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Home > Scholarly Contributions > Abstracts > Volume 21 Issue 1
Volume 21 Issue 1
PSYCHOLOGY OF LITERARY NARRATIVES: STUDIES OF IDENTITY AND CONFLICT
JÁNOS LÁSZLÓ and GERALD C. CUPCHIK, 2003, 21:1, 1-4.
Abstract:

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THE WORDS THAT PREDICT THE OUTBREAK OF WARS
ROBERT HOGENRAAD, 2003, 21:1, 5-20.
Abstract: McClelland has shown how passionate reformist zeal for social justice is often the link between an "imperial motivation pattern" (i.e., high need for power and low need for affiliation) and subsequent wars. If we could predict the outbreak of past conflicts from observing the gap between affiliation and power in stories and documents of the past, we could also analyze documents of the present and point at the gap as a signal of alert of future conflicts. With the help of the new computer-readable MOTIVE DICTIONARY, I content analyzed literary stories and real-life documents concerned with war and conflict. The dictionary rests on three axes, which are: the need for achievement, the need for affiliation, and the need for power. Examples of such narratives and documents are William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, Tolstoy's War and Peace, a 373-page document produced in Washington in 1944 under the title of Events Leading Up to World War II. Chronological History Of Certain Major International Events Leading Up To and During World War II with the Ostensible Reasons Advanced For Their Occurrence. 1931-1944, and Robert F. Kennedy's Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. With close to impeccable precision, the gap between affiliation and power widens as the conflicts develop, with power higher than affiliation, and narrows if and when serenity resumes.

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND LITERARY TEXTS: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF A CONTEMPORARY INDIAN NOVEL
ALBERTA CONTARELLO and ELENA VELLICO, 2003, 21:1, 21-49.
Abstract: The aim of the article is to illustrate the contribution of research with literary tests to study Self1 and social relationships. We briefly overview, first, different theoretical approaches using literature in social psychology, second, the analysis of Self and identity within the framework of social representations. This perspective considers literary texts--co-creations of their time-- worth of study to test and expand social psychological knowledge. In the present research the importance of the individualism--collectivism dimension to understand social "worlds," and of dynamic forces underlying social life is tested. After considering studies on Self and culture in the Indian context, a novel by Anita Desai--a recognized authoress, renowned in India and in the West--is analyzed. Content and correspondence analyses were performed to detect dimensions underlying the portrayed characters and relationships. The resulting structures partially support but also extend social psychological knowledge on Self and relationships.

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A HISTORICAL VIEW OF EMPIRICAL POETICS: TRENDS AND POSSIBILITIES
GERARD STEEN, 2003, 21:1, 51-67.
Abstract: A historical view of the empirical study of literature provides a platform for reflection on the past, present, and future of the enterprise. The development of the field is sketched with reference to a number of turning points in the eight conferences of the scholarly association for empirical poetics, IGEL. A shift is observed from a theory-driven to a research-driven image. On the basis of this shift, problematic aspects of doing empirical research and formulating empirical theories are singled out for special attention. In particular, a plea is made for viewing research as puzzle solving in the sense of Kuhn, instead of the more ambitious view of Popper (1979) who sees research as testing theories. Moreover, an argument is presented for respecting but also relating the results from different theoretical paradigms. Finally, theoretical consequences of this standpoint include the adoption of pluralism while remaining alert with respect to maintaining the consistency of the overall definition of literature as a domain of discourse.

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REPRESENTATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN SUCCESSFUL HISTORICAL NOVELS
JÁNOS LÁSZLÓ, ORSOLYA VINCZE, ILDIKÓ KŐVÁRINÉ SOMOGYVÁRI, 2003, 21:1, 69-80.
Abstract: Study of aesthetic success is one of the core topics in empirical aesthetics (Martindale, 1990; Petrov, 1992; Simonton, 1986). Instead of going into complexities of what makes aesthetic objects permanently or temporarily successful, this study outlines a hypothesis which, in accord with Vygotsky (1971), claims that aesthetic success partly depends on the object's capacity of fulfilling social needs. More specifically, it is assumed that successful historical novels represent an almost ritual history of a national group in a subtle way, thereby providing generations of their readers with historical continuity and a sense of positive identity. By analyzing the two most successful Hungarian historical novels, the study identifies social psychological patterns of narrative composition, which seem to be more or less general at least for Western civilization. Results also reflect some idealized features of the Hungarian national identity.

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HOW CHILDREN APPROPRIATE THEMES THEY FIND IN MEDIA PRODUCTS
MICHAEL CHARLTON, 2003, 21:1, 81-96.
Abstract: Norman Holland theorizes that people seek themes in media which affect them personally and are congruent with topics in their own life's situation. Yet while doing so, individuals try to make sure that they are not confronted with issues that they do not wish to deal with or are emotionally draining. Michail Bakhtin makes similar assertions in his Theory of Appropriation through his research on the influence that language has on the ideas of being to be true to oneself ("ownness") and to becoming a stranger to oneself ("otherness"). An empirical study of these hypotheses is supported through a collection of 80 observation protocols of pre-schoolers made during their everyday interaction with different forms of media (picture books, cassette tapes, made for TV-movies). Both claim that the connection between personal life topics and media themes as well as the self-preserving reception process, were confirmed in this study.

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