Dissertation
Mental Health, Masculine Norms, and Marvel: How exposure to the Avenger movie narratives and identification with a character are associated with masculine norms and intentions to seek help
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2022
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004448
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/118853
Abstract
Grounded in social cognitive theory and identification theory, this content analysis and survey looked further into relationships between mental health, masculine norms, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since social cognitive theory explains that people learn through observing social situations, our content analysis was performed and confirmed masculine norms were present in the four Avengers movies. While there are six main characters in these movies, performing a content analysis solidified our idea to use only two, Thor and Tony in our survey to further identification theory. In our survey, we used three masculine norms: winning, emotional control, and self-reliance. We found significant connections between the Avengers movies and the participant in all three masculine norms. Regarding identification, only the winning masculine norm and Tony were found significant. For mental health, watching the Avengers movies, and identification with Thor or Tony did not decrease mental health stigma perceptions nor increase mental health help seeking behaviors.
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Details
- Title
- Mental Health, Masculine Norms, and Marvel: How exposure to the Avenger movie narratives and identification with a character are associated with masculine norms and intentions to seek help
- Creators
- Alicia Booth
- Contributors
- Jessica F Willoughby (Advisor)Stacey JT Hust (Committee Member)Alexis Tan (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Edward R. Murrow College of Communication
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 233
- Identifiers
- 99900883438001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation