Behavioral Science Research the Study of Psychology Essay

Total Length: 902 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

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Behavioral Science Research

The study of psychology often involves observing the reaction that people will have to various events. In scientific terms, this is referred to as the stimuli of the environment. Where, different events will shape how someone reacts to a particular situation. In some cases, these reactions (behaviors) could be positive or negative. This all depends upon how the individual is interpreting the underlying stimuli. (Robbins 78 -- 97) To fully understand the impact of these different events, we will examine two news related articles on how terrorism is shaping the behavior of various individuals. This will be accomplished by comparing two articles from: Psychology Today and The Miami Herald. Where, there will be an emphasis on: the article, the research question, how the information was acquired and the conclusions that could be drawn from each. Together, these different elements will provide the greatest insights, as to how various terrorism related events is shaping individual behavior.

The article in Psychology Today discusses how political events are often polarizing, as the news media will highlight the negative facts and incidents. With the constant views of: these destructive images and words, shaping the opinions of the individual negatively. To corroborate these effects, the author cites and discusses a research study that was published in the Journal of Politics. During the project, they used a survey and experimental data, to understand the impact that media will have on these views.
Where, researchers would show: the images of the 911 terrorist attacks and the London subway bombings to participants. The results were that when threatening images and words are used together, they can have a negative impact upon the behavior of the individual. In this article, the author used the qualitative method of analysis, to draw various conclusions. This is when you are looking at specific information and drawing larger inferences about the overall impact. ("What is Qualitative Research") In this case, this information helps to identify the precise factors of how terrorism can affect the behavior of the individual. Where, the constant sight of negative images and the words will cause people to become fearful and angry. The conclusion of the article is that, when the news media is discussing the negative events, we should step back and realize that the story could be presented in a way, to create the greatest emotional impact. To make the article more complete, the author could have corroborated his facts with other studies or conducted one of his own. (Alvarez)

In the article from The Miami Herald, it discusses how a small church is going to be burning the Koran (the holy book of Islam) on September 11th. This is in reaction to….....

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