Lewis Donohew

Sensation seeking, impulsive decision-making, and risky sex : implications for risk-taking and design of interventions

In an HIV prevention study, 2949 ninth-grade students in 17 high schools in two Midwestern U.S. cities were administered scales measuring sensation seeking and impulsive decision-making and their separate and combined relationships to a number of indicators of sexual risk-taking. Measures of sexual risk-taking included intentions to have sex, ever had sex, number of lifetime sexual partners, been pregnant or caused a pregnancy, used a condom, used marijuana, had unwanted sex when drunk, had unwanted sex under pressure, said no to sex, used alcohol or partner used alcohol before sex. Strong associations were observed between each of the measures and sexual risk-taking for most of the indicators. Strongest associations were found among sexually active students high on both sensation seeking and impulsive decision-making and weakest associations among students low on both measures. Implications for design of interventions in health campaigns are discussed.

An activation model of information exposure

This paper outlines and tests a two‐stage activation model of information exposure. A fundamental postulate is that human beings have individual levels of need for activation or arousal. If activation falls below or exceeds this level, individuals will tend to experience a negative affective state and will turn away from a given source of information. If activation remains within some acceptable range, the affective state will be more pleasant and individuals will continue to expose themselves to the information. The findings offer support for two of three hypothesized interactions at the first stage of the model, which predicts affective state, and for a hypothesized main effect at the second stage, which predicts exposure.

Social and psychological origins of media use: A lifestyle analysis

This study examined how social and psychological factors, Including the need for activation, interact to produce different lifestyles and patterns of media use. The research identified four lifestyle types whose members differed significantly on a broad range of variables, including newspaper and newsmagazine readership, and gratifications sought from cable television. Persons with a high need for activation had lifestyles involving greater exposure to media sources of public affairs information than those with a lower need for activation and less cosmopolitan lifestyles. Results suggest that the roots of media use are far deeper than previously believed.

Attention, Need for Sensation, and Health Communication Campaigns

Although attention to novelty is no longer as vital to survival as in our ancient past, the attention value of novelty has major implications for contemporary human communication. It also is affected by individual differences in reactivity to intense and novel stimulation. The studies reported in this article involve the roles of attention and sensation seeking in responses to drug abuse prevention campaigns in the mass media. Early studies have indicated that adolescent high-sensation seekers are two to seven times more likely to report using drugs—ranging from alcohol to cocaine—than lower sensation seekers, identifying them as prime target audiences for prevention campaigns. This article describes a series of studies, ranging from laboratory studies on differential effects of messages on high- and low-sensation seekers, and on effects of program context, to a field experiment in which high-sensation seekers were targeted.

Short‐term effects of an anti‐marijuana media campaign targeting high sensation seeking adolescents

Abstract Sensation seeking, a biologically‐based personality variable, is strongly related to both drug use and preferences for highly novel, arousing, and/or unconventional messages and TV programs. This connection is the basis of a targeting strategy in an anti‐marijuana public service announcement campaign in a medium‐sized market aimed at high sensation seeking adolescents. Data from the first half of the media campaign suggest that the anti‐marijuana PSAs are reaching the target audiences marijuana‐related beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in the experimental city when compared to the control city. Implications for future campaigns are discussed.

Communication and health : systems and applications

Contents: Part I:Foundations. L. Donohew, E.B. Ray, Introduction: Systems Perspectives on Health Communication. J.R. Finnegan, Jr., K. Viswanath, Health and Communication: Medical and Public Health Influences on the Research Agenda. Part II:Health Communication Within Medical Contexts: Interpersonal, Small Group, and Organizational Issues. T.L. Thompson, Patient Health Care: Issues in Interpersonal Communication. B.D. Ruben, The Health Caregiver-Patient Relationship: Pathology, Etiology, Treatment. R.J.W. Cline, Small Group Communication in Health Care. E.B. Ray, K.I. Miller, Communication in Health-Care Organizations. Part III:Communication and Public Health: Mass Media and Education Issues. K.A. Neuendorf, Health Images in the Mass Media. L. Donohew, Public Health Campaigns: Individual Message Strategies and a Model. J.D. Brown, E.F. Einsiedel, Public Health Campaigns: Mass Media Strategies. V.S. Freimuth, The Chronically Uninformed: Closing the Knowledge Gap in Health. G.L. Kreps, Communication and Health Education.

Predictors of exposure from an antimarijuana media campaign: outcome research assessing sensation seeking targeting.

Using data from a large-scale antimarijuana media campaign, this investigation examined the demographic and psychographic variables associated with exposure to public service announcements designed to target high sensation-seeking adolescents. The literature on sensation seeking indicates that adolescents high in this trait are at greater risk for substance abuse. Analyses assessed the predictive utility of various risk and protective factors, normative influences, demographic variables, and marijuana-related attitudes, intentions, and behaviors on campaign message exposure. Results confirm that level of sensation seeking was positively associated with greater message exposure. In addition, viewers reporting greater exposure were younger adolescents who indicated that they had poor family relations, promarijuana attitudes, and friends and family who used marijuana. Implications for designing future antimarijuana messages based on these findings are discussed.

DRUG USE PREVENTION FOR THE HIGH SENSATION SEEKER: THE ROLE OF ALTERNATIVE ACTIVITIES

Research demonstrating links between sensation-seeking and drug use, and sensation-seeking and participation in leisure activities suggests designing substance misuse prevention projects that encourage substituting alternative activities for drug use. The current study uses factor analysis and discriminant analysis to provide comprehensive information on the kinds of activities high-sensation seekers participate in. Factor analysis of activity participation indicates an eight factor solution. Discriminant analysis of factor scores indicates that high-sensation seekers can be discriminated from low- sensation seekers on the basis of two factors, active-adventure and conflict-combat. Implications for prevention program design are discussed.

An Extension of the Activation Model of Information Exposure: The Addition of a Cognitive Variable to a Model of Attention

The principal objective of this article is to offer an extended theoretical framework for further development of persuasive message design for media-based health campaigns. Drawing upon considerable convergent evidence that attention to and processing of persuasive messages is a function of both cognitive and biologically based processes, we consider implications for attention and processing from an extension of the activation model of information exposure through the addition of a cognitive variable associated with the elaboration likelihood model, need for cognition. The overall goal is to determine how target audiences are optimally influenced with persuasive health information that attracts and holds attention, triggers information processing, and eventually brings about behavior change.

Health Communication in the Prevention of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drug Use

Research on substance abuse prevention programs indicates that effectiveness is greater when multiple intervention approaches that address the specific vocabulary, perceptions, and values of the target population are employed. The field of health communication provides unique perspectives on media that can be applied to increase the salience and effectiveness of substance abuse prevention programs. Well-designed and well-delivered health communications have the capacity for reaching remote audiences, changing health attitudes and behavior, shaping social norms, changing the way health issues are portrayed by the popular media, and influencing decisions about legislation and policies. Health communication approaches are generally employed within the broad context of health promotion programs, along with education, community development, empowerment, and social change approaches. This article describes the role of health communication in substance abuse prevention, reviews major conceptualizations of health communication, and introduces the unique features of the four articles included in this special section of Health Education & Behavior.