Conceptualizing and Measuring Character Depth.

Perceived character depth is a concept relevant for understanding and predicting audience responses to narrative media, yet it has been largely unexplored in the field of media psychology. Through a careful review of diverse literatures, the current work offers a formal conceptualization of characte...

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Publicado en:Media Psychology Vol. 29; no. 1; pp. 81 - 109
Autores principales: Frazer, Rebecca, Grizzard, Matthew, Moyer-Gusé, Emily
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd 2026
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        10.1080/15213269.2025.2460171
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          Frazer, Rebecca
          Grizzard, Matthew
          Moyer-Gusé, Emily
        affil:
          Department of Public Relations, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
          School of Communication, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
      su:
        Quantitative research
        Scaling (Social sciences)
        Test validity
        Mental representation
        Narration
        Pattern perception
      sug:
        subj:
          Quantitative research
          Scaling (Social sciences)
          Test validity
          Mental representation
          Narration
          Pattern perception
      ab: Perceived character depth is a concept relevant for understanding and predicting audience responses to narrative media, yet it has been largely unexplored in the field of media psychology. Through a careful review of diverse literatures, the current work offers a formal conceptualization of character depth as the extent to which a character's exposition evokes a detailed and multi-faceted mental conception of a character's psyche, behavior, and experience. This work then devises a measurement scale and presents a series of experimental studies designed to test the scale's validity. Study 1 uses a known-groups approach and confirmatory factor analysis to test the predictive validity and measurement model of a 20-item proposed perceived character depth scale. Selective item retention results in a 6-item scale with excellent model fit. Studies 2, 3, and 4 lend additional support to the validity of this 6-item scale's measurement model through tests of the scale in three different narrative contexts, all of which result in good model fit. Across Studies 1–4, evidence emerges of the convergent and discriminant validity of the scale in relation to other character perception variables. Future research directions related to the application of the current character depth conceptualization and measurement scale are proposed.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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