1000 word limit essay in the form of a critical review of a research report by Day & Bobocel (2013) for the 'Social Psychology' Module.
Answering the question: 'Write a critical review on the following journal paper: Day, M. V., & Bobocel, D, R. (2013). The weight of the guilty conscience: Subje...
Write a critical review of the following journal paper: Day, M. V., & Bobocel, D. R.
(2013). The weight of a guilty conscience: Subjective body weight as an embodiment
of guilt. PloS one, 8 (7), e69546.
The article is titled ‘Subjective body weight as an embodiment of guilt’ and was
written by Martin V. Day and D. Ramona Bobocel in 2013. The article is about several
studies conducted by the authors looking into the feeling guilt along side subjective body
weight, from which it was found that the feeling of guilt had an effect on subjective body
weight for example specifically finding that more guilt increased overall effort needed for
physical activities. The review will go over the positives and negatives of this article such as
it the article provides a basis for an unexplored area of research allowing for new potential
literature to be created because of it however the article does have it’s draw backs because
of this along with its general theoretical basis on the definition of guilt along with its
metaphor.
The article covers four studies that were conducted by Day and Bobocel which were
based upon the notion of the use of weight metaphors when talking about the feeling of guilt
and investigating whether or not guilt is actually grounded in the sensation of weight. The
introduction of the article highlights were the notions of guilt and weight originated from to
show where the hypothesis came from while addressing that there is seemingly no related
evidence for their assumptions however then go on to explain the cognitive evidence to
suggest otherwise. All the studies in the article used an experimental design with participant
groups from North America with varying sizes (153, 318, 93, 67) and a mix of sex and ethnic
groups, study 1 having a Canadian participant group while studies 2-4 using a participant
group from the United States. The studies 1-3 were focused on the effect of unethical acts
on subjective body weight while study 4 then examined the phenomenon. The procedure of
the studies involved the participants in recalling an assigned memory type that being one of
an ethical action or an unethical action. After this the participants were asked on if they felt
heavy or not to which the reported response was then compared to the control group in the
experiment. It was assumed that the unethical memory caused feelings of guilt. Findings
from the studies did suggest to how that the recall of the unethical action memories caused a
heavier weight feeling in oneself.
The article itself puts forward a clear and concise argument to make attempt of the
initial hypothesis which is then supported by the research that was conducted. The article
also brings forward supporting literature too when explaining the theory behind such despite
being stated prior that there is little prior work done on this topic to which this article adds
value to. Due to the lack of previous work this article does help to one shed a light on the
area but also provide a theoretical basis for later work. Serving as a foundation means the
article can either pave a path for new theoretical approaches to come about leading to
further investigation into topics such as guilt or emotions causing physical sensations such
as weight or alternately further studies could highlight the potential issues that are present in
the studies or theory that is proposed by this which still holds value as it can improve on the
article and suggest alternate approaches to the idea or however lead to an outright dismissal
of the points made.
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