Vicarious versus Direct Experience: How the Media Affect Psychological Growth

Abstract

Abstract Information technologies such as television or computer games are often described as creating either a passive or an interactive experience. These polar alternatives can better be conceived of as direct experience on the one hand or vicarious experience on the other. Direct experience involves overt acts. Once an overt act is made, the physical world or the social world provides feedback about the consequences. Vicarious experience requires no overt response on the part of the person attending to the message. It is the main thesis of this article that direct experience tends to be normative while vicarious experience permits individualistic psychological growth because vicarious experience is not under the control of cither social norms or the norms imposed by the realities of the physical world. If this is correct, a critical index of personality is the ratio of direct to vicarious experience. If the ratio is great, a person is likely to be adjusted to social norms. If the ratio is small, a person will probably be in conflict with social norms. Much of the recent history of the behaviour of young people can be interpreted using these principles. However, there are still many puzzling aspects in the changes in the behaviour patterns of young people over the last decade or so. The implications for instructional design using information technology will be discussed.