Choose a topic from Tuesday's readings that you were particularly interested in. Your job is to do some more indepth research on that topic. That may mean looking up some of the original research cited in the chapter and finding and reading the original research article. It also could mean searching the internet for other content and information out there on this topic (ranging from videos, news releases, summaries of research findings, others' blog posts, etc).
One you have completed your search and explorations I would like you to clearly state what your topic is, discuss how it relates to the readings, and thoroughly discuss what you learned about this topic from your additional resources.
It is possible to do this assignment with one source (an original research article). I encourage you to use this approach for at least half of these types of assignments. The other method, is to find suitable internet content that helps you learn more about your topic. If you choose this method, I'd like you to provide 3 sources of information (in the form of internet links). Do not be tempted to just discuss each of the links separately. You must synthesize the information, and discuss the topic as a whole.
At the bottom of your post, please include several key terms that reflect your topic, as well as your sources (either the citation for the 1 research article, and link if it is available on line, or 3 links to the internet content you discussed).
Please be prepared to discuss your topic, as a portion of each in-class day will be devoted to hearing from all of you about what you learned.
For this week’s blog I decided to look further in depth on empathy and how it not only affects people emotionally, but physically as well. In a recent experiment, researchers tested the correlation between physicians' empathy and positive clinical outcomes for diabetic patients. To test this correlation they took a random sample of 242 primary care doctors and gave them an empathy test known as the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. The researchers then followed the doctors’ diabetic patients’ progressions, specifically looking at how many times patients were hospitalized and had acute metabolic complications.
The results of this study found a significant correlation between higher empathy and positive clinic outcomes. During the study 42 patients of doctors who scored lower on the test were hospitalized, compared to 29 patients of doctors who scored higher on the test (Hojat et. Al, 2011). The study’s conclusion suggests that due to these results, empathy should be viewed as an important component of physician competence. I agree with this conclusion. Empathy is placing yourself in another’s shoes, understanding their feelings and what they are going through. Our readings discuss empathy as a key component in relationships. If a doctor is lacking or has low empathy, the doctor-patient relationship may hinder. When this relationship is hindered, the patient may not feel comfortable around the doctor thus causing anxiety, feeling as though the doctor does not want to help, and may even cause the patient to be less truthful toward the doctor. When these things occur, patients are not receiving the best care possible and it may cause their disease or symptoms to worsen.
So what can be done to improve empathy in hospital and therapeutic settings? Medical schools should require students (if they don’t already) to take courses involved in patient interaction that emphasize empathy but not pity. One of these courses that should at least be an option should be meditation. Meditation as we have learned from our readings can help achieve a higher, more successful level of empathy as we learn to take ourselves out of the picture and be more mindful of others. Meditation not only improves empathy, but possibly stress level, grades, and overall quality of life for medical students.
Overall empathy proves to be an important component for healthy relationships, physical health, and overall quality of life. Someday I will become an occupational therapist and I will take the knowledge and skills I have learned about meditation and empathy to improve not only my own life, but the care of my patients as well.
Terms: correlation, random sample, empathy, Jefferson Scale of Empathy, meditation, therapy, anxiety, stress
Hojat, M., Louis D., Markham, F., Wender, R., Rabinowitz, C., & Gonnella, J., (2011).
Physicians’ empathy and clinical outcomes for diabetic patients. Academic Medicine, Vol. 86, No. 3. Retrieved from: http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2011/03000/Physicians__Empathy_and_Clinical_Outcomes_for.26.aspx
Theory of Mind (ToM), is a complex thought process that allows us to understand the thought processes of others. The best way to understand this is through the most common application for measuring ToM A common false belief task, designed for use with young children, involves a story with two characters, Sally and Andrew (e.g., Wimmer & Perner, 1983). Sally is playing with her toy and then puts it away in the cupboard before going outside to play. While she is outside, Andrew moves the toy from the cupboard to the chest of drawers. Sally then returns inside to play with her toy. At this point, participants are asked the critical question, which is to judge where Sally will first look to find her toy. Of course, the correct answer is that she will look in the cupboard, where she left it, and this is the answer given by a rapidly increasing majority of children through their fifth year. (Apperly 2014) However, Apperly (2014) argues that the age at which ToM is fully formed is lowering from the standard of four and five. He argues that some younger individuals show an aptitude for ToM like activities. Gallagher and Frith (2003) was the article referenced by Hanson. While much of the information in Chapter 8 (pg 109) was correct, the act of ToM is much more complex than Hanson makes it out to be. There are multiple section of the brain involved in ToM functioning, and it is not yet fully understood. This ability is also dependent on our understanding of the individual, recognizing what they are likely to do. This knowledge is observed in our social world, and forms what is typically reffered to as a script. Scripts are a mental recording of particular goals/activities that take place in a particular setting/time (Gallagher and Firth 2003). The Anterior paracingulate cortex is a critical brain area that is very active in the formation of mentalizing, along with the superior temporal sulcus (STS), and the temporal poles bilaterally. The STS also plays an important role in helping us to understand cartoons, and stories. This section of the brain also plays a role in helping us form causal relationships, and understanding intentions. Recognizing intentionality is also applied to understanding the movement of geometric shapes. Understanding the self-perspective is also a task that requires the STS. For these reasons the STS appears to always be active in the brain (Gallagher and Firth use both FMRI, and CAT scans to see what brain areas are active during their studies). The amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex also appear to play a role in ToM, however, there is weaker empirical support for this argument. Baron-Cohen et al are the only ones that have found amygdala activation during their ToM study. Gallagher and Firth make a compelling argument to explain why this could be feasible. The temporal poles also play a role in ToM due to their vital importance in voice, face, scene, and memory recognition. Theory of Mind plays a critical role in our daily lives, and requires complex brain functions. Those who have social disorders such as Alzheimer’s, and Autism are unable to mentally evaluate outcomes. It is suggested that because of the activation in the temporal poles (responsible for remembering faces, voices, and retrieval), and the amygdala (eye contact, and social cognition).
http://www.lrdc.pitt.edu/schneider/BrainExecEmotion/Private/Readings/Gallagher%202003%20Functional%20imaging%20of%20theory%20of%20mind.pdf
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17470218.2012.676055
Terms: Theory of Mind (ToM), Amygdala, Superior Temporal Sulcus, Temporal Lobes,
From Chapter 8’s readings, I found the section of emotions and thoughts interesting. It discussed how theory of mind, or ToM, appears in the 3rd and 4th years of life when myelinations is compete so that neural signals move faster. It fully develops in late teens/early twenties within the prefrontal cortex. The article (2006) “The Neuronal Basis and Ontogeny of Empathy and Mind Reading,” expanded this topic. ToM is also known as “mentalizing.” Although empathy and mentalizing seem to be synonyms, they actually work completely different neural circuits. ToM refers to the ability to understand mental states, which could include intentions and beliefs (temporal lobe and prefrontal cortex); whereas empathy refers to the ability to share the feelings of others (limbic and para-limbic structures. Empathy develops much earlier than mentalizing because of the areas they circuit in the brain—the limbic system develops much earlier than the temporal lobe and pre-frontal structures. A random fact is that ToM only exists in a rudimentary form in apes. Observation or imagination of another person in a particular emotional state automatically activates a representation of that state in the observer with its associated autonomic and somatic responses. Pain experienced by a loved one activates the same pain circuits as their partner.
It is important to have ToM and empathy because humans are intensely social creatures who have the need to interact successfully in social groups. It is a survival attribute not only to understand others but to also predict their actions. Empathy prevents humans from doing harm to others and motivates altruistic behavior. It creates affective bonds in relationships and groups.
Key terms: empathy; ToM; altruistic behavior; temporal lobe; pre-frontal lobe; limbic structure; para-limbic structure; neural circuits; mentalizing; autonomic responses; somatic responses
Singer, T. 2006. The neuronal basis and ontogeny of empathy and mind reading. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 30: 855-863.
For this week’s exploration blog I decided to research the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). In the book they mentioned the importance of the ACC with the insula on the emotions and social behavior of people. I was fairly confused momentarily after deciding to research this topic, because much like the rest of the brain, it is confusing and cloaked in ambiguity. The Anterior Cingulate Cortex has been attributed to being responsible for a number of functions, including motor and autonomic control, transient mood changes, depression, anxiety disorders, perceptions of pain, conflict and error monitoring, regulation of sympathetic activity and a host of cognitive functions. This is confusing, but I found a model that simplifies things a bit. The model in question breaks down the ACC into a cognitive subdivision and an affective subdivision. The cognitive subdivision lies above the affective subdivision. The cognitive subdivision has strong connections to the lateral prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex, and premotor and supplementary areas. The affective division, on the other hand, is connected to the amygdala, periaqueductal gray, nucleus accumbens, hypothalamus, anterior insula, hippocampus, and orbitofrontal cortex. The affective subdivision also has outflow to the autonomic, visceromotor and endocrine systems. These subareas are distinguishable based on the cumulative data from cytoarchitectural, lesion and electrophysiology studies, as well as the knowledge of differential connectivity patterns and the collected imaging studies.
To test their hypothesis, researchers had participants in a study had to work through two Stroop-like tasks with differing causes of interferences, one being cognitive and one being affective. During this study, sets of four vertically aligned words appeared on a screen every 1500 ms. Participants were asked to report by button press the number of words in each set, regardless of meaning. Neutral trials contained words like ‘dog’. Interference trials in the cognitive test contained words that were in contrast to the number of words shown, i.e. they would show the word ‘three’ four times. The interference trials in the emotional test contained emotionally valenced words like ‘murder’ with a different set of emotionally neutral words. The results were as expected with the fMRI showing increased activity in the cognitive subdivision of the ACC during the cognitive version of the Stroop as well as increased activity in the affective subdivision of the ACC during the affective version of the Stroop.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?rep=rep1&type=pdf&doi=10.1.1.218.6707
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/126/10/2119.full
Anterior cingulate cortex, insula, cognitive subdivision, afferent subdivision, Stroop task
The topic I wanted to explore more into was loving-kindness meditation and the effects that it can have on someone. The article that I found talked about how LKM could be used in psychological interventions. Its not that hard to believe that positive thinking can in turn help to have more positive thinking in the future. The book mainly talked about kindness and how this type of meditation can help to increase that feeling. The article went further to discuss how LKM or compassion meditation can help with depression, social anxiety, and anger to name a few. A quote from the article helped me to better understand the idea of cultivating compassion. The quote basically stated that you can’t really cultivate compassion but you learn the qualities that incline your heart towards compassion by investigation of your feelings. There are four sublime states or brahma viharas that can be cultivated. Those are loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Learning about the background behind LKM was very informative to better understand what the article all talked about. Both CM and LKM have techniques that are somewhat similar to each other. The article reviewed a number of other studies that had been done all which had found that these two types of meditations had an effect on increasing positive feelings. The neuroendocrine and neurobiological effects of CM and LKM were reviewed all of which showed that those with training in CM or LKM had less reaction to stress and were able to better cope with it. The final topic of this article was how all the above can be used in psychological interventions. The studies worked with those who had personality/ mood disorders and a group that met the criteria for being paranoid schizophrenic. Although the studies where small the data that the researchers could gather did show that LKM helped with controlling these disorders. Overall I thought that the research was pretty good and not that hard to comprehend. Although I wasn’t to fond of the chapters that we read getting a more scientific reasoning on why kindness and compassion are important and even beneficial was extremely helpful to making me understand why reading those sections were important.
Key terms: loving-kindness meditation, positive thinking, compassion, depression, anxiety, brahma viharas, stress, sympathetic joy, and equanimity
http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy.lib.uni.edu/science/article/pii/S0272735811001115
Loving-kindness and compassion meditation: Potential for psychological interventions Stefan G. Hofmann
I choose to explore the topic of empathy more. I found a research article called “Inducing Empathy: Pondering Students' (In) Ability to Empathize With an Aboriginal Man's Lament and What Might Be Done About It.” The article first defined empathy as an understanding or appreciation of someone else’s emotion. The author freely discussed that this definition is not set in stone and that there is a lot of discussion about the differences between sympathy and empathy. I found this definition to be satisfactory though because it put the focus on feeling the emotions of another person. The author then went on to say that empathy is a skill that can be taught. This article was specifically written with social workers in mind and the research was geared towards being able to teach more students empathy.
Researchers collected a series of vignettes that told the story of various types of people. The four stories covered the following: “a brief published statement from Aboriginal leader Charles Perkins; a published interaction highlighting a birth mother's grief after being forced by her mother to place her baby for adoption; a segment of qualitative data from a published suicide study illuminating a mother's story and her perceived part in the suicide of her son; and a transcribed segment from an ABC Radio Australia interview in which a police whistle-blower described fearing for his life and his family's safety.” The participants were then prompted to fill out a questionnaire about whether they empathized with the person or not and why.
The researchers found four general types of empathy in the qualitative data they received. The first type of empathy was compassionate empathy. This type focuses on imagining yourself in the other person’s position. This leads to an understanding of why a certain situation may be difficult or why a person may feel and/or act a certain way. The second type of empathy is comparable; it is also known as common wound empathy. This emerges when you have a personal connection to the situation that another person is in. For example, if you have been robbed before and someone tells you that they were recently robbed; you may empathize with them more because you know how it feels. Third is conditional empathy. People who were labelled as conditional empathizers often reported that they “understood but could not relate.” This was frustrating for me because I believe it shows a profound misunderstanding of what empathy is. I don’t need to have experienced some event to know that it could be harmful to someone else. Lastly, there is dispassionate empathy or, in simpler terms no empathy. These students were either unwilling or unable to empathize with those in the stories. The majority stated that they couldn’t empathize because it had not happened to them.
These finding are fairly soft in terms of scientific quality but they have some interesting consequences. The idea of dispassionate and conditional empathy could very well explain parts of racism. Those respondents focused on themselves rather than the others. This type of reasoning can be found in people who don’t fully understand the idea of white privilege. The same could be said about most people who have difficulty understanding any cultural differences. I find this type of attitude incredibly frustrating because empathy comes easy to me. It was interesting to read about the different types of empathy though, and see why certain people might still struggle.
http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=475e7f66-b5bb-402e-ba31-e5b7238e641d%40sessionmgr112&vid=2&hid=118
Terms: empathy, compassionate empathy, comparable empathy, conditional empathy, dispassionate empathy
Although it was difficult for me to pick just one topic from this week’s reading to research, for this exploration blog I chose mirror neurons. In my sensation and perception class last semester we briefly talked about a study done with macaque monkeys when mirror neurons were discovered. I looked into the initial research as well as studies that have been done since the discovery of mirror neurons.
In 1992, a team of Italian scientists conducted an experiment looking at how the brain controls hand and mouth movements. They used macaque monkeys as test subjects and implanted microelectrodes into their brains to monitor the activity of single cells while the animals reached for pieces of food and put them into their mouths. The monkey’s actions resulted in activity in the premotor cortex which is involved in planning and executing movements. The researchers discovered that some of the same cells also fired weakly when the monkeys observed the researchers putting food into their own mouths. These cells fired more strongly when they saw other monkeys performing the same action. The researchers named these cells mirror neurons and found them in several other regions of the monkey brain. The purpose of these cells is still unknown but possible reasons include understanding the actions of others and action imitation. They have also been linked to empathy, as we learned in this week’s reading. Empathy plays an important role in the complex social interaction primates have. It allows close relationships to form which, as the book stated, was essential to the survival of primitive humans.
It is still uncertain as to whether or not humans possess mirror neurons because it is difficult to replicate the experiment in humans. Experiments with brain imaging have been done and produced results that support the existence of mirror neurons in humans. For instance, fMRIs have shown that the human inferior frontal cortex and superior parietal lobe are active when the person performs an action and also when the person sees another individual performing an action. If they do exist in the human brain it can explain why visualizing an action or a goal can often lead to greater success. Also, some conditions such as autism in which a person doesn’t have much empathy may be due to deficiencies or defects in mirror neurons, also known as the broken mirror hypothesis. Other theories exist involving the role of mirror neurons in speech and language. These theories are all quite controversial though, and it’s still unclear as to whether or not mirror neurons exist in human and how great their role is if they do exist.
Terms: mirror neuron, empathy, social interaction, primates, premotor cortex, inferior frontal cortex
Craighero, L., Di Pellegrino, G., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., & Rizzolatti, G. (2004). "The mirror-neuron system". Annual Review of Neuroscience 27: 169–192.
http://www.brainfacts.org/brain-basics/neuroanatomy/articles/2008/mirror-neurons/
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2011/march-11/reflections-on-mirror-neurons.html
http://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2013/aug/23/mirror-neurons
I chose to do more research on the “us” vs “them” concept and what evolutionary factors have contributed to it what how it affects us today. The “us” vs “then” concept is more accurately named, Social Identity Theory. Social Identity Theory is how a person sees themselves and what “group” they put themselves is. The group the person identifies with is called the “in-group”, which the book referred to as the “us.” The opposing group, the out-group, is everyone else. The others a person does not associate themselves belonging to be considered to be the “them” the book referred to. This form of thinking is one that dates back to hunters and gatherers.
Humans have always been social creatures. When we were new to the Human way of life, we stayed in groups to not only be social, but for safety. With all of the unknowns of the world, gathering berries, hunting for survival and just merely leaving the cave was best done in groups. Because of this, we because susceptible to peer pressure. It was vital to be part of the group because it was unlikely that you would survive alone. You did not want to go against the group because being kicked out and shunned could cost you your life. The group you hunt with is your in group. The group you happen to run into one day, the group you now have to compete with for the food supply is now the out group.
The out group is the “them.” “Their hair is dirtier than ours.” “Look how small their feet are!” These criticisms, though are causing harsh feelings and prejudices towards the out group, are enhancing the in groups self-esteem and sense of community to group. By doing this, you are farthing the gap between the two groups, between the us and the them.
The book suggests expanding the us, our in groups in attempt to decrease the wolf of hate and discriminations. Do this by focusing on the similarities as opposed to the differences in humans. It also suggests being more accurately viewing your in group? What difference does it really make if you have bigger feet? Are they really better?
Terms: “Us” vs “Them”, in group, out group, Social Identity Theory, wolf of hate, hunters and gathers.
http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-us-versus-them-mentality.html
http://evoanth.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/why-the-us-and-them-mentality-evolved/
http://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html
My topic of exploration for this week is how meditation and mindfulness training relates to couple relationships. This week’s readings dealt a lot with empathy and strategies of improving closeness with people and avoiding “throwing a second dart”, as the book would say. The article makes the point that most of our social intelligence is unconscious, so it makes sense to practice mindfulness to unconsciously improve our relationship skills. From the this class we’ve been learning how meditation improves focus and helps people to notice smaller details. What’s interesting is the better a partner knows the small details of the couple’s lives together, the more satisfaction and longer the couple are likely to be together. On the other hand, for couples that are likely to split, research has found that husbands in failing marriages experience a flooding response where their heart rate is increased and their body’s alarm response is turned on. Meditation is known to decrease this arousal, which could have a positive impact on the relationship. Additionally, people who meditate (especially compassion based meditation) were found to be more perceptive at accurately labeling emotions. A study showed pictures of people’s eyes only and the participants had to judge what they were feeling. The meditation group was by far more successful than the control.
The article also had an interesting section on how meditation shapes the brain. Researchers could tell with about 95% accuracy just from looking at the structure of people’s brains if they meditated or not and another study found that in as little as three hours meditating, structural changes can be found. Another thing I liked about the article was the comparison of meditation to weightlifting and how the process of repeatedly bring back your focus is like a rep for lifting. I find this metaphor encouraging to continue the practice of meditation, because like Professor MacLin said in class, even if you’re struggling the entire time, you are meditating!
Terms: social intelligence, mindfulness, meditation, empathy, throwing a second dart,
compassion based meditation, flooding, body’s alarm response social intelligence.
Atkinson, B. J. (2013). Mindfulness training and the cultivation of secure, satisfying couple relationships. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 2(2), 73-94. doi:10.1037/cfp0000002
This week I read a couple of different articles associated with empathy. One of them was an analysis of what empathy really is by combining knowledge from philosophy, psychology, and a little bit of neuroscience. Although it was really interesting, I had a bit of trouble writing about it. I switched over to a case study of a Tibetan Buddhist and his experience with compassion meditation. His form of compassion meditation is where he uses different techniques to create feelings of love and compassion. This case study involves an fMRI with compassion meditation to locate active parts of the brain.
The introduction reading is very interesting, and I have printed off the article to bring to class because I think others should read it. To not focus too much on the introduction, I just want to note that it talks about the different types of meditation and how they are classified. Each meditation style may have different effects on the brain, leaving meditation as a whole to have varying effects on the brain, depending on how it is practiced.
The study I followed took an expert Buddhist meditator named B.L. (female 59 years old). fMRI images were created using an “echo planar imaging sequence on a 1.5-T Philips Achieva body scanner” (Engstrӧm, 2010). (I figured I’d put this in there for anyone interested in knowing). B.L. was instructed to use a mantra by repeating a sentence in Swedish, and then repeat the same sentence translated into Sanskirt, and was then asked to preform compassion meditation while using the traditional mantra “Ohm mani padme hum”. B.L. says she visualized the deity Chenrezig to generate a feeling of love and compassion. The session lasted 11 minutes and 55 seconds.
The results were split into groups of which manta was being used and the part(s) of the brain that were activated. Using just Buddhist mantra, there was a significant different of activation in the right rectal gyrus, the right superior frontal gyrus, and the left parietal-frontal lobe junction. The Swedish sentence showed very little difference from the baseline fMRI scans, except the Swedish sentence show a little more activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus and the right insula.
The discussion goes on to talking about how a lot of the fMRI scans showed activation in the left medial prefrontal cortex extending to the anterior cingulate gyrus. The authors say that this reflects a previous study done by Hӧlzel et al. Hӧlzel’s study showed subjects who practiced mindfulness of breathing while being scanned by an fMRI.
The authors talk about how this information seems to fall alongside that of fMRI’s of empathy, happiness, and other pleasant feelings. This suggests that this form of meditation focuses on the sensations of experiencing others positive emotions. Other studies have shown similar information that the left frontal cortex is involved with positive religious experience and other forms of meditation. In this study the most activated area was the left medial prefrontal cortex, which is explained by the strong feelings of love and compassion, as reported by B.L.
Terms: empathy, Buddhist, philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, compassion meditation
Engström, M., & Söderfeldt, B. (2010). Brain activation during compassion meditation: A case study. The Journal Of Alternative And Complementary Medicine, 16(5), 597-599. doi:10.1089/acm.2009.0309
I wanted to research mirror neurons because I think they are really interesting. Our brains do a lot of crazy things but I wanted to learn more about how we can watch someone else do something and react the same way they are reacting even though it didn’t actually happen to us. I wanted to look into this for pure interest reasons as well as for a possible solution in helping me meditate. Who knows, maybe if I watch someone meditating it will calm and relax me as well.
Mirror neurons suggest that there are some real similarities between action perception and action execution. Meaning that the coding in our brains is similar when we perceive something as well as when we actually do that something. The mirror neurons seem to reflect (just like a mirror) the motor representation the same whether you are the one acting or observing. They have studied this phenomena in a few different ways. They have done single-cell recordings in monkeys, analyzed the mirror neuron system (MNS) using imaging techniques, and done behavioral experiments. They have found that observed actions are mapped onto the motor cortex of the person observing. If there is a matching motor representation (“represent action means, action ends or goals, and intentions”) available in our coding, the action will be recognized. They call this idea the direct-matching hypothesis. There are some weaknesses in the research however, because they aren’t able to look at the responses of single neurons; they are only able to see what region of the brain is used during the task.
Researchers believe that action understanding is a type of interpretative process that actually happens outside of the motor system and that the mirror neurons are actually involved in the action prediction and planning that occurs subsequently. There are three different categories of mirror neurons based on their selectiveness of responses, they are: strictly congruent, broadly congruent, and non-congruent. The strictly congruent mirror neurons react to both observed and executed movements that relate to the general action as well as how the action was executed. The broadly congruent category refers to the mirror neurons that respond to a wider variety of actions. The non-congruent neurons don’t seem to show any relationship between the action being observed and the actual movement.
There are some actions we don’t respond to because we don’t know the intention behind the action or it isn’t an action that our brains are familiar with. However, if you know the intention someone has behind an action your mirror neurons are much more likely to fire. You follow a sequence of action and once you are able to predict the sequence you can properly determine what the implication of that action is. As you see these actions, your brain is creating a type of “map” that correlates with the intentions of the other person. So in essence, our brains create a map of other people’s behaviors. So our mirror neurons help us to not only mirror a behavior, but understand the intention behind a behavior. These neurons really are incredible. They allow us to feel what other people are feeling and to be sympathetic to them as well.
I think the most interesting thing I learned about mirror neurons is how they play a role in our everyday observations. I have always wondered how we can be so affected by having our favorite football team lose. I know when the Hawkeyes lose my entire attitude changes. When they are playing I’m animated and every fumble is like my fumble. Another example is during one of my rugby games if one of us gets tackled particularly hard the crowd will groan all at the same time. This is like their response because they are reacting to what they saw and even if they didn’t feel the pain they experienced it with us. Knowing what I know now I think that in order for me to be able to get my mirror neurons to fire when I’m meditating I would first have to get better at meditating! I don’t think the mapping has been done in my brain for that because I have so little experience and knowledge about meditation.
Terminology: mirror neurons, action perception, action execution, motor representation, single-cell recordings, mirror neuron system (MNS), motor cortex, direct-matching hypothesis, strictly congruent, non-congruent, broadly congruent, coding, meditation
Dr. Dan Seigel - Explains Mirror Neurons in Depth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq1-ZxV9Dc4
Uithol, S., van Rooij, I., Bekkering, H., & Haselager, P. (2011). What do mirror neurons mirror?. Philosophical Psychology, 24(5), 607-623. doi:10.1080/09515089.2011.562604
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.uni.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&sid=cc386d61-eef6-4833-9438-f936d6b7ddc0%40sessionmgr113&hid=125
Mirror Neurons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzMqPYfeA-s
I used the middle source from EBSCO Host for my information but the videos helped dumb it down and gave me a better idea of how mirror neurons work.
True to form, today I decided to look at another article that was cited in the book. In chapter eight, the authors discussed social behavior in animals and made one comment about how in Barbary macaques, the groomers felt more stress relief than the groomees. A few semesters ago, I took a seminar about the skin, and one section that I found particularly interesting was the section on touch. In humans, at least, touch is a major stress reliever, which is one of the reasons why massage therapy is so effective. I was curious to see if that was also true in other species. I’ve always liked looking at social behavior in animals, so I decided to check it out.
The article stated that previous studies have found that grooming behavior reduces heart rate as well as the concentration of the stress hormone, cortisol, in female of many primate species. However, in these previous studies, the act of giving grooming and receiving grooming was not distinguished. The purpose of the study was to investigate the association between grooming behavior and stress level. Unexpectedly, the researchers found that giving grooming, instead of receiving, was linked to lowered stress levels.
The researchers observed and recorded the grooming behavior of female Barbary macaques living in the Upper Rock Nature Reserve in Gibraltar. They quantified psychological stress by measuring levels of a metabolite of the stress hormone cortisol in fecal mater. The metabolite - 3α,11β-dihydroxy-CM – is a product of the break down of cortisol in the body. Essentially, the more of the metabolite present in the fecal matter, the more cortisol was originally in the body, indicating a higher level of stress. An interesting factor the researchers had to control for was the fact that all but one of the female macaques they were studying was pregnant. Cortisol is known to increase naturally during pregnancy, so the researchers had to be careful to include the stage of pregnancy in their initial analyses. They found however, that the metabolite level differences between the pregnant and non-pregnant females were negligible.
After the results were studied, the reserachers found that the only significant relationship was a strong negative correlation (r= -.924) between the level of 3α,11β-dihydroxy-CM and the amount grooming given. No relationship was actually found with grooming received. This means that the amount of cortisol build up in the body tended to reduce as the amount of grooming given increased.
The researchers hypothesize that the reduction of stress from giving grooming is linked to the larger and stronger social support group that is built between females that groom each other.
I think that this study was really interesting to read, as well as insightful about the ways of science. The researchers did not expect to find the relationship that they did, but it shed some light on a subject that had been previously studied many times. In relation to this class, I think this study shows how it is natural for group-living animals, such as macaques or humans, to seek support from other people. The growth and strength of our relationships provides comfort, whether they are familial, platonic, or romantic. Humans are social creatures, and therefore I think in order to be at peace with yourself, it is important to maintain good relationships with the people around you.
Terms: Social behavior, stress, hormone, cortisol, metabolite, quantify, experiment, correlation, support, relationships
Link to the study: http://171.66.127.192/content/3/3/231.full.pdf+html
For this week’s topic of investigation I choose to try to find more information on what psychologist refer to as Theory of Mind (ToM). I choose this because people fascinate me. I’m always trying to figure people out though body language, facial expressions, as well as trying to guess what’s on their mind. The book stated that by understanding the Theory of Mind and its aspects you will gain useful and accurate information behind someone’s actions, their emotions, and their thoughts. Theory of mind is also referred to as “folk psychology”, “naïve psychology”, “commonsense psychology” and plenty others. That there is no intended “the” in the term (the theory of the mind) because this is not a type of theory, but instead how we theorize other people thoughts, emotion, and actions. It is related to the size of the individuals orbital prefrontal cortex, however, the article also states that depending on how social of a life one leads can also enhance this same part of the brain. It is believed that the beginning of ToM begins to develop and is made sense of between toddler ages (3-4yrs old). Here the child begins to understand peoples wants, states of emotion, and needs. An exception this early development of toddlers (or any individual) would be if he/she were to be diagnosed with any type of a autism. Reason being, individuals with autism have trouble with social settings, interactions with someone new, as well as eye contact. This does not mean that they lack completely a theory of mind, but rather they are uninterested and unaware of this quality. I also learned that, opposite as the book had stated, theory of mind does not solely refer too emotions, actions, and thoughts; It goes deeper, studying all possible aspects of one’s own mind and of others minds as well. This would then including such areas as their imagination and how they view the world around them. Theory of mind is closely related to empathy and everybody consists of it, however individual levels of empathy may vary. A last interesting point that I had came across was that individuals who participate more often with different social groups have a much more developed theory of mind and a better understanding of how to accurately go about using it.
Terms:
theory of mind, empathy, orbital prefrontal cortex, folk psychology, naïve psychology, & autism
Links:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/aspergers-diary/200805/empathy-mindblindness-and-theory-mind
http://fas-philosophy.rutgers.edu/goldman/Theory%20of%20Mind%20_Oxford%20Handbook_.pdf.pdf
http://www.howstuffworks.com/theory-of-mind.htm
The article I read was really interesting. It caught my eye because it was similar to my research, which is on social exclusion and ostracism. The article I read was about loving-kindness meditation. Loving-kindness is a meditation practice, which has the power to change a person’s attitude as it systematically develops the quality of loving and acceptance. It acts, as it were, a form of self-psychotherapy. Loving-kindness meditation provides a way of healing the troubled mind to free it from its pain and confusion. Loving-kindness meditation also has the immediate benefit of sweetening and changing a person’s negative patterns of mind. Applying the practice to daily life is a matter of directing a friendly attitude and having openness toward everybody you relate to, without discrimination.
In the article, Hutcherson, Seppala, & Gross (2008) used a brief loving-kindness meditation exercise to examine whether social connection could be created toward strangers in a controlled laboratory context. According to Hutcherson, Seppala & Gross, our society is becoming increasingly isolated and distrustful: technological, economic, and social changes have resulted in smaller social network. These increases in social isolation and mistrust may prevent the signals of cooperation and fondness that is necessary to arouse a social bonding situation. Humans have a fundamental need to feel connected, to be trusted and loved by others. When a person fulfills their need to belong to something bigger than themselves it increases psychological and physical health and decreases the risk of depression and physical illnesses. Theses authors conducted this study in order to examine the relation between loving-kindness meditation and mood, as well as the evaluations of the self and others. Ultimately, the authors discovered that loving-kindness mediation can increase social connectedness.
In the study, there were 93 participants (57% female). In order to assess the affective impact of loving-kindness meditation, the authors examined its effect on positive mood and negative mood. In order to assess the impact of loving-kindness meditation on affective responses to the self and others, the authors measured participants’ explicit and implicit evaluative responses to photographs of themselves, a close other, as well as three neutral strangers, matched to the participants gender, age and ethnicity, before and after a guided visualization directed toward a photograph of one of the neutral strangers. After the assessment of mood and explicit and implicit responses to the photographs, participants were randomly assigned to complete either a guided loving-kindness meditation or neutral imagery induction. Here is how the loving-kindness mediation and neutral imagery induction group differed.
In the loving-kindness meditation condition, the participants were instructed to imagine two loved ones standing on the side of them and to imagine the love ones sending their love to the participants. After four minutes, participants were told to open their eyes and to channel these feelings of love and compassion toward the photograph of a neutral stranger appearing in the center of the screen. Then the participants repeated a series of phrases designed it bring attention to the other, and to wish them happiness and well-being. The neutral imagery induction condition was designed to be as structurally similar to the loving-kindness meditation instructions while remaining affectively neutral. Participants first imagined two acquaintances that they did not know very well and for whom they did not have strong feelings standing to either side of them. Participants were instructed to focus on each acquaintance’s physical appearance. After four minutes, the participants were told open their eyes, look at a photograph of a neutral stranger, focus their attention on the visual details of the stranger’s face and imagine details of the stranger’s appearance.
After the initial data was collected and analyzed this is what the authors concluded. Participants in the loving-kindness meditation group became more positive and less negative following meditation compare to the neutral imagery induction. There was also a significant effect of loving kindness meditation and implicit positivity toward neutral strangers. As for the explicit level, loving-kindness meditation had both general and specific effects, increasing positivity significantly not only toward its targets, but also toward other strangers. On an implicit level, however, the effects of meditation were most pronounced for its target, with little or no impact on responses toward nontarget neutral strangers. These results suggest that loving-kindness meditation may help to increase positive social emotions and decrease social isolation. There has been little empirical research done on loving-kindness meditation so I would love to see more research done in this field of study. I believe that loving-kindness meditation has the potential to become as effective as some medication in treating many psychological and physiological health problems.
Hutcherson, C. A., Seppala, E. M., & Gross, J. J. (2008). Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. Emotion, 8(5), 720-724.
Terms: loving-kindness meditation, social connection, cooperation, need to feel connected, explicit evaluative, implicit evaluative, mood, neutral imagery induction, love and compassion
As one who places significant priority and emphasis on friendship, I find the psychology of friendship and other relationships one of the most intriguing and applicable subfields within psychology. More specifically, the gender differences in communication and how they influence friendship is of particular interest. For example, the article discusses how women (or individuals who identify as women) tend to exhibit a much more communicative style, using more words and fillers when speaking. Generally, women also tend to be more open with personal information and self-disclosure. Men, on the other hand, tend to be more direct and talk when it is necessary, but don’t necessarily talk for the sake of talking.
This greatly influences friendships. Women can simply get together and talk and, as such, end up sharing more personal information with their friends than men. Such self-disclosure greatly increases the intimacy and quality of said friendship. Men, on the other hand, generally emphasize shared activities within their friendships. For the longest time, I wasn’t quite satisfied with my male-male friendships. It’s not that I needed someone to talk to, per say, but I saw my friendships growing with women and my same sex friendships were plateauing and didn’t seem to be going anywhere. However, when I got to college, I began forming much deeper, better male-male friendships. Interestingly enough, I always assumed it was because the culture at UNI was much more friendly to homosexuals, so we didn’t have people who a) thought homosexuality was a bad thing and b) didn’t think sharing personal information made you seem “gay” and c) didn’t care if it did. This was a significant change from my exceptionally conservative high school where guys just didn’t self-disclose for fear of being gay.
So when I saw the article discussing the effects of homophobia, self-disclosure and the interaction between the two on same sex male friendships. First the article discusses how friendship and the quality of it is an entirely gendered construct. If one is socialized to think that the social norm for masculinity is to appear strong and invulnerable all the time, they would be less likely to be willing to self-disclose and prioritize shared activities in their friendship. This becomes difficult when one moves away because the dearth of proximity makes it extremely difficult to share in activities. However, the article discusses how men with low levels of homophobia or androgynous, or more feminine, tendencies (exhibit masculinity and femininity) aren’t affected nearly as much because they learn to self-disclose. Additionally, it was found that when men learned to self-disclose, they reported higher levels of friendship quality and satisfaction. Additionally, self-disclosure sometimes acted as a mediator on homophobia, making the men realize that sharing personal information wasn’t gay or anything like that. That being said, men with very high levels of masculinity were found to be very uncomfortable self-disclosing (i.e., in their mind, being weak) to other men. This went against everything they were taught.
Now, the book says that close, intimate friendships are paramount to living a quality, happy, peaceful life. And we know that most men find it difficult to form such friendships with each other. We obviously have a problem. Solution? Stop socializing our society to want men to be entirely invulnerable all the time. Because invulnerability is impossible. Trying to be invulnerable causes significant stress in the men who do try and can even cause some who know they aren’t invulnerable to become more likely to be depressed. Okay, that’s all fine and dandy, but how do we do that. Well, I don’t know. For one, we can probably start setting examples to our children that emotions like love, sadness and fear are okay. Stability and anger are NOT the best emotions. Not even close. The problem comes in getting people to do that because many, dare I say most, adult men still believe that simple contentment and anger are the only things one should show. Even happiness can be a little far. So how do we get these men to stop socializing the children with whom they come into contact? No idea. Again. It’s a problem, though, and someone will and should recognize and recommend a solution. Perhaps I’ll get there, in a few years.
Self-disclosure, masculinity, femininity, androgynous, friendship, homophobia
http://spr.sagepub.com/content/30/5/582.full.pdf+html
Morman, M., Schrodt, P., & Tomes, M. (2013). Self-disclosure mediates the effects of homophobia and gender orientation on the relationship quality of male same sex friendships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 30(582), Retrieved from http://spr.sagepub.com/content/30/5/582.full.pdf html
For this exploration blog post I started searching for more understanding of the relationship between meditation and empathy. We know that empathy is the ability to understand and share feelings with other individuals. We use empathy in our everyday lives and it helps us connect better to other people. While empathy is a difficult thing to measure I was still able to find an article that relates to this. In this article they use the term mindfulness-based stress reduction or MBSR. Meditation can be considered a MSBR program. These programs have been researched with mostly positive results in both clinical and non-clinical subjects. It involves attitudes of non-judgment, trust, nonstriving, acceptance, letting go, and patience. Involvement in meditative practices have been hypothesized to enhance the qualities of empathy and self-compassion.
So what they did in this experiment was gathered participants free of any chronic illnesses, and they had to go to at least 6 of a MSBR program sessions. Before and after the sessions they used a questionnaire to help them measure their levels of empathy and self-compassion. They then used the results and compared them with the approved Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale to better comprehend the data. Through this test they found very slight correlation between empathy and the results following the MSBR program. So with this test they were not able to prove nor disprove their theory. Instead what the later stated they want to conduct the experiment again on a wider scale and for a longer period of time which may help them to get better data.
Birnie, K., Speca, M. and Carlson, L. E. (2010), Exploring self-compassion and empathy in the context of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Stress and Health, 26: 359–371. doi: 10.1002/smi.1305