films feature grief as a central theme. This article argues that horror films are especially suited to portraying and communicating the phenomenology of grief. We explore two overlapping claims. First, horror is well suited to represent the experience of grief, in particular because the disruptive effects of horror “monsters” on protagonists mirror the core experience of disruption that accompanies bereavement. Second, horror offers ways in which the experience of grief can be contained and regulated and, in doing so, may offer psychological benefits for the bereaved. While our focus will be squarely on film, much of what we say applies to other media.

Use and abuse of logic in psychological literature.

1973 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 942-944
Author(s):  
William S. Sahakian
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Literature

Cross-border Implications: Transnational Haunting, Gender and the Persistent Look of The Eye

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrique Ajuria Ibarra
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Film Production ◽  
Visual Preference ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Film Series ◽  
Eastern Traditions

The Eye (Gin Gwai, 2002) and its two sequels (2004, 2005) deal with pan-Asian film production, gender, and identity. The films seem to embrace a transnational outlook that that fits a shared Southeast Asian cinematic and cultural agenda. Instead, they disclose tensions about Hong Kong’s identity, its relationship with other countries in the region, and its mixture of Western and Eastern traditions (Knee, 2009). As horror films, The Eye series feature transpositional hauntings framed by a visual preference for understanding reality and the supernatural that is complicated by the ghostly perceptions of their female protagonists. Thus, the issues explored in this film series rely on a haunting that presents textual manifestations of transposition, imposition, and alienation that further evidence its complicated pan-Asian look. This chapter examines the films’ privilege of vision as catalyst of a transnational, Asian Gothic horror aesthetic that addresses concepts of identity, gender, and subjectivity.

‘Are we on the same wavelength?’ International nurses and the process of confronting and adjusting to clinical communication in Australia

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tonia Crawford ◽  
Peter Roger ◽  
Sally Candlin
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Care Setting ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
The Other ◽  
Culturally And Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Clinical Communication ◽  
Professional Experiences

Effective communication skills are important in the health care setting in order to develop rapport and trust with patients, provide reassurance, assess patients effectively and provide education in a way that patients easily understand (Candlin and Candlin, 2003). However with many nurses from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds being recruited to fill the workforce shortfall in Australia, communication across cultures with the potential for miscommunication and ensuing risks to patient safety has gained increasing focus in recent years (Shakya and Horsefall, 2000; Chiang and Crickmore, 2009). This paper reports on the first phase of a study that examines intercultural nurse patient communication from the perspective of four Registered Nurses from CALD backgrounds working in Australia. Five interrelating themes that were derived from thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews are discussed. The central theme of ‘adjustment’ was identified as fundamental to the experiences of the RNs and this theme interrelated with each of the other themes that emerged: professional experiences with communication, ways of showing respect, displaying empathy, and vulnerability.

Food Matters

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
Martha Finch
Keyword(s):  
Food Studies ◽  
Religious Group ◽  
Cultural Group ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Common Food ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
Sensory Effects

Each week in my religion and food course during Spring 2016, a student or I brought foods related to the religious group we were studying into the classroom for all to try. With the first dish they tasted, students asked, “So what makes this food ‘religious’?” This question formed the central theme throughout the semester as we wrestled with what religion is in the context of food and foodways: the network of material aspects (food itself; practices like growing, distributing, cooking, eating; sensory experiences such as taste) and conceptual aspects (ideas, meanings, metaphors, symbols, values such as taste) of food in a particular social/cultural group. The familiar and unfamiliar foods elicited visceral reactions from students. This essay argues that paying closer attention to religion as an independent interpretive category and especially to food itself, as a material agent eliciting powerful sensory effects that precede religious ideas and enable those ideas, provides an alternative to dependence on common food studies’ interpretive categories and on the Protestant-influenced focus on food as abstracted symbol or metaphor of ‘meaning.’

Tire-Road Interactions — Harmony or Conflict?

1989 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-84
Author(s):  
A. R. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Rolling Resistance ◽  
Major Effect ◽  
Road Surface ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Water Drainage ◽  
The Road ◽  
Truck Tires ◽  
Road Surfaces ◽  
Tire Wear

Abstract This is a summary of work by the author and his colleagues, as well as by others reported in the literature, that demonstrate a need for considering a vehicle, its tires, and the road surface as a system. The central theme is interaction at the footprint, especially that of truck tires. Individual and interactive effects of road and tires are considered under the major topics of road aggregate (macroscopic and microscopic properties), development of a novel road surface, safety, noise, rolling resistance, riding comfort, water drainage by both road and tire, development of tire tread compounds and a proving ground, and influence of tire wear on wet traction. A general conclusion is that road surfaces have both the major effect and the greater potential for improvement.

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