Novels and Scientific Psychology

The Educated Imagination discusses major ideas that answer the question “what good is the study of literature?”. Frye does so by discussing concepts such as the desire of humans to connect to nature, the conformity to conventions and deviation from reality in literature, and the ideal manner in which literature should be taught. Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination proposes the idea that through the consumption of literature, the individual is able to develop an imagination which allows him to connect to society from an educated perspective.

Northrop Frye 's the Educated Imagination, published in 1963, attempts to bring out the meaning and effect of possessing an educated imagination in contrast to its opposite. Dr. Frye analyses how his theory advances society’s interests and overcomes its limits through the three levels of the human mind. In his essay, the three levels are broken down in a detailed manner, which links it directly its thesis. Frye presents definitive answers to his questions in the beginning of his essay, “What good is the study of literature? Does it help us to think more clearly, or feel more sensitively, or live a better life than we could without it?” Conclusively, the education of an individual’s mind is critical to understand the world we live in and to the advancement of our society. Educating the mind consists of absorbing and modifying literature, understanding and evolving art, and placing science within context without having data as the boundaries of our imagination.

Fiction novel’s shows us the views and perspective others. This type of literature help us gain a more broader perspective and can teach us more about our society. The idea of banning fictional novels is a very foolish idea. These novels do more good than they do harm and are beneficial for our curriculum and learning. Taking away this literature will not benefit our learning and will only harm our learning. “Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.’’ said G.K. Chesterton.

Even though some people discount fiction as a sources of learning and think it is just for entertainment sake there is still much to learn from it. Fiction being written by the author will have his or her knowledge mixed into it. Learning from someone else’s prospective will help you solidify what you believe, either by backing it up or challenging it and making your values stronger in the process. In “Telling the Truth in Lies” Virginia Stem Owens says, “Fiction brings us a certain kind of news about the world we can get in no other way, because all other ways are abstract and detached, while fiction’s way is particular.” Fiction can teach the reader to believe and hope for a happy outcome or to protect themselves so they are not hurt by what

After reading the Harry Potter series, U spent weeks anticipating a letter from a magical school that would reveal that I was in fact a wizard and was invited to attend their classes to learn magic. People tend to enjoy reading fiction so they can live vicariously through the characters in the story. Fiction, despite being “made-up”, often have close similarities to the real world. By taking a closer look at “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury and “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, one can infer that fiction reveal a significant amount of truths about human nature.

In this persuasive essay “Why Literature Matter”, Dana is trying to explain how our society is losing it’s best qualities by Americans not reading literature. Dana is persuading her audience by using facts from former research done. It is thought to be that who doesn't grow up around literature have less of an imagination and tend to work in factories. About 38% of employees working for the National Association of Manufacturers in 2011 were ranked second to argue how schools are teaching reading comprehension wrong. Society today is losing the uniqueness and individuality we used to have because of the nonreader people.

We see from John Green’s video, “Why and How We Read” and Gary Morson’s article, “Why College Kids Are Avoiding the Study of Literature”, that literature is given a bad name because of how it’s being taught, people think it’s a waste of time to learn, because of the unnecessary critical analysis. We can also see that the two articles and video all show us that authors are trying to communicate a message through their writing, and ultimately, teach us something. In both articles and the video, it is emphasized that we build the necessary skills to empathize and communicate with others. Ultimately, we also understand and express our own emotions more efficiently, when we do read. Finally, in “The Business Case for Reading Novels” by Anne Kreamer

Throughout my childhood I enjoyed reading a variety of books as a method of escaping my troubles and delving into someone else’s world for a short time. But it is my belief that being an avid reader also helped me become

Pennington, D., McLoughlin, J. (2003) ' Debates in Psychology’ in (ed) Advanced Psychology. Child Development, Perspectives & Methods. United Kingdom: Hodder Education Group, pp.232.

Many times in people 's lives, they are asked to define their personality and they do not know how to respond. What is the actual definition of personality and how can we define our own? Personality is a unique consistent pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. In other words, personality is a combination of characteristics or qualities that form the person in you. Like a painting, there are many different color schemes that combine in order to show the big picture. There is no such thing as a person without a personality. Some people may not have very extroverted characteristics; this means that they have a shy or colorless personality.

Fulford summarizes a work by Mark Turner: “‘Story is the fundamental instrument of thought. Rational capacities depend on it.’ He believes that storytelling is our chief means of explaining the world to one another and ourselves, and the principal way we form intelligence” (82). One of the most defining human characteristics, rational thought, depends upon stories. Literature inspires thinking and is the connection between people by providing new ways to interpret the world. This ability to form ideas and share them in an intelligent way is the basis of a society: communication. Restricting literature by allowing it to be controlled by tyrants interferes with problem solving and intelligent communication. Not only do stories play a sociological role, they also have a biological

Different individuals read literature for various facts and purposes, and I realized that I mostly read because I like to lose myself in new stories, and for me it doesn’t matter if something isn’t true.Different individuals read literature for various facts and purposes, and I realized that I mostly read because I like to lose myself in new stories, and for me it doesn’t matter if something isn’t true.Different individuals read literature for various facts and purposes, and I realized that I mostly read because I like to lose myself in new stories, and for me it doesn’t matter if something isn’t true.

But even though the newest gadget or breakthrough study can make something smoother, faster, and better, it can’t fill all the holes in our lives. When it comes to figuring out who we are, who we want to be, how to treat other people, and the decisions we have to make, I believe it’s literature can help us. It has the ability to put us in another person’s shoes and see the world from different perspectives. It teaches us how to empathize and connect with others on a much deep level, even if they seem different from us. Learning literature is more than just memorizing names, dates, faces, and summaries, it can broaden our minds and open our hearts by reminding us not to judge a book by its cover, and there’s nothing more important than that. So thank you Mr. Pollard. You have been a profound influence on my life, I’ll never forget

Philosophy of the mind: Both novels were reflective of human emotions, such as desire, passion and feelings.

There exists a prevailing myth that psychology is only a soft science. Soft science, indicating that the practice of psychology is less rigorous, less precise, and, to some degree, less worthy than the hard sciences--- chemistry, biology, physics. This study, conducted by Maureen A, McCarthy and Sue Frantz called “Challenging the Status Quo: Evidence that Introductory Psychology Can Dispel Myths”, attempts to do just that. Their hypothesis was that when given the chance to take an introduction to psychology course, participants would walk away with enough information to distinguish psych fact from psych fiction. This would indeed prove how valuable of a science psychology is.