Reader Response draft 3

Reader Response

In the article “Writing Your Way to Happiness”, Parker-Pope (2015) claims writing and rewriting your own stories “can lead to behavioral changes”.

Personally, I believe that writing and editing our own stories does not significantly result in behavioral changes, the most vital factor is our beliefs.

One’s mind is much more powerful than imagined, as the belief is able to shape people’s actions and change their behaviors. Writing down a person’s story is not strong enough to lead to behavioral changes, while beliefs enable one to achieve that.

One example given by the author shows that students who edited their own narratives about college, as compared to those who did not, turned out to be more successful in their academics. However, there was an underlying crucial factor in this study that was trying to convince students to believe that it is common to struggle with studies in their first year and they would be able to adept the new life with time pass by. The positive results obtained significantly because students believed that they are capable to change such adverse situation. This example actually reinforces my viewpoint that people’s belief is, in fact, the most influential factor that can lead to behavioral changes rather than writing and rewriting their stories.

Another example is that, if one says, “I’m not a science student, I can only study arts related subjects” then that belief works as an easy excuse for one to avoid practicing and solving scientific or mathematical questions. This, in a short term, probably can prevent people from failing in academics if they only take arts courses, but in the long run, their capabilities to learn, improve, and develop new skills will be largely weakened. This is how the mindset can affect people’s behaviors. Such situation can be changed by changing people’s beliefs and fixed mindsets, by convincing them to try something that they are not good at. However, in this case, I believe that just writing down what an individual needs to do will not necessarily lead to behavioral changes since one’s behavior is actually controlled and leaded by his belief as well as mindset which reflect what he really wants to achieve. Therefore, as far as I am concerned, belief enables a person to maximize his potential and encourage him to overcome challenges, which in turn leads to behavioral changes.

Additionally, as compared to expressive writing, another stronger factor that can engender behavioral changes is people’s intension which is determined by their attitudes.  “Theories of attitude– behavior relations, models of health behavior, and goal theories all converge on the idea that intention is the key determinant of behavior (Abraham, Sheeran, & Johnston, 1998; Austin & Vancouver, 1996; Conner & Norman, 1996; Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Gollwitzer & Moskowitz, 1996; Maddux, 1999).” One with intention to achieve certain goals has strong self-motivation, which may lead to behavioral changes in a significant way. Writing down plans and aims, undeniably, acting as a checklist or a reminder, enables us to have a proper schedule. However, whether one will take action or not is mainly dependent on his intention and attitude. A meta-analysis of 422 intention-behavior correlational studies illustrated that, in average, 28% of the behavioral variation is due to an individual’s intention, and thus intentions affect behavior significantly (Cohen, 1992). Therefore, in my opinion, writing and editing a person’s story does not significantly result in behavioral changes but more account for one’s belief, intention and attitude.
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Reference:

Thomas L. Webb, Paschal Sheeran (2006) Does Changing Behavioral Intentions Engender Behavior Change? A Meta-Analysis of the Experimental Evidence. Retrieved from http://communicationcache.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/10887248/does_changing_behavioral_intentions_engender_behavior_change-_a_meta-analysis_of_the_experimental_evidence.pdf

Parker-Pope, T. (2015, January 19). Writing your way to happiness. [Web log post] Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/writing-your-way-to-happiness/?hpw&rref=health&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0