Article Review and Report
Article Review and Report
The article “Changing beliefs and behavior through experience-taking” by Kaufman and Libby was published online on March 26th, 2012 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Kaufman and Libby conducted this research to ascertain how beliefs and behavior can be modified through experience-taking. They used six studies to investigate how heightened and reduced psychological states, combined with the features of the narratives, cause individuals to engage in experiential-taking, and how the experience affects individual’s attitudes and behavior (Kaufman and Libby 3). From their findings, I have learnt that; when one reads a brief fictional work with a reduced psychological state, the self-concept accessibility increases. However,the self-concept accessibility decreases when one reads while in a heightened state. I have also learnt that a narrative that is written in the first person elicits a higher degree of experience-taking than a narrative that is written in the third person. In the article, I also learnt that the background of a character inhibited experience-taking. Kaufman and Libby (7) argue that experience-taking was highly inhibited in narratives that introduced homosexuals as the characters.
From my experience and research, I agree with the views expressed by Kaufman and Libby. First person narratives capture the reader and enables one to participate in the story. The The attitude that the reader forms about the characters in a narrative affects the reader’s experience-taking. Haslam et al. (357) and Connelly and Clandinin (7) argue that the attitude that a reader form about the characters in a narrative has a great effect in their experience-taking. In the case of a homosexual character, the many readers who do not identify with the homosexuality form a negative attitude about the characters and inhibit experience-taking.
Works Cited
Connellly, Michael, and Jean Clandinin. “Stories of Experience and the Narrative Inquiry” Educational Researcher, 14.5 (1990): 2-14. Print.
Haslam, Alexander, O’Brien Ann, JottenJolanda, VormedalKarine and Penna Sally. “Taking the strain: Social identity, the social support, and the experience of stress” British Journal of Social Psychology, 44.3 (2005): 355-370. Print.
Kaufman, Geoff F., and Lissa Libby. “Changing Beliefs and Behavior Through Experience-Taking”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 26 (2012): 1-19. Print.
