ABSTRACT
The primary goal of this chapter is to contrast two ways of approaching media offerings. In a reactive mode, viewers select programs which resolve needs and alter mood states. A superfi cial appraisal of programming is suffi cient to determine the presence of properties, such as suspense, which can modulate the experience of pleasure and excitement in accordance with the principle of ‘affective covariation.’ In a refl ective mode, viewers become deeply engaged in programs that relate to personal life experiences in accordance with the principle of ‘emotional elaboration.’ These modes of aesthetic engagement underscore the interaction of cognitive and affective processes and are related to contrasting theories of emotion. The reactive mode is associated with mechanistic and functionalist ideas of behavioral cognitivism reaching back to the Enlightenment. The refl ective mode is associated with organismic and holistic ideas of Gestalt psychology, psychodynamics, and phenomenology reminiscent of German Romanticism.
