A story tends to have more depth than a simple example. A story tells about some event - some
particular individuals, and something that happens to them. Stories engage our thinking, our
emotions, and can even lead to the creation of mental imagery (Green & Brock, 2000).
Individuals listening to stories react to them almost automatically, participating, in a sense, in the
action of the narrative (e.g., Polichak & Gerrig, 2002). Bringing all of these systems to bear on
the material in your course helps student learning. Students are awake, following along, wanting
to find out what happens next and how the story ends. Bruner (1986) has contrasted the
paradigmatic (logical, scientific) and narrative modes of thinking, but these modes need not be
mutually exclusive in the classroom.
Stories Create Interest
As an instructor, you can capitalize on the inherent narrative structure of research as the quest for
knowledge. Science is the process of solving mysteries; in fact, writers of journal articles are
often advised to make their findings into "a good story." Psychologists often start out by
confronting an intriguing problem. For example, why are bicycle riders faster when they are
racing against another person than going around the track by themselves? Researchers also
encounter and overcome various obstacles in their quest to understand a phenomenon. For
example, when researchers tried to replicate social facilitation effects, sometimes the presence of
others improved performance, and other times it harmed performance. Why would that be? Take
advantage of the suspense that this chain of events can create. Telling the story of how
researchers became interested in a particular issue, without immediately providing the resolution,
will motivate your class to think of their own approaches to solving the problem. They can share
in the sense of discovery. Understanding the process of solving a research problem can generate
excitement, as well as an increased appreciation for the "detective work" involved in psychology.