Psychology and its relationship to theories of design

[Josh Rubin]

Just to say more: I’m thinking here of work like that of Hugo Münsterberg on film and aesthetics! For those who don’t know Münsterberg’s work, I’m learning that he is an incredibly fascinating figure–a popularizer of psychological theories in the domains of education, media, and law. He’s involved in complicated ways in the rise of the lie detector/polygraph as well as studies of the physiological responses that filmgoers have to the content on the screen. I’m presently exploring how his work has influenced generations of user researchers who apply similar techniques, for related theoretical reasons, to the study of the embodied responses of players to the videogames they play.

[Anand Pandian]

Love this! I thought a little with Münsterberg in an ethnography of filmmaking process I wrote a few years ago. If I had the language at the time, I might have conceptualized that book project as a reflection on design process. “Every dream becomes real, uncanny ghosts appear from nothing and disappear into nothing,” as he wrote in The Photoplay…

[Josh Rubin]

Wow yes, I think Münsterberg has a ton to say, much more than most of the commenters on his work let on!

I just heard a talk by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun about the use of sentiment analysis in machine learning algorithms for social media. It was amazing–she traced the rise of sentiment analysis to studies of labor (particularly feminized labor) efficacy in the 1920s and Japanese internment. This talk really confirmed for me that we need to carefully interrogate the ways that psychological theories of human behavior and action have informed, and continue to inform, design processes!