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Michael T. Stephenson
Sam Houston State University, Communication Studies, Faculty Member
- I currently serve as Provost and Senior Vice President at Sam Houston State University. My primary research focus is ... moreI currently serve as Provost and Senior Vice President at Sam Houston State University. My primary research focus is on the media’s role in changing or reinforcing health-related behavior. I am also analyzing student success to determine the predictors to optimize chances of completing the first year and beyond.edit
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Although prior research has tested the nomological validity of media campaign exposure, including the related comparative validity of some measures, it has not well studied predictive validity or made extensions to other types of media... more
Although prior research has tested the nomological validity of media campaign exposure, including the related comparative validity of some measures, it has not well studied predictive validity or made extensions to other types of media campaign exposure. To help build on research in this area, the current study tested the nomological and predictive validity of 5 ad recall and recognition measures specific to the Touch condom media campaign in Pakistan. Between-effects regression of panel survey data confirmed the nomological validity of each of the 5 measures of Touch ad exposure. In addition, 2 sets of panel regression models (i.e., fixed-effects models and fixed-effects with lag models) confirmed the predictive validity of each of the 5 ad exposure measures. Results on comparative validity were quite similar for nomological and predictive validity, indicating that confirmed ad recall and recognition measures tend to have greater validity than unconfirmed measures.
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To better understand psychological reactance and discrete emotions that influence the effectiveness of persuasive messages, this quantitative analysis examines these variables following exposure to TV ads advocating condom use. Though... more
To better understand psychological reactance and discrete emotions that influence the effectiveness of persuasive messages, this quantitative analysis examines these variables following exposure to TV ads advocating condom use. Though safe sex messages disseminated on popular ...
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First-year seminars (FYS) comprise one of 11 researched interventions in postsecondary education known as High-Impact Practices, but few rigorous studies report significantly high impacts. This study examined a FYS employing propensity... more
First-year seminars (FYS) comprise one of 11 researched interventions in postsecondary education known as High-Impact Practices, but few rigorous studies report significantly high impacts. This study examined a FYS employing propensity score matching to link cases and controls in a quasi-experimental design. One semester later cumulative grade point average (GPA), cumulative hours attempted, and 1-year later indicators (hours earned, hours attempted, and term GPA) were statistically different between the two groups. Three freshman survey items were also statistically significant and differences were observed within the same semester of the program. Quantitative differences did not appear immediately but appeared one term and 1 year later. Mean differences did not appear to diminish between groups over time. This analysis helps to fill a void in the paucity of studies clarifying the relationship between FYS participation and outcomes using comparison groups.
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This study investigated the reliability and validity of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS-8) in both English and Spanish with Latinos, the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, and the correlation between sensation... more
This study investigated the reliability and validity of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS-8) in both English and Spanish with Latinos, the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, and the correlation between sensation seeking and tobacco and alcohol use.
DESIGN:
Cross-sectional survey, computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI).
SETTING:
Dallas and Houston, Texas.
PARTICIPANTS:
A total of 789 Latinos participated in this study. Participants were currently in the work-force, not enrolled in college, and between the ages of 18 and 30 years.
MEASUREMENTS:
Participants completed a self-report questionnaire (in either English or Spanish) consisting of items measuring tobacco and alcohol use as well as the eight-item Brief Sensation Seeking Scale.
FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS:
For English-speaking Latino participants, the BSSS factor structure was second-order unidimensional and correlated positively with life-time cigarette use, intention to smoke in the future and amount and frequency of alcohol consumption. For Spanish-speaking Latino participants, a four-subfactor solution for the BSSS provided the best fit to the data although correlations between the four subscales and cigarette use were small.
DESIGN:
Cross-sectional survey, computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI).
SETTING:
Dallas and Houston, Texas.
PARTICIPANTS:
A total of 789 Latinos participated in this study. Participants were currently in the work-force, not enrolled in college, and between the ages of 18 and 30 years.
MEASUREMENTS:
Participants completed a self-report questionnaire (in either English or Spanish) consisting of items measuring tobacco and alcohol use as well as the eight-item Brief Sensation Seeking Scale.
FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS:
For English-speaking Latino participants, the BSSS factor structure was second-order unidimensional and correlated positively with life-time cigarette use, intention to smoke in the future and amount and frequency of alcohol consumption. For Spanish-speaking Latino participants, a four-subfactor solution for the BSSS provided the best fit to the data although correlations between the four subscales and cigarette use were small.
Research Interests:
Drug prevention research has demonstrated the effectiveness of high sensation value messages in influencing drug-related attitudes and behaviors of high sensation seekers (HSS). While there is insight into what kinds of messages are most... more
Drug prevention research has demonstrated the effectiveness of high sensation value messages in influencing drug-related attitudes and behaviors of high sensation seekers (HSS). While there is insight into what kinds of messages are most effective in persuading ...
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Morgan SE, Stephenson MT, Afifi W, Harrison TR, Long SD, Chewning LV. The University Worksite Organ Donation Project: a comparison of two types of worksite campaigns on the willingness to donate. Clin Transplant 2011: 25: 600–605. © 2010... more
Morgan SE, Stephenson MT, Afifi W, Harrison TR, Long SD, Chewning LV. The University Worksite Organ Donation Project: a comparison of two types of worksite campaigns on the willingness to donate. Clin Transplant 2011: 25: 600–605. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S.Abstract: To test the impact of different campaign strategies, a year-long campaign was conducted to promote organ donation among university faculty, staff, and students. Two universities were assigned to each of three conditions: a media-only campaign, a mass media-plus-interpersonal outreach condition, and a control condition. Universities were counter-balanced by geographic region and diversity of population. Changes from pretest to post-test on the key-dependent measures, including signing a donor card and discussing donation with family members, were significantly greater in the media-plus-interpersonal condition than either the mass media only or control conditions. Implications for the creation of campaigns to promote other health behaviors are examined.
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Anti‐drug media campaigns have changed the drug‐consumption behaviors of high sensation seekers in part through a campaign strategy called SENTAR. This strategy relies largely on high sensation value messages, which contain structural and... more
Anti‐drug media campaigns have changed the drug‐consumption behaviors of high sensation seekers in part through a campaign strategy called SENTAR. This strategy relies largely on high sensation value messages, which contain structural and content features that elicit sensory, affective, and arousal responses. To learn more about the persuasiveness of high sensation value ads, this investigation focused on the processing of anti‐heroin PSAs by 200 young adults. Of specific interest was the influence of perceived message sensation value on three types of processing (argument‐based, narrative, and sensory), two affect variables (sympathetic distress and stimulated excitation), and anti‐heroin attitudes. Sensation seeking was examined as a moderator of these effects. In general, sensation seeking moderated the effects of perceived message sensation value and sensory processing on sympathetic distress and anti‐heroin attitudes. Additionally, high sensation seekers’ anti‐heroin attitudes were largely influenced by narrative and sensory processing, while low sensation seekers’ anti‐heroin attitudes were relatively unaffected by the anti‐heroin ads.
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Research Interests: Health Communication, Trust, Informed Consent, Organ Donation, Religion and medicine, and 14 moreHealth, Adolescent, Humans, United States, Female, Male, Qualitative Study, Aged, Middle Aged, Survey data, Adult, Communication and media Studies, Public health systems and services research, and Videotape Recording
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Research Interests: Program Evaluation, Health Education, Evaluation, Adolescent, Television, and 15 moreMass media, Humans, Needs Assessment, Public, Sensation Seeking, Child and Adolescent Psychology, Regression Analysis, Behavior change, Efficiency, Questionnaires, Longitudinal Studies, Kentucky, Exploratory Behavior, Adolescent Behavior, and attitude to health
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Research Interests: Health Behavior, Psychometrics, Statistical Analysis, Forecasting, Tobacco, and 24 moreRisk Taking, Public Health, Adolescent, Comparative Study, Humans, Smoking, Tobacco Use, Sensation Seeking, Female, Alcohol Drinking, Male, Exploration, Drug Addiction, Data Collection, Risk factors, Risk Factor, Analysis of Variance, Protective and Risk Factors, Health surveys, Risk Factors, Large Scale, Predictive value of tests, Substance-Related Disorders, and Protective Factor
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The research reported here investigated sensation seeking as a moderating variable of 368 adolescents' reactions to antimarijuana public service announcements. Participants rated the perceived message sensation value of 3... more
The research reported here investigated sensation seeking as a moderating variable of 368 adolescents' reactions to antimarijuana public service announcements. Participants rated the perceived message sensation value of 3 antimarijuana TV ads, their processing of the ...
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Fear appeal messages were designed and tested to ascertain their effectiveness in promoting skin protective behaviors. Theoretically guided by the Extended Parallel Process Model, the fear appeal messages in this study conveyed the... more
Fear appeal messages were designed and tested to ascertain their effectiveness in promoting skin protective behaviors. Theoretically guided by the Extended Parallel Process Model, the fear appeal messages in this study conveyed the seriousness of exposed and unprotected skin for college students in the Southwestern United States, and recommended a series of behaviors that would protect individuals from serious sunburns. The results demonstrated that fear appeals are effective in promoting skin protective behaviors. Specifically, highly threatening fear appeal messages were most effective when combined with a strong efficacy message emphasizing the effectiveness of the recommended behaviors.
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Research Interests: Health Communication, Social Marketing, Psychometrics, Personality, Risk Taking, and 15 moreHealth, Adolescent, Motivation, Affect, Humans, Sensation, United States, Female, Male, Adult, Communication and media Studies, Public health systems and services research, Analysis of Variance, Reproducibility of Results, and Psychological Theory
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Research Interests: Health Communication, Health Promotion, Risk Taking, Health, Adolescent, and 16 moreTelevision, Mass media, Humans, Sensation Seeking, Female, Male, Child and Adolescent Psychology, Regression Analysis, Risk factors, Outcomes Research, Communication and media Studies, Public health systems and services research, Analysis of Variance, Risk Factors, Exploratory Behavior, and Adolescent Behavior
Research Interests: Program Evaluation, Health Promotion, Social Marketing, Control, Risk Taking, and 21 morePublic Health, Health Policy, Adolescent, Mass media, Humans, Public, Sensation, Sensation Seeking, Female, Male, Child and Adolescent Psychology, Social Environment, Drive, Check, Tennessee, Adult, Kentucky, Health surveys, Adolescent Behavior, Cohort Studies, and Marijuana abuse
Research Interests: Program Evaluation, Health Promotion, Social Marketing, Health Education, Risk Taking, and 15 moreAdolescent, Prevention, Mass media, Humans, Sensation Seeking, Field Study, Adult, Kentucky, Public health systems and services research, PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION, Curriculum and Pedagogy, Adolescent Behavior, Field Studies, Marijuana abuse, and attitude to health
The primary objective of this investigation was to validate the recent operationalization of state reactance as a latent construct comprised of both affective and cognitive components. In addition to testing the operationalization of... more
The primary objective of this investigation was to validate the recent operationalization of state reactance as a latent construct comprised of both affective and cognitive components. In addition to testing the operationalization of reactance, the authors tested the conceptual ...
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This research employed the theory of reasoned action to investigate the role of authoritative parenting in 3 drug-prevention behaviors: (a) parental monitoring, (b) parent-child discussions, and (c) awareness of the... more
This research employed the theory of reasoned action to investigate the role of authoritative parenting in 3 drug-prevention behaviors: (a) parental monitoring, (b) parent-child discussions, and (c) awareness of the child's environment. A phone survey of 158 parents of adolescents in 7th, 9th, and 11th grades revealed that authoritative parenting was correlated with parenting practices that reduce the likelihood of adolescent drug use, including discussing family rules about drugs, discussing strategies to avoid drugs, discussing those in trouble with drugs, parental monitoring, knowing the child's plans for the coming day, and personally knowing the child's friends well. Additionally, authoritative parenting moderated the attitude-behavioral intention relation for parental monitoring and awareness of the child's environment, with the weakest relation detected for low-authoritative parents. The utility of these findings in helping design and target antidrug messages for parents more effectively is discussed.
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Sensation seeking, an individual difference trait that is psychobiological in nature, characterizes individuals seeking to satisfy their drive for novel, exciting, and stimulating life experiences (Zuckerman, 1994). Sensation seekers... more
Sensation seeking, an individual difference trait that is psychobiological in nature, characterizes individuals seeking to satisfy their drive for novel, exciting, and stimulating life experiences (Zuckerman, 1994). Sensation seekers savor the experience of riding a new roller coaster ...
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Cognitive response theories such as theElaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) have beencriticizedfor lacking appropriate and rigorous empirical testing. As a result, the ELM in particular has little support for the proposed causal mechanism,... more
Cognitive response theories such as theElaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) have beencriticizedfor lacking appropriate and rigorous empirical testing. As a result, the ELM in particular has little support for the proposed causal mechanism, cognitive responses,as a mediating variable ...
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Page 1. ANTI-DRUG PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS TARGETING PARENTS: An Analysis and Evaluation Michael T. Stephenson This study examined televised anti-drug public service announcements (PSAs) that direct ...
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Page 1. 316 Journal of Communication, June 2002 Effects of Watching Primary Debates in the 2000 US Presidential Campaign By William L. Benoit, Mitchell S. McKinney, and Michael T. Stephenson This essay reports the results ...
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Adolescents with high sensation-seeking tendencies often seek out thrill seeking experiences to satisfy their need for stimulation and sensation. In many cases, sensation-seeking adolescents fulfill their need for stimulation and... more
Adolescents with high sensation-seeking tendencies often seek out thrill seeking experiences to satisfy their need for stimulation and sensation. In many cases, sensation-seeking adolescents fulfill their need for stimulation and sensation by using illicit substances. However, not all high sensation seekers use drugs, although the factors that prevent or buffer sensation seeking remain unexplored. This study fills this gap in extant research by examining the role of authoritative parenting as a protective factor that prevents or buffers cigarette and marijuana use by adolescents with high sensation-seeking tendencies. Data from 1461 adolescents attending 6th through 8th grades in central Colorado were gathered during a semester-long classroom-based intervention to prevent the onset or further use of cigarettes. Results indicate that authoritative parenting moderated the effect of sensation seeking on adolescent marijuana attitudes, intentions, and peer influence but not behaviors. Further, authoritative parenting was a stronger influence than sensation seeking on cigarette-related outcomes with just the opposite effect observed for marijuana-related outcomes.
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... research (pp. 6787). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Burgoon, M., Alvaro, E., Grandpre, J., & Voloudakis, M. (2002). Revisiting the theory of psycho-logical reactance: Communicating threats to attitudinal... more
... research (pp. 6787). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Burgoon, M., Alvaro, E., Grandpre, J., & Voloudakis, M. (2002). Revisiting the theory of psycho-logical reactance: Communicating threats to attitudinal freedom. In ...