Introduction
Psychology is considered a complex discipline that captures a variety of approaches, and, obviously, there is a clear differentiation between the popular culture presentation of information and the way in which empirical studies lay it out. In order to compare and contrast the way different methods of presenting the merit of information, anxiety was chosen as the focus topic. Anxiety is a persistent problem characterized by fear and disturbance in behavior that may affect a person at different points in their lives and thus adversely affect well-being (Spielman, 2017). A research article in Pharmacy and Therapeutics will be compared with an article from Psychology Today. The research article is expected to investigate the topic of interest from the standpoint of theory and evidence while the pop culture article will give advice and recommendations to its readers.
Analysis of Articles: Comparing and Contrasting
The main intention of the research article by Bystritsky, Khalsa, Cameron, and Schiffman (2013) is reviewing the challenges in diagnosing anxiety disorders to come up with a model that will explain how the symptoms of the condition change over time. The intention of Morin’s (2017) article is explaining how anxiety affects one’s life and how to deal with it on a daily basis. When investigating points of view and assumptions, the authors reviewed the evidence and divided it into sub-topics to draw logical conclusions from them. Similarly, the popular culture article was also differentiated into sections; however, each of them had separate conclusions, which added to the easier way for readers to understand relevant information. To support the issue at hand, the research article refers to a wide range of studies published in reputable sources. Also, the authors incorporated multiple tables, graphs, and other types of figures to present information schematically.
The popular culture article had only one reference to a research study and appealed to the personal experiences of readers rather than theory. Moreover, throughout the article, there are multiple hyperlinks to terms as stress, memory, confidence, and others to refer readers to other articles on Psychology Today, thus boosting engagement. In the discussion of consequences and implications, Bystritsky et al. (2013) provided a conclusion summarizing their main research findings. They found that a combination of traditional and alternative medicine methods was necessary to treat anxiety disorders while also considering patients’ perspectives on mental illness. Morin (2017) did not provide an overview of the findings but rather focused on giving advice to readers – seeking the help of a psychotherapist in case of experiencing anxiety. The comparison of the two articles showed that the information presented in them had two different target audiences, which allowed to make decisions about their purposes.
Conclusion
To conclude, there is a difference in the merit of the information presented in a scholarly article and a popular culture article. The research article did not have an intention to give its readers advice or make the topic easier to understand for them. Rather, it utilized past studies on the topic to identify the most valuable points of knowledge and synthesized them to make appropriate conclusions on the topic. The popular culture article, however, did not have an aim to identify valuable knowledge points but rather to make sure that those people reading it receive advice and do not feel confused by the topic’s complexity.
References
Bystritsky, A., Khalsa, S. S., Cameron, M. E., & Schiffman, J. (2013). Current diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 38(1), 30-57.
Morin, A. (2017). Anxiety isn’t the problem – Your response is.Psychology Today. Web.
Spielman, R. M. (2017). Psychology. Houston, TX: OpenStax.