L3 - Embodied sense making

Question 1

focus of lecture 2 vs focus of lecture 3

Answer 1

Lecture 2: McAdams constructive me
- on the level of observations (how does it appear?)

Lecture 3: the I as a dancer
- on the level of experiences (what is it about?)

Question 2

what is the I that is not yet the constructive me - the I as a dancer + why do we look at it in this lecture?

Answer 2

• before the constructive me there is already bodily movements & sensations
• affective experiences are always taking place in the moving body

–> so movement and affect seem a beautiful place to start when trying to grasp something of the developmentof the experiential basis of self

Question 3

Enactivism (3)

Answer 3

• A version of the theory of mind influenced by phenomenology + existentialism
• Alternative to cognitivistic and dualistic thinking
• cognition is a fundamentally embodied and embedded form of action
  
  • Mental processes (like thinking, feeling, or intending)

for example: dancing in a group can be regarded as a form of actively thinking by moving together rather than dualism: thining on the one side (in the mind) and then moving on the other (in the world)

Question 4

why are we looking at other animals in this lecture? (3)

Answer 4

• We evolved from them
• Provide models for what human bodies share without the cultural structures that we have
  –> gives glimpses of non-cultural aspects of humans although we have to be careful
• Overall more experiments can be done with animals than with humans

Question 5

embodied sense making in the natural environment

Answer 5

sense-making (making sense of our environment; distinguishing food from non-food etc.) is a fundamental part of being alive
- we are dependent on our environment to survive and this implies a basif form of sense-making activity of the organism

Question 6

existential stancing-taking in a symbolic world

Answer 6

as soon as organisms are capable of relating to themselves + their environments –> embodied sense-making loosens/alters

• we no longer strive for only survival, we now also look for meaning to live a good life

Question 7

why do we use art to understand the existential stance taking tendency of humans?

Answer 7

arts offer symbolic and artistic means that offer us the possibility to experientially understand in a typically human way:

• theather: the self as an actor
• literature: the self as an author
• music: the experience of forms of vitality
• dance: the non-verbal experiences of self and self-with-other

Each art form gives us a different way of exploring and expressing the self

Question 8

7 primary emotional systems

Answer 8

1. SEEKING
2. FEAR
3. RAGE
4. LUST
   these are common to all animals
5. CARE
6. PANIC/GRIEF
7. PLAY
   these are only common to avians and humans

Question 9

SEEKING + note

Answer 9

= a system that provides animals with energy (i.e., enthusiasm) to explore the environment, necessary to find a partner + food to nourish the brain and body
- Dopamine driven

affective experience:
* high: interest -> euphoria
* low: disinterest/lack of motivation -> anhedonia and apathy

possible clinical problems:
* high SEEKING -> manic states, drugs of abuse
* low SEEKING -> anhedonic, depressed, detached states

NOTE: SEEKING is not the same as LIKING. SEEKING can become a loop when there’s no complemented by anything else like a reward

Question 10

FEAR

Answer 10

= promotes avoidance of dangerous situations and to carefully monitor the safety of environments
Does not activate alone

affective experience:
* high: flight (high SEEKING) or freeze (low SEEKING) -> terror
* low: safe (to explore) -> recklessness?

possible clinical problems:
* high FEAR -> anxiety disorders, cluster C, PTSS, etc.
* low FEAR -> psychopathy?, risk-taking

Question 11

RAGE

Answer 11

= activates when animals are in need to defend themselves, also in situations when an expected reward is absent or being enclosed in a small space
-Visible to solve territorial conflicts in animals

affective experience:
* high: irritation -> exploding
* low: trusting -> naivety?

possible clinical problems:
* high RAGE -> intermittent explosive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, narcissistic rage, etc.
* low RAGE -> lack of assertion (e.g., in depressions or dependent, avoidant PD)

Question 12

LUST

Answer 12

= importance for procreation, also serves social functions (e.g., bonobos)
In some animals not only occurring to the opposite sex

affective experience:
* high: feeling some attraction -> orgasm
* low: low interest -> asexuality

possible clinical problems:
* high LUST -> problems concerning problematic sexual behaviors
* low LUST -> problems concerning impotence, lack of pleasure, etc.

Question 13

CARE + note

Answer 13

= for mammals and avians taking care of one’s own offsprings –> assures that they grow into adults and themselves can have families
In a community extends widely (e.g., to brother, sister)

affective experience:
* high: tenderness -> parental love
* low: carelessness -> detachment

possible clinical problems:
* high CARE -> self-sacrifice?, over-protectiveness?
* low CARE -> anti-social features?, parental failures?, postnatal depression?

this has to develop in conjuction with the PANIC/GRIEF system

Question 14

PANIC/GRIEF

Answer 14

= eflects separation distress & signals a situation of having lost contact w/ important person or being lost in environment. Mammals and avians this triggers a distress areaction –> distress vocalization (crying) to reunite with a partner or parent. If no reunion –> deactivation and grief appear
Arguably most important system

affective experience:
* high: a longing or loneliness -> PANIC (high SEEKING) or GRIEF (low SEEKING)
* low: safety (exploring) -> detachment

possible clinical problems:
* high PANIC/GRIEF -> separation anxiety, trauma, borderline states, etc.
* low PANIC/GRIEF -> schizoid, detached states

this has to develop in conjuction with the CARE system
- if you know that someone may not CARE then you will not bother to vocalize your panic for example –> detachment

Question 15

PLAY + note

Answer 15

= mammals and avians have it as a fundamental system (esp in young). To learn social competencies and motoric skills
- Helps to get better along in complex social groups when being adult
- Friendships emerge
Humans play with symbols, like humor

affective experience:
* high: friendly joy, comradery, tickling -> bursting in laughter, playfighting
* low: satiety or quietness -> boredom, loneliness

possible clinical problems:
* high PLAY -> difficulty concentrating on routine tasks, or overly structured situations, ADHD?
* low PLAY -> obsessive patterns, joylessness, depressed personality?

importance:
- takes place after danger has subsided –> relaxes and fosters connection
- fundamental system because after a while of absence, you will feel an urge to play (like with hunger)

Question 16

properties of emotional systems (5)

Answer 16

• Once activated they tend to remain active for some time
• They ‘color’ the world as experienced for some time - activates the person in the world in a certain way (enactivism)
  
  • E.g., once I’m in love, the world is different, full of love
• They ‘shape’ the movements in the world (towards, away from etc.)
  
  • E.g., positive emotions like seeking shape your movements towards
• They present strong motivating force, they are not just passively activating you
  
  • Your whole body moves
• That is -> they activate certain ‘modes of being in the world’
  E.g., a fearful mode etc

Question 17

neural definition (7)

Answer 17

1. Intrinsic inputs
   – Inborn, intrinsic inputs = unconditioned stimuli
   – E.g., with the fear system it is a loud noise
2. Coordinate physiological and behavioral outputs (UR)
3. Gating of inputs (CS and CR)
4. Positive feedback (including ‘auto-activation’)
   – Once activated, the system tends to self-activate even without external input
   – Outdoor activation: standing up and waking up will activate the seeking system
5. Cognitions instigate emotions (top-down)
   – Hearing something and becoming afraid
6. Emotions control cognitions (bottom-up)
   – The moment I get into SEEKING my attention goes to interesting things in the world
   – Influences what you see what you feel, what i remember etc.
7. Affect reflects the full operation of such processes
   – Activation of the system tgt with everything that comes with it
   When I’m anxious its my whole body, my hormones and everything that is anxious together

Question 18

from emotions to personality

Primary emotional systems and personality: an evolutionary perspective

Answer 18

The idea: we have underlying Inborn sensitivities (the 7 systems) which cause variations in the traits we measure (OCEAN)

E.g., easily triggered fear system –> influence on personality development

Question 19

Hypothesis: affective neuroscience, temperament and big three + note

Answer 19

Basically: 3 big groupings of interindividual variations

1. Negative affectivity
2. surgency
3. effortful control– Differences in certain systems (fear, rage, panic/grief) will all be related to negative emotionality system
   And respectively to other clusters

NOTE: constraint is left out so emotional systems cannot be seen as encompassing/explaining all traits

Question 20

what is a gap we need to mind when thinking about the previous hypothesis

Answer 20

Basic systems do not directly transform into personality systems
- There’s a lot going on inbetween
–> e.g., Maybe a genetic predisposition explains why someone’s rage system is never activated but it also could be that you were raised in a way where it was made known to you that you cannot be angry

Question 21

forms of vitality

Answer 21

1. forms of vitality are patterns of arousal that are associated with certain sensory experiences AND movement
2. they are cross-modal we not experience them only in vision or hearing, but in any modality of sensory experience
3. they translate between these modes: hence music and dance, poetry and being touched are intrinsically related

Question 22

experiencing the movements of a body in a world

Answer 22

• Vitality forms are perceived as wholes. They are Gestalten
  originating from five components: movement, force, temporal
  contour, space, and directionality/intentionality.
• Vitality forms are not primary emotions; rather, they are structures of
  dynamic behavior, which can contain emotions as well as fantasies,
  streams of thoughts, desires, and so on. Thus, a content (a desire or
  an emotion) can have an exploding form, or a fantasy can have a
  surging form.
• It seems plausible, therefore, to suggest that infants precociously
  represent other people’s emotional manifestations mainly as forms
  of vitality.

Question 23

how do we move each other? (5)

Answer 23

1. Direct touch
2. Via the air by using our voice
3. Via they eyes by the reflection of light
4. Via that also mirror-neurons are affected; so we
   literally mirror the movement of the other.
5. And finally, later, via symbols (next lecture)

Question 24

The regulation of forms of vitality and
affect

Answer 24

• Because of the possibility to share forms of vitality, we
  can ‘move’ each other.
• Thus, the parents can use there gestures, voices and
  movements to down-regulate and up-regulate the forms
  of vitality and state-of-mind their child is in
• This gives rise to all kinds of vital experiences of
  embodied being-with-an-other
• In their repetition and memorization these represent
  persisting‘internal modes of being with an other

Question 25

mirroring

Answer 25

* Mirroring generally refers to aspects of sameness in the reaction of the parent to the child. * For example, the rythm of a sound can be mirrored; the sudden movement of an arm, the slow emergence of a smile, a decelaration of breathing * In complete mirroring there would be almost no difference between the child and that of the parent --> child has a difficult time distinguishing self and other (marking is also important)

Question 26

marking (5)

Answer 26

* Marking generally refers to the aspect of differentiation in response to the child. * For example, the child may utter a voice that goes upward and the parent a similar voice that goes downward * Or there may be variations on the pattern of the child, or responses in a different modality like making a sound that mirrors the movement of the child. * In development the amount of variation and differentiation tends to increase. * If the difference is too large the connection may be lost; this is called a misattuned response

Question 27

attunement - misattunement: mirroring

Answer 27

Mirroring is necessary to develop a sense of self - Infants do not have a developed sense of themselves they develop it from their parents through mirroring and marking - Long lasting misattunement -> becomes a traumatic memory that is activated later as a response to certain cues --> because it developed early on there are little words that can be used to desrcibe it

Question 28

attunement - misattunement: repair

Answer 28

* Important e.g., in building a therapeutic relationship * Non-repairment results in both parties giving up -> no reconnection -> child also loses part of themselves that is connected to the parent they lose connection with --> manifests sometimes in the feeling of losing a part of your identity

Question 29

attunement - misattunement: ugly state

Answer 29

* Task of a therapist is to be able to be comfortable when a client is in this state * Find out words to describe this state with the client * Express your concern 'I feel like I'm losing you here'