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Culture and Psychology

Culture and psychology


An attempt will be made in this paper to compare and contrast popular press and primary research articles that deal with a psychological phenomenon.

The popular article accepts that emotion influences cognition. The behaviors of human beings are affected by emotions in the form of expression of fear, joy, depression, and other facial expression. Emotion possesses various unique qualities such as being independent of reason and deliberate actions. The attitude of an individual is determined by his joyful or depressive state of mind. The fact that emotion influences behavior is proved by the reference to tasks related to spatial orientation. Such an influence is suggested by the analysis of impulsive reactions of individuals. (Dolan, 2002, p. 1191) Emotion influence is best represented in the case of memory, which reacts to biologically important events. People who are affected by emotions can express their feelings by exhibiting phobia and other psychological problems. (Dolan, 2002, p. 1192) There is close relationship between emotion and feelings. This leads to the development of particular set of reaction to particular emotions in the form of a few feelings such as joy and sorrow. (Dolan, 2002, p. 1193). The author has used various technical terms, which cannot be understood by a lay reader.

The research article agrees with the suggestion that emotion is represented in the form of metaphor. By studying the literature, it is possible identify various expressions of emotions such as anger and sadness. The article maintains that 'body-based constructionism' theory is based on physiological reactions found in a person. This is different from social constructionism because the latter emphasizes culture and ideology. The authors of this article have delineated a methodology of 'body-based constructionism'. (Sokol and Strout, 2006, p. 116) The article uses the works of other scholars to support the theories or the facts presented in the article. This article is more systematic than the popular press article since it presents the theory and methodology of studying emotion and other psychological phenomena. (Sokol and Strout, 2006, p. 116)

The popular press article is entitled 'Emotion, Cognition, and behavior'. The article is written by an academic person who has researched on the influence of emotion on the aspects of cognition such as attention, memory, and reasoning. Although this is a popular article, a person without having background in psychology may not be able to completely understand the main argument of the author. In this way, this article is similar to the primary research article. This article is published in 'Science' which is available to all interested people through its website, but primary research article is not available to any person because its access is restricted to only academic institutions and individuals. Both the articles consist of references. The popular press report, unlike research article, does not consist of separate sections such as purpose of study, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion.

Whereas the popular press article deals with a general topic, the primary research article deals with the specific purpose of reviewing a book which studies a psychological phenomenon. The research article is the review of a book that deals with the relationship between metaphor and emotion. Both the articles accept that physiological factors can influence emotion, but the popular article does not give theory and methodology of the study of the relationship between emotion and cognition. The research article presents the theory and methodology of the study of the topic. This is the major difference between the popular press article and the primary research article.

Above details indicate that there are differences between popular press article and primary research article. Although both the articles claim to present academic discussion, the latter is more systematic and belongs to the category of research. The popular press article, although uses technical terms, does not delineate theory and methodology of studying a psychological phenomenon.

I enjoyed reading the research article because it has given a theory and methodology of the study of relationship between emotion and metaphor. The article has given future direction of research. The popular press report is a simple narration of facts and has not given future directions of research.





References

Dolan, RJ. (2002). Emotion, Cognition, and Behavior. Science. 298: 1191-1194. Available at the web site: www.sciencemag.org

Sokol, RI and Strout, SL. (2006). A Complete Theory of Human Emotion: The Synthesis of
Language, Body, Culture and Evolution in Human Feeling. Culture and Psychology.
12(1): 115-123.

Posted by: Andrew Blanks

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