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Dolf Zillmann

Dean Emeritus, Professor
Dolf Zillmann
Reese Phifer Building at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa
BornMarch 12, 1935
Meseritz, Poland
NationalityGerman
OccupationPsychologist
SpouseValtra Zillmann
ChildrenMartin Zillmann, Tomas Zillmann
Academic background
Alma materHochschule für Gestaltung, University of Wisconsin, University of Pennsylvania
Academic work
DisciplinePsychology, Communication
Sub-disciplineMedia Psychology
InstitutionsUniversity of Pennsylvania, Indiana University, University of Alabama

Dolf Zillmann (born March 12, 1935) is Dean Emeritus, and Professor of Information Sciences and Psychology at the University of Alabama (UA). Zillmann predominately conducted research in Media Psychology, a branch of Psychology focused on the effects of media consumption on human affect, Zillmann developed and expanded a range of theories within Media Psychology and Communication. His work predominately centred on the relation between aggression, emotion, and arousal through media consumption. Predominately in pornography and violent genres of movie and television but his research also includes the effects of music consumption, video games, and sports.[1][2]

Zillmann's influence within both the fields of Media Psychology and Communication was highlighted by Ellen Baker Derwin and Janet De Merode finding Zillmann to be the seventh most contributing Media Psychology author between 1999 - 2010.[3]

Life[edit]

Early Life and Education (1935 - 1959)[edit]

Born in the former Province of Brandenburg, in the now Polish town of Meseritz, Zillmann's birthplace was highly contended changing hands between German, Polish and Soviet forces throughout the duration of the Second World War.[4] Much of his early educational experiences in the Western region of Poland took place in underfunded and understaffed educational institutions.[5] Poland's roughly 20 percent of the population over the age of 10 were illiterate,[6] many primary schools were closed, instead being utilised as hospitals for soldiers, those that were open were highly filtered and structured around the Nazi ideology for the education of Slavs.[7]

Obra River near Messeritz

With his Father's conscription into the war, later death, and the contention in the area his family resided, Zillmann, along with his mother and sister, spent the majority of the war fleeing violence, leading to poor living conditions throughout most of his youth, irrespective of his family's affluence in Messeritz.[4] Eventually, he and his family would settle in Marburg, a university town in the Hessen Region of Germany. Zillmann would still however have to self-teach as a means by which to acquire an education due to the widespread post-war resource shortages.[4]

Zillmann would continue on to higher education studying German architecture at the Ulm School of Design, a new bauhaus school of architecture which had been recently re-opened by the Swiss architect Max Bill after its closure by Nazi authorities during the war.[4] After the acquisition of his diploma in architecture in 1955, he begun working with Max Bill, entering architecture competitions in Zurich, beginning city planning in Isfahan, and designing and planning several public projects in several other European cities.[4]

Ulm School of Design

Zillmann would eventually go back to formal study at the Ulm School, studying in the fields of communication and cybernetics, engaging with many different academics in the field outside of Ulm such as the german aesthetics philosopher Max Bense at the University of Stuttgart and Professor of visual science Herbert Schober at the University of Munich.[4] Zillmann would acquire his diploma in communication and cybernetics in 1959 while also working as a scientific advisor for a holding company in Zurich.[4] Zillmann's role predominately involved the practical application of communications research to assist in marketing campaigns for several of the companies it parented, working there from 1959 - 1965.[4]

Academic Career (1968 - 2001)[edit]

In 1968, Zillmann moved to the United States in Madison, Wisconson where he was a doctoral student in communication and psychology at the University of Wisconson.[4] He would then move to Philidelphia in 1969, working in the University of Pennsylvania, which houses the oldest psychology department in North America,[8][9] going on to acquire a doctorate in communication and social psychology there that same year. He would work as an Assistant Professor until 1971, and would hold the position of Associate Professor from 1971 - 1975, teaching a range of subjects in both communication, psychology and general scientific methodology.[4] It is during this time that the underpinnings of his excitation transfer theory were being tested and published.[10]

EEG recording cap, similar to those used by the ICR in research

Following his time at Philadelphia, Zillmann accepted an appointment as an Associate Professor and subsequently a full Professorial appointment in Communication and Psychology between 1975 - 1988 at Indiana University.[4] Whilst continuing his own research Zillmann also established the Institute for Communications Research (ICR) at the university, Zillmann acting as the Director of the ICR from 1974 - 1988.[4] The focus of the ICR is on both communication research and wider social scientific research in the field of media consumption, concurrently operating at Indiana University and still actively researching in the field.[11]

Reese Phifer Hall at the University of Alabama where Zillmann worked

Zillmann would then move to the University of Alabama, assuming the position of Professor of Communication and Psychology and Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research from 1989 - 2001, where he would formally retire from academic employment.[4]

Research[edit]

General[edit]

These include Excitation Transfer Theory, Selective Exposure Theory, Affective Disposition Theory, Mood Management Theory, Entertainment Theory, Misattribution Theory of Humour, and the three-factor theory of emotion. [1][4]

Three-Factor Theory of Emotion[edit]

The three-factor theory of emotion proposed by Zillmann is an advancement of Schachter's two-factor theory model; which proposed that emotion and emotional excitation was the product of both one's interoception of internal physiological stimuli (e.g. blushing, sweating or shaking etc.) and the environmental stimuli (e.g. media, people or danger etc.) which one is currently engaged with.[12][13] This cognitive approach to emotion emphasised the need for context specific emotional appraisal and cognition in relation to the stimuli present in the environment along with the internal states one experiences to cognitively formulate the most appropriate emotional response in a particular circumstance.[13] In Schachter's two-factor theory, as Reisenzein (1984) posits "physiological arousal is necessary for the experience of an emotion (feeling), but not for emotion-related behaviour.[13]

Zillmann combined Schachter's cognitive approach to emotion with Hullian Drive Theory, particularly in regards to Hull's concept of 'excitational residues' in the cognitive process of emotional responses, implicating that both present and prior excitatory stimuli affect both excitatory levels and emotional cognition.[12] However, Zillmann argues that the individual is usually unable to recognise this residual effect of prior stimuli on current response, leading to a disproportionate response to a current stimulus.[12] It is from this three-factor theory of emotion Zillmann would construct the foundation of his Excitation Transfer Theory,[12] which he attributes as his most significant contribution to the field of media psychology.[1]

Excitation Transfer Theory[edit]

Zillmann's Excitation Theory held deep implications in regards to the effects of media upon young and impressionable children during development

Zillmann's Excitation Transfer Theory posits that residual emotional excitation from a particular stimulus will be carried over and applied to another stimulus. The excitatory response one has to the following stimulus will be in proportion with the levels of prior excitation from the first stimulus upon exposure to the latter.[14] Zillmann generalises emotion from distinguishable states and remain as such until the brain has established which emotional response to a given stimulus is appropriate.[14] With the delivery of the Surgeon General's report on the association between aggressive and anti-social behaviour in 1972, Zillmann's Excitation Theory served to explain the physiological and neurological underpinnings of the Surgeon General's findings.[14]

As Zillmann states in a 2002 interview, excitation transfer theory is "a clear mechanism with well-defined, measurable variables for the prediction of effects. [Whilst also having a] universal and ubiquitous applicability."[1] In a 1971 study, Zillmann found that the effect of aggressive stimuli more significantly increased excitatory responses than those of non-aggressive stimuli, resulting in higher rated aggressive behaviour. The study also found that erotic stimuli more significantly increased aggressive responses than even those of the aggressive stimulus[10], Zillmann would continue to study the excitatory effects of pornographic and other erotic material in later research.[15]

Pornography and Aggression[edit]


Publications[edit]

Books[edit]

  • 1979 Hostility and Aggression
  • 1984 Connections Between Sex and Aggression
  • 1985 Selective Exposure To Communication
  • 1989 Pornography: Research Advances and Policy Considerations
  • 1991 Responding to the Screen: reception and Reaction Processes
  • 1994 Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research
  • 1994 Media, Children, and the Family: Social Scientific, Psychodynamic, and Clinical Perspectives
  • 1998 Connections Between Sexuality and Aggression, 2nd ed.
  • 2000 Media Entertainment: The Psychology of Its Appeal
  • 2000 Exemplification in Communication: The Influence of Case Reports on the Perception of Issues
  • 2002 Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, 2nd ed.
  • 2013 Selective Exposure to Communication

Awards[edit]

  1. Burnum Distinguished Faculty Award, 2001[4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Schramm, Holger (2002). "Interview with Dean Emeritus Dolf Zillmann, College of Communication & Information Sciences and Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, on occasion of his recent retirement". Journal of Media Psychology Theories Methods and Applications. 14: 90–92 – via ResearchGate.
  2. ^ The Routledge handbook of emotions and mass media. Döveling, Katrin, 1970-, Scheve, Christian von,, Konijn, Elly, 1959-. London. ISBN 978-0-203-88539-0. OCLC 690111219.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. ^ Baker Derwin, Ellen; De Merode, Janet (2012). Inside Media Psychology: The Story of an Emerging Discipline as Told by a Leading Journal. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195398809.013.0005.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Bryant, Jennings; Roskos-Ewoldsen, David; Cantor, Joanne (2012). "A Brief Biography and Intellectual History of Dolf Zillmann". Communication and Emotion: Essays in Honor of Dolf Zillmann. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 7–27. ISBN 0-8058-4032-X.
  5. ^ Venken, Machteld; Röger, Maren (2015-03-04). "Growing up in the shadow of the Second World War: European perspectives". European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire. 22 (2): 199–220. doi:10.1080/13507486.2015.1008410. ISSN 1350-7486.
  6. ^ Krajewska, Anna (1995). "Education in Poland". Eastern European Economics. 33 (4): 38–54. ISSN 0012-8775.
  7. ^ "Poland Under Nazi Rule 1941". Central Intelligence Agency. 1941.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ "Psychology". psychology.sas.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  9. ^ "History of psychology at Penn". www.sas.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  10. ^ a b Zillmann, Dolf (1971-07-01). "Excitation transfer in communication-mediated aggressive behavior". Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 7 (4): 419–434. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(71)90075-8. ISSN 0022-1031.
  11. ^ "Facilities | Department of Telecommunications | Indiana University Bloomington". indiana.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-03.
  12. ^ a b c d Bryant, Jennings; Miron, Dorina (2003). "Excitation-Transfer Theory and Three-Factor Theory of Emotion". Communication and Emotion: Essays in Honor of Dolf Zillmann. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 31–59. ISBN 0-8058-4032-X.
  13. ^ a b c Reisenzein, Rainer (1983). "The Schachter theory of emotion: Two decades later". Psychological Bulletin. 94 (2): 239–264. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.94.2.239. ISSN 1939-1455.
  14. ^ a b c Bryant, J., & Miron, D. (2003). Excitation-transfer theory. In J. Bryant, D. Roskos-Ewoldsen, & J. Cantor (Eds.), Communication and emotion: Essays in honor of Dolf Zillmann (pp. 31-59). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
  15. ^ Zillmann, Dolf; Bryant, Jennings; Carveth, Rodney A. (1981-03). "The Effect of Erotica Featuring Sadomasochism and Bestiality on Motivated Intermale Aggression". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 7 (1): 153–159. doi:10.1177/014616728171023. ISSN 0146-1672. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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