The guilty couch potato: The role of negative emotions in reducing recovery through media use

This article addresses ego depletion as a mechanism influencing media-based stress recovery processes. Using structural equation modeling, relationships between ego depletion, procrastination, guilt, enjoyment, vitality, and recovery experience were tested using data from an online survey (N = 471). Results suggest that ego depletion may increase the risk of negatively appraising the use of interactive (video games) and noninteractive (television) entertaining media as a form of procrastination. The resulting guilt is negatively related to the recovery experience associated with using entertainment. Therefore, ego-depleted individuals may benefit less from the psychological recovery potential of entertainment media, despite their greater need for recovery. These findings are an important step in understanding the pivotal role of appraisal processes for media-induced recovery and the entertainment experience.

[1]  E. Rothblum,et al.  Academic Procrastination: Frequency and Cognitive-Behavioral Correlates , 1984 .

[2]  Shu-Fang Lin,et al.  Effect of Opponent Type on Moral Emotions and Responses to Video Game Play , 2011, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[3]  Mark Muraven,et al.  Restoring the self: Positive affect helps improve self-regulation following ego depletion , 2007 .

[4]  T. Dalgleish,et al.  Age Shall Not Weary Us: Deleterious Effects of Self-Regulation Depletion Are Specific to Younger Adults , 2011, PloS one.

[5]  R. Baumeister,et al.  Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources: does self-control resemble a muscle? , 2000, Psychological bulletin.

[6]  P. Vorderer,et al.  It’s okay to shoot a character: Moral disengagement in violent video games , 2010 .

[7]  Life Stage and Motives for Television Use , 1983, International journal of aging & human development.

[8]  K. Vohs,et al.  Intellectual performance and ego depletion: role of the self in logical reasoning and other information processing. , 2003, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[9]  B. Shiv,et al.  Heart and Mind in Conflict: The Interplay of Affect and Cognition in Consumer Decision Making , 1999 .

[10]  Marcel Zeelenberg,et al.  When guilt evokes self-punishment: evidence for the existence of a Dobby Effect. , 2009, Emotion.

[11]  T. Hartmann,et al.  Media entertainment as a result of recreation and psychological growth , 2012 .

[12]  Robert LaRose,et al.  Personal Internet use at work: Understanding cyberslacking , 2011, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[13]  Wendelien van Eerde,et al.  A meta-analytically derived nomological network of procrastination , 2003 .

[14]  John L. Sherry,et al.  Narrative and interactivity in computer games , 2006 .

[15]  Leonard Reinecke,et al.  Games and Recovery , 2009, J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl..

[16]  D. Kahneman,et al.  A Survey Method for Characterizing Daily Life Experience: The Day Reconstruction Method , 2004, Science.

[17]  J. Sluiter,et al.  Need for recovery from work related fatigue and its role in the development and prediction of subjective health complaints , 2003, Occupational and environmental medicine.

[18]  Dmitri Williams,et al.  The Video Game Lightning Rod , 2003 .

[19]  R. Baumeister,et al.  Ego depletion: is the active self a limited resource? , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[20]  J. Tangney,et al.  Procrastination: A means of avoiding shame or guilt? , 2000 .

[21]  Barbara M. Byrne,et al.  Structural equation modeling with AMOS , 2010 .

[22]  J. Nicholls.  Achievement motivation: Conceptions of ability, subjective experience, task choice, and performance. , 1984 .

[23]  F. Salili,et al.  Age, Sex, and Cultural Differences in the Meaning and Dimensions of Achievement , 1994 .

[24]  Elliot T. Panek,et al.  Left to Their Own Devices , 2022, The Black Scholar.

[25]  S. Sonnentag,et al.  The Recovery Experience Questionnaire: development and validation of a measure for assessing recuperation and unwinding from work. , 2007, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[26]  J. Bryant,et al.  Playing video games: Motives, responses, and consequences. , 2012 .

[27]  Nicole C. Krämer,et al.  Entertaining Media Use and the Satisfaction of Recovery Needs: Recovery Outcomes Associated With the Use of Interactive and Noninteractive Entertaining Media , 2011 .

[28]  John P. Robinson,et al.  What Do Happy People Do? , 2008 .

[29]  Christopher M. Barnes,et al.  Lost sleep and cyberloafing: Evidence from the laboratory and a daylight saving time quasi-experiment. , 2012, The Journal of applied psychology.

[30]  T. Olds,et al.  Electronic media use and adolescent health and well-being: cross-sectional community study. , 2009, Academic pediatrics.

[31]  Jennifer M. Ragsdale,et al.  An integrated model of weekday stress and weekend recovery of students. , 2011 .

[32]  M. Oliver,et al.  Appreciation as Audience Response: Exploring Entertainment Gratifications beyond Hedonism. , 2010 .

[33]  K. Vohs,et al.  The Strength Model of Self-Control , 2007, Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine.

[34]  W. H. Jones,et al.  On conceptualizing and assessing guilt. , 1992 .

[35]  P. Bentler,et al.  Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis : Conventional criteria versus new alternatives , 1999 .

[36]  K. Vohs,et al.  What People Desire, Feel Conflicted About, and Try to Resist in Everyday Life , 2012, Psychological science.

[37]  Peter Vorderer,et al.  It's all entertainment—sure. But what exactly is entertainment? Communication research, media psychology, and the explanation of entertainment experiences , 2001 .

[38]  Siegfried Dewitte,et al.  Repeated choosing increases susceptibility to affective product features , 2006 .

[39]  R. Baumeister.  Yielding to Temptation: Self‐Control Failure, Impulsive Purchasing, and Consumer Behavior , 2002 .

[40]  Bruce W. Tuckman,et al.  The Development and Concurrent Validity of the Procrastination Scale , 1991 .

[41]  J. Bryant,et al.  Media effects : advances in theory and research , 2002 .

[42]  Arthur A. Raney,et al.  Entertainment as Pleasurable and Meaningful: Identifying Hedonic and Eudaimonic Motivations for Entertainment Consumption , 2011 .

[43]  Robert J. Lewis,et al.  Characterizing Mood Management as Need Satisfaction: The Effects of Intrinsic Needs on Selective Exposure and Mood Repair , 2012 .

[44]  R. Ryan,et al.  On energy, personality, and health: subjective vitality as a dynamic reflection of well-being. , 1997, Journal of personality.

[45]  Robert J. Lewis,et al.  Media Enjoyment as Need Satisfaction: The Contribution of Hedonic and Nonhedonic Needs , 2011 .

[46]  R. Thayer.  The biopsychology of mood and arousal , 1989 .

[47]  Erica Scharrer,et al.  Media effects, media psychology , 2013 .

[48]  R. Baumeister,et al.  Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: willpower is more than a metaphor. , 2007, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[49]  Tilo Hartmann,et al.  Entertainment and enjoyment as media effects , 2009 .

[50]  Leonard Reinecke,et al.  Games at Work: The Recreational Use of Computer Games During Working Hours , 2009, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[51]  F. Zijlstra,et al.  Job characteristics and off-job activities as predictors of need for recovery, well-being, and fatigue. , 2006, The Journal of applied psychology.

[52]  B. Byrne.  Structural equation modeling with EQS : basic concepts, applications, and programming , 2000 .

[53]  H. Reis,et al.  Subjective and Experiential Correlates of Guilt in Daily Life , 1995 .

[54]  Ronald J. Faber,et al.  Spent Resources: Self‐Regulatory Resource Availability Affects Impulse Buying , 2007 .