Individual differences and the psychology of film preferences

A wealth of research has highlighted the importance of understanding individual differences in the uses and effects of the mass media. However, significantly less attention has been paid to the role of individual differences in the area of film use and preferences. This thesis sought to provide more insight into the area of movie consumption, whilst investigating the links between individual differences, movie- watching motives and film preferences. The thesis also sought to amalgamate some of the more common methods of analysing individual differences with a new measure, namely the Uses of Film Inventory, a self-report questionnaire which was designed to assess individual’s choices for specific genres of films. The investigation aimed to make a contribution to research in two areas. The first was within the field of individual differences research, by providing a more methodical understanding of how film preferences can be accounted for as a function of important psychological needs. The second is within the applied field of media psychology, by providing researchers with an understanding of both the uses and effects of the mass media, as well as interpretative methods in understanding consumer behaviour in film. The theoretical chapter comprised of a thorough literature review of the theoretical and methodological foundations to the scientific understanding of the psychological determinants of individual differences in film preferences. The experimental chapters explored several possibilities in which established personality traits and movie- watching motives may be linked to preferences for a variety of film genres. Overall, it was concluded that when all of the psychological measures were considered, a number of variables could account for the role in predicting movie preferences. Thus, taken as a whole, this thesis demonstrates that a number of personality variables and movie-watching motives can, to some degree, predict film preferences. However, it must also be acknowledged that although these variables are an important factor in predicting consumer choice in film, other factors must be essential. Thus, further research is essential to answer the outstanding questions generated by this relatively new field of research.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo