Lets face it; no matter what type of source is being used, reading about Psychology is fascinating. We get to learn all about ourselves as human beings and what could be more interesting than that!
But, have you ever stopped and noticed what source this information is coming from? Was it a scholarly article written by a professional? Or was it just some blog that a random person created for your entertainment.
If you did stop and notice, you may have noticed several differences in the delivery and style of the two pieces.
I recently read an article written by a psychology professional from the American Psychological Association Website, a online database full of articles and publications by psychologists. It was an article about how to reduce anxiety by telling yourself to get excited as opposed to telling yourself to calm down. When I started reading the article, the first thing I noticed was how professional of a manner it was written in. It was strictly to the point. The tone was serious, showing no emotion or voice whatsoever. When talking about the studies that were done, the word choice was precise, using complicated language.
It is obvious that the purpose of the article is to educate with true facts and real information. It is also clear that the intended audience are other professionals, scholars, students, and the educated public.
I still learned a ton from this article, and wouldn't let the professionalism stop you from checking it out. It was very fascinating and filled with a ton of quality information.
I also happened to stumble upon a psychology blog called PsyBlog. It is an awesome website full of interesting articles about psychology. The topics they touch on in the blog are everything from how comedians have psychotic personality traits to how falling in love only takes a fifth of a second. The article I read was about how attractive students tend to get higher grades. The first difference you can notice is how the topics in the blog are much more interesting then the topics on the APA website. The next thing I noticed was that the layout, font, and word choice of the article was much more relaxed than the first one. The article in the blog did not use such complicated language either. Everything was kept more simple and easy to understand. Its written more journalistic which kept my attention much longer.
It is clear that the purpose of this article is the entertain, while also providing some facts and reasoning. The intended audience is the general public and people with minimal background in psychology, who just want to be entertained.
Both were interesting articles and I encourage you to check them out!
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2013/12/performance-anxiety.aspx
http://www.spring.org.uk/2013/12/attractive-students-get-higher-grades.php
Sources:
Brooks, Allison Wood. "Getting Excited Helps with Performance Anxiety More Than Trying to Calm Down, Study Finds." APA. American Psychological Association, 23 Dec. 2013. Web. 22 Jan. 2014. <http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2013/12/performance-anxiety.aspx>.
(“Get Excited: Reappraising Pre-Performance Anxiety as Excitement,” Alison Wood Brooks, PhD, Harvard Business School; Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, online)
Dean, Jeremy. "Attractive Students Get Higher Grades." Web log post. PsyBlog. Hostgator, 18 Dec. 2013. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.
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