President’s Column: My Year as President

Jerri Lynn Hogg

I can scarcely believe that it’s already time to bid farewell as president of Division 46.

My goal for this year with the presidential initiative Media Psychology and Technology for Good was to promote the perception of media psychology and technology as forces for social good. We live in an age where the ability to connect with, experience, and share different worlds with very few limitations, resides at our fingertips. I think the future of media psychology is based in the sense of presence in different environments and digital spaces as an extension of our social world, rather than a dichotomy based in “online” or “offline” states. We will live simultaneously in virtual and physical environments, and our division has spent this year investigating the implications of these changes for society:

At our annual convention in Toronto, we hosted discussions on applications of media and technology that enable new behaviors and attitudes, from things we wear to how we self-enhance through image and learning, as well as ways new technologies can help extend ever-scarce mental health services into remote and underserved locations.
The convention also explored the many ways AR/VR and digital technologies provide environments allowing us to see and feel as if we are in-person. Bringing the sense of presence to virtual/augmented environments allows us to engage human imagination and creativity and build on the power of human potential for social change. Tapping into emotions in AR/VR extend the connections we psychologically crave for and add to the richness of our human experience.
The theme of exploring AR and VR carried over into our new webinar series, starting with Shane Pase’s presentation on “Inattentional Blindness in a Mobile Augmented Reality Application,” including the importance of studying new technologies from a psychological perspective.
Christophe Morin’s presentation on the psychology of neuromarketing continued the theme of understanding the impact of media technology by exploring neurophysiological methods of understanding critical constructs like attention, emotion, memory, and behavior. Dr. Randy Kulman extended these thoughts by showing how the use of metacognitive and strategic teaching strategies in video games can help improve executive functions and game-based learning in children with ADHD, ASD, and LD
Delivering needed psychological services to remote or nontraditional patients was the focus of Don Grant’s presentation, “Face to Face vs. Online Sobriety Support.” And our exploration “The Psychological Aspects Impacting Women’s Adoption of Mobile Technology,” presented by Dierdre Bradley, highlighted factors such as access to and reasons for using, or not using, information and communications technologies in business.

This is only a partial list of the webinars presented by Division 46 members during 2015, and I’d also like to thank Dana Klisanin, Chris Ferguson, Mary Alvord, and Ryan Niemiec for their wonderful contributions. I’m delighted to say that all of these presentations are archived for viewing at your convenience on the Media Psychology and Technology channel on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWpK5VoI6taTBz0EjcoAuZA/videos

Because media psychology is still a comparatively new and emerging field, our Division 46 and our discipline relies on the energy, talent, and dedication of all our members to help it grow, gain broader awareness, and increase its contributions to academia and society. Your efforts, enthusiasm, and support over the past year have only strengthened my firm belief that our field is in excellent hands and possesses a brilliant future.In closing, let me assure you that you have not seen or heard the last of me. I plan to remain active in Division 46 under our incoming president Mary Gregerson. This year as president has been an extraordinarily rewarding experience for me. I thank you for entrusting me with the job, and I join you in looking forward to an even more wonderful 2016.

On a personal note, midway through the year I was appointed Director of the Media Psychology PhD program at Fielding Graduate University. As you know, Fielding is the only US institution presently offering a doctoral degree in our discipline, and I’m thrilled to receive the opportunity to grow and develop it. Hopefully, as media technology continues to expand and evolve, other institutions will soon take up the challenge of teaching and researching media psychology at the doctoral level, providing our field with a broader foundation of academicians and practitioners who will continue the study and implementation of media psychology and technology for good for generations to come.

In closing, let me assure you that you have not seen or heard the last of me. I plan to remain active in Division 46 under our incoming president Mary Gregerson. This year as president has been an extraordinarily rewarding experience for me. I thank you for entrusting me with the job, and I join you in looking forward to an even more wonderful 2016.