Framing In Psychology

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In psychology, framing refers to the effects of judgment and choice. Kahneman and Tversky have demonstrated in a series of experiments that individuals’ choice varies significantly depending whether the choices are presented as potential gains or as losses. The prospect of relative gains (e.g. winning 100 dollars) let experimental participants to exhibit risk-aversion because they prefer a certain win. Facing a potential loss, however, participants in the experiment became more risk seeking and would rather gamble than accepting a certain loss. In short, the way in which options are presented or “framed”, as potential gains or losses, can influence an individual’s choice.
Others, such as Goffman, suggest that frames are “definitions of a …show more content…

A Frame is therefore “a central organizing idea or story line that provides meaning to an unfolding strip of events weaving a connection among them. The frame suggests what the controversy is about, the essence of the issue.” Nelson and Kinger argue “frames are more than simply positions or arguments about the issue. Frames are constructions of the issue: the spell out the essence of the problem, suggest how it should be thought about.” For all these authors, frames go beyond merely presenting events and helping to understand complex subjects but they actively contribute to the opinion formation of the issue at hand. Similarly, Entman conceptualizes framing as a process “to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation.” By arguing that the concept of framing could also include treatment recommendation, Entman goes further in his definition of media frames. For most scholars, however, framing is about selecting and presenting aspects of an event in a manner that facilitates the understanding of a complex issue and, at least implicitly, influences how individuals think about certain

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