Umang Jain

SKG212E0163
Psychology in Action PS731

Dr. Gangmumei Kamei

19 December 2022

Assignment 1 PS731 1

 Importance of the discipline of Psychology and

Psychologists in the booming media world:

Psychology is one of the few disciplines so dynamic that it has more

practical applications than the one conventionally known to us. The
de nition of psychology may be satisfactory to academia; however,
the vast results of its application are given the various approaches
psychologists must take to study.

One such eld of area psychology that has started evolving in recent
years is Media or Mass Media, as they say since media’s effect is
seen on the mass and not just an individual. The forms of media,
whether conventional or modern, have convinced psychologists and
professionals to study their impact and uses due to their effect and
in uence on the masses. Since media is a dynamic/interdisciplinary
eld, it is interesting to research and examine how it impacts the
public’s life, be it their social engagement, education, or behavior.

The study of media was found to be too crucial that APA (American
Psychological Association) established a speci c division to study
media and its impact. Let us consider a set of people as a system.
Media is that external factor that alters the reactions and thus results
in a completely different output, which could be analyzed elaborately
by the discipline of psychology and psychologists only. It is the
psychology of media that, if scrutinized, can be used in various
applications across all lifestyle elds.

Professionals around the globe utilize the studies of psychologists to

take advantage of the mass media in the commercial industry to
target a particular section of society. The content of the media is
subject to psychological interpretation that the content writer would
want to project. Countries prefer psychological warfare to get a
psychological edge over their opponents, for which media houses
play a dynamic role in the name of global journalism. Journalism is
entirely subjective and unregulated, de ned by the content producer,
which leads to exploitation in most cases in modern-day society. Any
person with no eld experience on a subject would prefer to conclude
and take a stand solely based on the information that the media
exposes to him.

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 In the 21st century, information gets to one at lightning speed, which
makes it very dif cult to sort the relevant content. Studies show how
media penetrated the culture and traditions of civilizations by
propagating and bolstering western content over the masses of other
countries, which has resulted in some cultures going extinct; this was
the result of using speci c psychology behind the media content. The
boasting of colonialism by western philosophers and media houses is
the best example of how content is targeted to particular sections of
society, which has resulted in dismantling social harmony and self-
con dence among the people of a nation. The study of media can
also give us information on how it affects the psychology of children
negatively in the community by publishing violent information or
promoting violent movies/ scenes that are supposed to be age-
restricted.

As clearly visible in recent years, unworthy media content has created

unrest among the people, which has resulted in a sudden shift
towards internet media. Internet media, as experienced, is found to be
relevant and productive, but it is again subject to psychological
interpretations by the content producer such that there is as much
misinformation for someone to target. Political parties use media and
psychologists to manipulate the voters’ thinking, which could even
result in a hostile situation for a country. Corporations use media and
technology to whitewash their image and get away with their
wrongdoings. These are a few reasons why studying the psychology
behind media and its impact is essential. To analyze the science
behind the media content, we would have to go deep into such elds,
which could be done only by psychologists with some pre-de ned
methods to interpret such content.

Psychologists, through various methods, tend to draw a pattern and

get a theory that would de ne the effect of media that the client has
had. They promote research and investigation on media and
communication. A large number of media is handled by professionals
who might have their interests and therefore shows things required to
in uence the large mass; this is why psychologists must bridge the
gap between professional work and science behind the change in
human cognition/ behavior. Professionals are using the results and
years of research to create advertisements and content to drive a
narrative that would pro t them.

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 Through psychology, one can drive thoughts and in uence the
masses into making certain decisions. Awareness programs are the
best example of how psychologists’ studies help create a better
society. The use of graphics in studies has resulted in a more
signi cant impact on young learners, allowing them to visualize the
scenario and derive conclusions. It is not media, but the psychology
behind the content produced that brings societal changes, ranging
from a revolution to a war-like situation.

When the mass media properly utilize theories given by psychologists,

it could change people’s perspective on an issue, which would either
bene t society or create chaos among the public. The best example of
how media can target the psychology of the masses can be seen in
the recent Ukraine-Russia con ict; western countries, through so-
called Global media, have projected a narrative that would keep them
looking clean but make India a war-crime supporter due to the
purchase of oil from Russia despite the purchase of gas by the
Europeans.

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In a developing country like India, the approach to Health

Psychology that would effectively address the concerns of
the growing health issues:

Health is a subjective issue as it not only concerns one’s physical

well-being but should also address mental well-being. Health
psychology analyses and focuses on factors in uencing one’s health
and illness using pre-de ned psychological methods. In a developing
nation like India, setting an approach out of clinical or community
approach to health psychology is quite tricky. India is a vast land with
diversity, most of which resides in rural areas with a very fragile health
care system. On the other hand, we have urban residents feeling the
need for a community approach and ancient methods that do not

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 have side effects like the modern clinical approach. Since a person
lives in a community and not in clinics, the system cannot overlook the
community approach since it caters to the requirements that cannot
be addressed by just the clinical approach, such as mental issues
caused due to social factors or economic factors.

India is a very chaotic society, which should be the only case that
signi cantly uses both approaches to health psychology. India is a
rising economy and has been a developing nation for quite some
time, which should tell us that the healthcare system is being modi ed
and upgraded. Clinical treatment is necessary since a clinical
approach should address many modern-day diseases and illnesses.
The current pandemic situation of COVID-19 shows us how vital
clinical medicine and the healthcare system can be in curing life.

It will be tough for me to say that we should opt for a clinical approach
only in the case of India. Indians, especially the rural folks, love to live
in a community. When someone in this population encounters an
illness, they seek advice from the people in the community. Diseases
like HIV-AIDS are untreatable and can only be prevented from further
expansion by present clinical methods. Any patient’s mental or
economic health in that situation can be dealt with only by a
community approach, which could encourage and help him ght the
illness mentally. This system and type of structure in the society have
been in Indian civilization for ages.

Depression is one of the biggest challenges that young India faces.

Since there is no evidence of clinical causes, social structure, people
in the community, or their thoughts have much more to do with this
problem. This could only be resolved through a community approach.
Universities in modern-day India have speci c centers to deal with
such issues, such as ‘The EHSAAS Clinic’ of Ambedkar University,
Delhi, that act on the community approach of health psychology.
Unlike the clinical approach community approach works horizontally,
which can cater to the needs for social change or empowerment
through the participation of the public and not controlled by
specialists. Human beings have common sense, which in itself is a
psychology that helps a patient through active collaboration and
communication.

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 So should we vouch for the community approach? The answer is no.
The community approach is time-consuming and may need to be
more effective since random information gets targeted by people who
are not mentally mature enough to handle distressful situations.
Conversely, the clinical approach is ef cient because of the pre-
determined rules and diagnoses with which the subject must be
treated. The clinical or healthcare system is regulated, making it
reliable and trustworthy; therefore, it works vertically to cater to the
need of an ill person. Unlike the community approach, the clinical
approach is based on pieces of evidence and interventions.

Clinical trials, experiments, pre-determined results, and methodology

gives us a suitable option for opting clinical approach since it is based
on quanti able data (‘and data does not lie’) that makes the treatment
more and more trustworthy, adding to the experience of the doctors
and researchers. This experience shall be worthy enough to be
utilized in other therapies; therefore, the clinical approach improves
with each diagnosis. The aspiring middle class of India, moving from
rural to urban, prefers clinical practice because of the unorganized
healthcare system in the rural, tier 2, or tier 3 cities. It is pretty
impressive for them to take just some pills and get rid of diseases.

Some problems cannot be dealt with through a community approach,

such as surgeries; we need specialists to deal with that issues
because of technological advancement in modern-day clinical
systems. Does that keep the community approach out of health
psychology in India? No, because one will need community support to
overcome hardships. The community’s people donate their blood,
saving several lives around the country since donating blood is seen
as a good deed in communities. The clinical approach can produce
evidence through various experiments and data. Still, it is the
community that comes together to implement suitable changes in
society by proposing changes in the health policies of a system.
Community dealing is constant in one’s life because we live in the
community. However, we will need to approach the clinics if we want
them to cure diseases. We might not know the problem we have.
Sometimes the clinical approach fails to diagnose or, in fact, fails to
see the problem with the human body. It is then the community that
will be able to encourage the patient. Capacity building and mental or
physical development are done through a community approach
because these things take time and cannot be addressed by clinics.

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It would be very immature in India to conclude and take a bet on a
particular approach. India is a very diverse nation where clinics and
community approaches are considered simultaneously. For a healthy
India, we do not need just one of the clinical or community
approaches; instead, we should research how to combine both to get
the best result.

Assignment 1 PS731 7