Liberals And Conservatives Feel Moral Outrage In Different Parts Of The Body — But There’s Also A Lot Of Overlap

There are lots of differences between those who express opposing political affiliations — and they may not just be ideological. Liberals and conservatives have different shopping habits, for instance, with one series of studies finding that liberals preferred products that made them feel unique, whilst conservatives picked brands that made them feel better than others. They even view health risks differently when they’re choosing what to eat.

But could there also be physiological differences between liberals and conservatives? Some evidence seems to suggest this might be the case, though as we reported earlier this month past findings, such as differences in physiological responses to fear, may not be as solid as previously thought. However, new research in Psychological Science has found that people of different political affiliations may differ in another way: where in the body they feel emotions relating to moral concerns.

It’s well established that we feel particular emotions in the body — butterflies in the stomach when we’re nervous or excited, a racing pulse or flushed cheeks when we get angry. But these physical reactions are not uniform: where one person might feel disappointment in their chest, another may feel it in their stomach.

To examine how political ideology impacts such physiological differences, Mohammad Atari and a team from the University of Southern California asked 596 participants to read a piece of writing about a violation of a particular moral foundation. Participants were assigned to either read about a violation of morals relating to care, fairness, loyalty, authority, or purity. For example, one such vignette in the care condition read “You see a woman clearly avoiding sitting next to an obese woman on the bus” or, for the purity condition, the rather more surreal statement “You see an employee at a morgue eating a pepperoni pizza off of a dead body”.

Participants rated how morally wrong they felt the action described was, and also rated the strength of their emotional response. Then, presented with a map of the body, they were asked to colour in body regions they felt had become more activated (activity becoming stronger or faster) or deactivated (activity becoming weaker or slower).

Participants were also given a political orientation score based on how they rated their affiliation with the Republican or Democratic parties as well as their self-reported conservatism on a scale from “very liberal” to “very conservative”.

The results from this, and a second study aimed at replicating findings, suggest that liberals and conservatives do indeed feel moral outrage in different areas of their bodies — though in fairly concentrated areas. Liberals, for example, appeared to feel violations of “purity” in their groin area, whilst conservatives felt it in their stomach and heads; liberals were also more likely than conservatives to feel violations of “care” in their heart. This image shows the maps for each kind of moral concern:Maps showing areas of the body where activation increased (red/yellow) and decreased (blue/green) to moral violations. Via Atari et al (2020)

These differences may not be as strong as they appear at first glance, however: activation was not as disparate as it might have been. Violations of “care” were felt largely in the head for both groups, “authority” in the head and chest for both, and “loyalty” in the same areas, for instance.

The new study also comes after recent research that has seemed to debunk many claims of physiological differences between liberals and conservatives: one study found that conservatives don’t in fact experience any more disgust than liberals, while another found that physiological differences in fear response between those with different ideologies had been overstated.

This work doesn’t quite claim the opposite — as the authors note, “there are more commonalities than differences”. And it also relies on people’s self-reported perceptions, rather than actual measures of physiological change in the body. But those differences could be significant, and may be worth a further, closer look.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2020/02/27/liberals-and-conservatives-feel-moral-outrage-in-different-parts-of-the-body-but-theres-also-a-lot-of-overlap/#more-39227(accessed 27.2.20)

People Who Watch More TV Find Thinner Women More Attractive, Even In Remote Nicaraguan Communities

What makes for an attractive female body? Whatever your views on this, across cultures, and socioeconomic groups in particular, there are some differences in opinion.

Western media, with its promotion of “thin ideals”, has been cited as an influence on attitudes. But the only way to really explore this is to study groups of people who are very similar, except that some have been exposed to Western media, while others have not. Needless to say, this isn’t easy. However, a team led by Lynda Boothroyd at the University of Durham has now published just such a set of studies in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Their data suggests that TV exposure does indeed drive both men and women towards finding thinner female bodies more attractive.



The team studied residents of seven villages in the remote South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region of Nicaragua. At the time of the research, these people had no access to magazines and, generally, no access to the internet. Over the past decade, the government has, though, gradually extended the electricity grid through villages in the area, making TV-viewing possible.

These people are mostly subsistence farmers and fishermen, with relatively poor food security. It has been suggested that people in such communities tend to find fleshier people more attractive — so if Western TV does have an influence, this would be a good spot to look for it.

For a first cross-sectional study, the researchers compared attitudes of people with regular TV access (Latin American soap operas, which feature thin, curvy actresses, and Hollywood movies were both popular genres) versus those who didn’t yet have it. A total of 314 men and women aged 15 to 79 gave basic details about themselves and rated the attractiveness of 50 colour photographs of women (with their faces blacked out) with Body Mass Indices that ranged from 11 to 42. (A healthy BMI is typically between 18.5 and 25.)

Two factors emerged as being associated with a preference for thinner bodies. One was a higher level of education — and this, the researchers note, implies that someone has spent time studying in a large town, which could have given them earlier access to Western media. The other was TV exposure. Though different ethnic groups had slightly different opinions, when TV viewers vs non-TV viewers of the same ethnicity were compared, the difference in the “ideal” BMI could be at least 5 points. For one group, it was about 22 among the regular TV-watchers vs 27-28 among those who had not been exposed to TV, or who had very little access to it.

The researchers also wanted to explore whether people who didn’t have access to TV and then gained it shifted towards preferring thinner bodies. For various reasons, this proved tricky. But for one village, it was possible to gather data on 31 individuals. The analysis did indeed suggest that with TV came a move towards finding a thinner female body most attractive.

For a final study, the researchers tried to mimic the immediate impact of TV exposure. They did this by showing villagers a series of photographs of either thin or plus-sized fashion models. After just 15 minutes of viewing these images, the participants changed their perceptions of the ideal female body size in the direction of the images they had just seen.

“These data strongly support the proposal that visual culture may be a critical contributory factor in the development of attraction in modern humans,” the researchers write.

There could be other implications of the work, too. The data “strongly suggests visual media may be pushing preferences below the healthy optimum in nutritionally vulnerable populations such as ours,” the researchers write. The most favoured BMI in one of the TV-watching villages was 22.5, for instance: if a woman with that BMI lost a stone of weight during a bad fish season, she would shift to 19.3. That’s still within the healthy BMI range, but only just.

And there’s another risk: exposure to Western body ideals and a more Western-style lifestyle (including a higher-calorie diet) often go hand in hand, making a thin figure even harder to attain — and promoting body dissatisfaction.

However, the work does also suggest a route to changing unhealthy body ideals: as sheer exposure seems to be so influential, altering the images people see could change perceptions in a healthier direction, too.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2020/02/25/people-who-watch-more-tv-find-thinner-women-more-attractive-even-in-remote-nicaraguan-communities/(accessed 25.2.20)

Απειλή για την ψυχική υγεία και την επαγγελματική καταξίωση το «σύνδρομο του απατεώνα»

Η επιστημονική και ακαδημαϊκή κοινότητα πρέπει να δώσει περισσότερη προσοχή σε ένα αφανή αλλά υπαρκτό «σαμποτέρ», στο «σύνδρομο του απατεώνα» (imposter syndrome), που μπορεί να υποσκάψει την ψυχική υγεία και την επαγγελματική σταδιοδρομία αρκετών ανθρώπων. Αυτό επισημαίνουν με επιστολή τους στο κορυφαίο επιστημονικό περιοδικό "Science" ένας διεθνώς αναγνωρισμένος Έλληνας επιστήμονας, ο καθηγητής της Ιατρικής Σχολής του Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών Γιώργος Χρούσος, και ο δρ Αλέξιος-Φώτιος Μεντής των Εργαστηρίων Δημόσιας Υγείας του Ελληνικού Ινστιτούτου Παστέρ και του Εργαστηρίου Μικροβιολογίας της Ιατρικής Σχολής του Πανεπιστημίου Θεσσαλίας.

Όσοι έχουν το εν λόγω σύνδρομο (γνωστό και ως «σύνδρομο της ψευδεπίγραφης επιτυχίας»), βασανίζονται από έναν ενδόμυχο αδικαιολόγητο φόβο ότι κάποια στιγμή θα αποκαλυφθούν πως είναι απατεώνες και κατατρύχονται από σκέψεις αυτοαμφισβήτησης και αναξιότητας, παρόλο που αποδεδειγμένα κατέχουν ταλέντα και παρουσιάζουν διάφορα επαγγελματικά ή άλλα επιτεύγματα. Όπως αναφέρουν οι δύο Έλληνες επιστήμονες, επειδή το εν λόγω σύνδρομο πλήττει κυρίως άτομα με υψηλά επιτεύγματα, γυναίκες και ανθρώπους από μειονότητες (φυλετικές, εθνοτικές, θρησκευτικές), συχνά σαμποτάροντας την καριέρα τους, έχει ως συνέπεια τα πανεπιστήμια και άλλοι ακαδημαϊκοί-ερευνητικοί φορείς να κινδυνεύουν από υποαντιπροσώπευση αυτών των ομάδων στο δυναμικό τους.

Γι' αυτό, η επιστολή καλεί τα ιδρύματα όχι μόνο να υιοθετούν πολιτικές εισδοχής και πρόσληψης που ευνοούν την ευρύτερη δυνατή εκπροσώπηση όλων των ομάδων του πληθυσμού, αλλά επίσης να πάρουν μέτρα που θα αναγνωρίζουν και θα καταπολεμούν το πρόβλημα του «συνδρόμου του απατεώνα».

Σε ατομικό επίπεδο, το σύνδρομο αυτό, τονίζουν, μπορεί να οδηγήσει σε ψυχολογικό άγχος, συναισθηματικά προβλήματα και σοβαρές ψυχικές διαταραχές, όπως χρόνιο στρες με δυσφορία, αγχώδεις διαταραχές, κατάθλιψη και χρήση ναρκωτικών ουσιών. Σε αρκετές περιπτώσεις το σύνδρομο εκδηλώνεται ήδη από το γυμνάσιο ή το πανεπιστήμιο.

Σε κοινωνικό επίπεδο, σύμφωνα με τους κ.κ. Χρούσο και Μεντή, το σύνδρομο μπορεί να εξηγεί σε ένα βαθμό τα μεγαλύτερα ποσοστά γυναικών και μειονοτικών που εγκαταλείπουν πρόωρα τα πεδία της επιστήμης, τεχνολογίας, μηχανικής και μαθηματικών (STEM), κάτι που έχει παρατηρηθεί διεθνώς.

Οι Έλληνες επιστήμονες καλούν τα ΑΕΙ και άλλους φορείς να αναδείξουν το πρόβλημα, να διασφαλίσουν την πρόσβαση των πασχόντων σε ψυχολογική υποστήριξη και να υλοποιήσουν άλλες υποστηρικτικές πολιτικές. Ζητούν από τους καθηγητές, τους επικεφαλής ερευνητές και τους ομότιμους συναδέλφους να ενθαρρύνουν τους φοιτητές και τους συνεργάτες τους να εστιάσουν στα πραγματικά δεδομένα της επιστημονικής απόδοσης τους και να θέτουν ρεαλιστικές προσδοκίες.

Παράλληλα, τονίζουν την ανάγκη να γίνουν σε θεσμικό επίπεδο ανοιχτές συζητήσεις για το πρόβλημα, ώστε τα αισθήματα που πηγάζουν από το «σύνδρομο του απατεώνα» να έλθουν στο φως και να αντιμετωπισθούν περισσότερο ως κοινές εμπειρίες παρά ως κάτι παθολογικό. Σχετικά προγράμματα θα μπορούσαν να γίνουν ακόμη και στα σχολεία της δευτεροβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης, κάτι που θα βοηθήσει τη μελλοντική καριέρα των νέων.

Ο Γεώργιος Χρούσος είναι Διευθυντής της Πρώτης Παιδιατρικής Κλινικής στην Ιατρική Σχολή του Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών, ενώ από το 2010 κατέχει την έδρα της UNESCO στην Εφηβική Ιατρική του ίδιου Πανεπιστημίου. Πριν επιστρέψει στην Ελλάδα, ήταν Διευθυντής του Τμήματος Παιδιατρικής και Αναπαραγωγικής Ενδοκρινολογίας του Εθνικού Ινστιτούτου Υγείας του Παιδιού και της Ανθρώπινης Ανάπτυξης των ΗΠΑ και καθηγητής του Πανεπιστημίου Τζορτζτάουν στην Ουάσινγκτον. Έχει αναγνωρισθεί παγκοσμίως για την έρευνά του πάνω στους βιολογικούς μηχανισμούς του στρες και έχει ανοίξει νέους ορίζοντες σε ένα φάσμα χρόνιων διαταραχών, όπως η κατάθλιψη, το μεταβολικό σύνδρομο και οι αυτοάνοσες παθήσεις.

Πηγή:

https://www.kathimerini.gr/1065174/article/ygeia/ygeia-epikairothta/apeilh-gia-thn-yyxikh-ygeia-kai-thn-epaggelmatikh-kata3iwsh-to-syndromo-toy-apatewna(accessed 20.2.20)

Sexist Ideologies May Help Cultivate The “Dark Triad” Of Personality Traits

The “dark triad” of personality traits — narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism — do not make for the nicest individuals. People who score highly on the dark triad are vain, callous and manipulative. They adopt a so-called “fast-life” strategy, characterised by impulsivity, opportunism and selfishness. Such individuals can succeed in the workplace, while failing to get on with others. They’re also more likely to cheat on their partners, and are deemed more alluring in speed-dating sessions.

Though these traits can bring advantages to the individual, they are clearly detrimental to those around them. So it’s important to understand what fosters them. Could particular attitudes in society, for example, help to encourage these dark traits?

A new study, published in Personality and Individual Differences, concludes that this may in fact be the case. Melissa Gluck at the University of Florida and her colleagues gathered evidence suggesting that sexism — “and the socially-supported, unearned male power and privilege that sexism reflects” — is linked to higher scores on measures of the dark triad. “If scholars can demonstrate that these malevolent traits are partly learned by growing up in sexist cultures, agents of personal and social change can help people recognise, understand, alter and replace these malevolent aspects of humanity,” the researchers write.



Gluck and her colleagues recruited 295 adults living in the US (131 women, 164 men) to complete online two measures of dark traits, plus a sexism inventory. This inventory gauged endorsement of statements that reflect two separate facets of sexism: so-called “hostile sexism” (e.g. “Women seek to gain power by getting control over men”) and “benevolent”, patronising sexism (e.g. “A good woman should be set on a pedestal by her man”). Brief demographic data was also collected from each participant.

As predicted, based on earlier findings, the men scored higher for dark traits than the women. Also as expected, the men displayed more sexism, of both types. For both men and women, there was a correlation between their overall sexism scores and their dark triad ratings, and among the men, but not the women, it was hostile sexism that really accounted for this link. Overall, the difference between the men’s and the women’s dark trait scores was “substantially, but not completely” attributable to sexism, the researchers write.

Perhaps then, tackling sexist ideology, and hostile sexist ideology in particular, would also affect levels of these dark traits in society?

Well, maybe. But it’s impossible to know from this study whether sexist ideology is encouraging narcissism, callousness and manipulativeness, or whether people with these traits are more likely to adopt sexist attitudes. Alternatively, as the researchers note, something else might conceivably drive the development of both dark traits and sexism. This might be childhood trauma, perhaps, or living in a culture that focuses on individual rather than group success.

For now, Gluck and her colleagues argue that sexism should at least be considered as a cause. They write: “The origins of the dark traits are still debatable, but these data support the utility of exploring the impact of sexism and dysfunctional aspects of traditional gender beliefs on the development and maintenance of dark traits.”

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2020/02/18/sexist-ideologies-may-help-cultivate-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/#more-39165(accessed 18.2.20)

Leaders Show Distinct Body Language Depending On Whether They Gain Authority Through Prestige Or Dominance

All kinds of animals use their bodies to signal a high social rank — humans included. But a growing body of research suggests that, for us at least, there are two distinct routes to becoming a leader. One entails earning respect and followers by demonstrating your knowledge and expertise, which confers prestige. An alternative strategy is to use aggression and intimidation to scare people into deference — that is, to use dominance instead.

These two ways to the top are very different. And, to get on with their leader, an inferior-status individual would have to respond to these two types of leadership differently, too. So, reasoned, Zachary Witkower and Jessica Tracy at the University of British Columbia, and colleagues, rather than a single human high rank, “power” display, perhaps there are two distinct patterns of non-verbal behaviour that communicate to other individuals exactly what kind of leader someone is.

Their new paper, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, reveals that this is indeed the case. This is important for understanding how we display rank, and perceive and respond to it. It could also explain why studies into “power posing” have produced conflicting results.



Earlier work has found that prestigious leaders — think Barack Obama, say — tend to be empathic and helpful towards their followers, and that their willingness to share their expertise with subordinates is crucial to their status. To maintain support and devotion from their followers, such a leader would, then, need to signal not only that they have a high status but that they are also warm, caring and pro-social. In contrast, dominance-type leaders (think no end of despots) would have to also signal their aggressiveness to maintain their status.

Across many species, sheer physical size — or making yourself look bigger — sends a high-status message. In people, an “expansive” posture, with arms and legs away from the body, and the chest puffed out (which is associated with pride) has been linked to high-status, too. The team reasoned that both prestige and dominance leaders would use these postures, but that a downward head tilt (which other work has shown is intimidating) and no smile would signal dominance, while an upward head tilt and a smile would signal prestige.

Four studies that involved presenting US-based adults with either computer-generated avatars or photos of actors adopting various poses provided good evidence for this theory — raters did indeed separately associate prestige and dominance with these two distinct displays. The researchers also noted that there were no gender differences in the participants’ judgements.

For the fifth study, 191 students who didn’t know each other were assigned to 36 same-gender groups. They completed a decision-making test individually, and then were videoed while they worked on this same task in their group. Afterwards, each participant rated each of the others in their group for prestige, dominance, social influence and liking. Separately, two research assistants who watched the videos rated each for social influence. Independent coders also noted the presence, and intensity, of prestige or dominance displays in the videos.

The team found that students who adopted more obvious prestige displays were given higher prestige ratings. Also, anyone who displayed prestige was consistently judged to have exerted more influence over the group.

The results on dominance were a little more mixed: those rated higher for dominance indeed adopted more expansive stances, but were no more likely to tilt their head downwards or not smile.

The researchers also noted, however, a difference between the expansive postures used by those rated high for prestige vs dominance: prestige was associated with more chest expansion, whereas dominant students spread their limbs more — which could have the effect of making them seem more invasive of other people’s personal space.

For their final study, the team turned to videos of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump — leaders taken to exemplify prestige and dominance strategies, respectively — during the 2016 presidential debates. Independent raters found that Clinton indeed engaged in more smiling and upward head tilting than Trump, who engaged in more downward head tilting. Also, Clinton displayed relatively more chest expansion, but Trump occupied more space, and extended his arms out from his body more.

Together, these studies “provide strong converging evidence that dominance and prestige are associated with distinct nonverbal signals which naturally emerge in ecologically valid group settings and real-world rank contests, and result in rank conferral from others,” the team writes.

The work could also help to explain inconsistencies from studies that have looked at non-verbal behaviour in relation to social rank, but not made the distinction between prestige and dominance. Given the difference that the team observed in the physical stance associated with prestige vs dominance, this might have implications for understanding power posing (which involves a combination of the two), the researchers write. “Regardless of what the future holds for power posing, researchers who seek to test this account should more rigorously consider the specific make up of the behaviours involved in the pose,” they write.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2020/02/10/leaders-show-distinct-body-language-depending-on-whether-they-gain-authority-through-prestige-or-dominance/#more-39096(accessed 10.2.20)

Μυστικά, ντροπή και ψυχική υγεία: πώς συνδέονται;

Τα μυστικά που συνήθως προκαλούν ντροπή είναι αυτά που αφορούν στην ψυχική υγεία και δεν επιτρέπουν την αναζήτηση βοήθειας από εκείνους που την έχουν ανάγκη.

Μια ενδιαφέρουσα έρευνα που δημοσιεύθηκε στο περιοδικό Emotion τον Φεβρουάριο του 2019, εξετάζει τα διαφορετικά είδη μυστικών που έχει ο καθένας μας καθώς επίσης και τα συναισθήματα που αυτά προκαλούν. Συγκεκριμένα, οι ερευνητές επικεντρώθηκαν σε μυστικά που προκαλούν το αίσθημα της ντροπής καθώς και σε εκείνα που γεννούν ενοχή.

Ο Ψυχολόγος Μάικλ Σλέπιαν, διευκρίνισε τη διαφορά μεταξύ ντροπής και ενοχής, των δύο συναισθημάτων αυτοσυνειδησίας που έχουν μελετηθεί περισσότερο. Σε αντίθεση με τα βασικά/ πρωτογενή συναισθήματα όπως ο θυμός και ο φόβος, τα οποία προκαλούνται από εξωγενή αίτια, η ενοχή και η ντροπή εστιάζουν στον εαυτό.

Η ντροπή που μας προκαλεί ένα μυστικό συσχετίζεται με διάφορα συναισθήματα όπως αυτά της αναξιότητας, της ασημαντότητας και/ ή της αδυναμίας. Η ενοχή, από την άλλη πλευρά, γεννά συναισθήματα όπως οι τύψεις, η ένταση ή η μεταμέλεια.

Σύμφωνα με τον Σλέπιαν, τα μυστικά που αφορούν στην ψυχική υγεία, τις τραυματικές εμπειρίες ή τη δυσαρέσκεια που προκαλεί η φυσική εμφάνιση, τείνουν να γεννούν ντροπή. Από την άλλη, πράξεις όπως το να πληγώνουμε κάποιον, να λέμε ψέματα ή να παραβιάζουμε την εμπιστοσύνη κάποιου, προξενούν μεγαλύτερη ενοχή.

Παρόλο που σχεδόν όλοι έχουμε μυστικά, δε συνειδητοποιούμε υποχρεωτικά πόσο επιβλαβή μπορεί να αποδειχθούν για την υγεία, την ευημερία και τις σχέσεις μας.




Οι άνθρωποι που αισθάνονται ντροπή είναι πιθανότερο να ασχολούνται εμμονικά με τα μυστικά τους σε σχέση με εκείνους που αισθάνονται ενοχή.



Με άλλα λόγια, εκείνοι που αισθάνονται ντροπή συχνά σκέφτονται διαρκώς τα μυστικά τους.

Οι συνολικά 1,000 συμμετέχοντες της έρευνας, απάντησαν σε έναν αριθμό ερωτήσεων σχετικά με κρυμμένα μυστικά που κρατούσαν, πολλές ερωτήσεις εκ των οποίων διαμορφώθηκαν ώστε να υπολογίσουν το βαθμό της ντροπής και της ενοχής τους. Οι συμμετέχοντες ρωτήθηκαν επίσης για τις φορές που απέκρυψαν το μυστικό τους μέσα στον τελευταίο μήνα. Ενδιαφέρον παρουσιάζει το γεγονός ότι το φαινόμενο της απόκρυψης ενός μυστικού δε φάνηκε να σχετίζεται με το αίσθημα της ντροπής ή της ενοχής που αυτό προκαλούσε, αλλά κυρίως με το πόσο συχνά ο εκάστοτε συμμετέχοντας αλληλεπίδρασε με τα άτομα από τα οποία προσπαθούσε να κρύψει το μυστικό του.

Αυτό το οποίο θεωρείται από τους ερευνητές περισσότερο ανησυχητικό σε σχέση με την έρευνα, είναι ότι τα μυστικά που συνήθως προκαλούν ντροπή είναι αυτά που αφορούν την ψυχική υγεία. Φυσικά, αυτός είναι ένας από τους περίπλοκους λόγους για τους οποίους οι ασθενείς που πάσχουν από διαταραχές του εγκεφάλου, όπως η ιδεοψυχαναγκαστική διαταραχή, η τριχοτιλλομανία και οι διατροφικές διαταραχές δεν αναζητούν βοήθεια. Αισθάνονται ντροπή και αμηχανία και συνεπώς παραμένουν αβοήθητοι.

Οι ψυχικά ασθενείς, εκτός του ότι καθημερινά αντιμετωπίζουν τα συμπτώματα των διαταραχών που είναι ιδιαιτέρως εξαντλητικά τόσο σε ψυχικό όσο και σε σωματικό επίπεδο, ενδέχεται να προσπαθούν να κρύβουν την ασθένεια τους γεγονός που επιβαρύνει την κατάσταση τους.

Ακολουθούν τέσσερις μηχανισμοί άμυνας που συνήθως χρησιμοποιεί κάποιος ενάντια στην ντροπή:
αμυντική συμπεριφορά
τελειομανία
απολογία
αναβλητικότητα




Η επίγνωση της ντροπής που αισθανόμαστε είναι το πρώτο βήμα προς την αποδοχή και τη θεραπεία μας.



Με το να κρύβουμε τη ντροπή μας, την ενδυναμώνουμε. Είναι αναγκαίο, λοιπόν να εξωτερικεύουμε αυτό το συχνά δυσάρεστο συναίσθημα. Ένας καλός ψυχοθεραπευτής μπορεί να μας βοηθήσει να αναγνωρίσουμε με ποιο τρόπο εκδηλώνεται η ντροπή μας αλλά και να την ξεπεράσουμε.

Όσον αφορά στην ψυχική μας υγεία και τον τρόπο με τον οποίο αυτή επηρεάζεται από το συναίσθημα της ντροπής, το καλύτερο που μπορούμε όλοι να κάνουμε είναι να μιλήσουμε ελεύθερα και ανοιχτά για τα προβλήματά μας. Αυτό, φυσικά, είναι εύκολο θεωρητικά και δυσκολότερο στην πράξη, όμως κανένας από όσους τόλμησαν αυτό το βήμα δε το μετάνιωσε. Όσο περισσότερο ανοιγόμαστε, τόσο πιο εύκολα μπορούμε να μειώσουμε το στίγμα των ψυχικών διαταραχών και τόσο λιγότερο αυτές θα συνδέονται με το αίσθημα της ντροπής.





Έρευνα: Slepian, M. L., Kirby, J. N., & Kalokerinos, E. K. (2019, February 11). Shame, Guilt, and Secrets on the Mind. Emotion. Advance online publication.
Πηγή: psychcentral.com
Απόδοση: Κατερίνα Κακουλάκη
Επιμέλεια: Βασιλική Τσαπάκη, Μεταφράστρια

ΠΗΓΗ:

https://www.psychologynow.gr/arthra-psyxologias/koinonia/stigma/6663-mystika-dropi-kai-psyxiki-ygeia-pos-syndeontai.html(accessed 7.2.20)

The Precise Meaning Of Emotion Words Is Different Around The World

When you can’t quite put your finger on how you’re feeling, don’t worry — there may be a non-English word that can help you out. There are hundreds of words across the world for emotional states and concepts, from the Spanish word for the desire to eat simply for the taste (gula) to the Sanskrit for revelling in someone else’s joy (mudita).

But what about those words that exist across many languages — “anger”, for example, or “happiness”? Do they mean the same thing in every language, or do we experience emotions differently based on the culture we are brought up in? Is the experience we call “love” in English emotionally analogous with its direct translation into Hungarian, “szerelem”, for example?



In a new paper in Science, Joshua Conrad Jackson from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues looked at 2,439 distinct concepts (including 24 relating to emotion) from 2,474 languages. The team analysed the similarities and differences between languages based on patterns of “colexification”: instances in which multiple concepts are expressed by the same word form.

In Persian, to use the team’s example, the word ænduh can be used to express both grief and regret; in the Dargwa dialect, spoken in Dagestan in Russia, dard means grief and anxiety. It follows, therefore, that Persian speakers may understand grief as closer to regret, and Dargwa speakers closer to anxiety.

The analysis allowed the researchers to create networks of concepts that showed, for each language family, how closely different emotional concepts related to each other. These revealed wide variation between language families. For instance, in Tad-Kadai languages, which can be found in Southeast Asia, southern China, and Northeast India, “anxiety” was related to “fear”; in Austroasiatic languages, anxiety was closer to “grief” or “regret”. In Nakh Daghestanian languages spoken mainly in parts of Russia, on the other hand, “anger” was related to “envy”, but in Austronesian languages it was related to “hate”, “bad”, and “proud”.

But there were some similarities. Words with the same emotional valence — i.e. that were positive or negative — tended to be associated only with other words of the same valence, in all language families across the world. Happiness, for example, was linked to other positive emotions, even if the specific associations were slightly different depending on the language family. (This wasn’t always the case though: in some Austronesian languages, “pity” and “love” were associated, suggesting pity may be more positive or love more negative than in other languages). Similarly, low-arousal emotions like sadness were also unlikely to be compared to high-arousal emotions like anger.

And geography also seemed to matter: language families that were geographically closer tended to share more similar associations than those that were far away.

The study’s findings suggest that emotional concepts do vary between languages up to a point, raising the question of just how similar supposedly universal experiences are. Of course, it’s impossible to know exactly how somebody else is experiencing the world, and language can often be woefully inadequate when it comes to expressing our internal life. And while the research suggests that those emotional experiences may vary in subtle ways across the world, deep down it seems we’re not so dissimilar at all.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2020/02/05/the-precise-meaning-of-emotion-words-is-different-around-the-world/#more-39062(accessed 6.2.20)

Το άγχος του πατέρα στην εγκυμοσύνη και η επίδραση στο βρέφος μετά τη γέννησή του

Ένα από τα πεδία που έχει διερευνηθεί εκτενώς είναι οι διαταραχές της διάθεσης στη μητέρα κατά τη διάρκεια της εγκυμοσύνης οι οποίες έχουν αποδειχθεί ότι επηρεάζουν αρνητικά:
την κοινωνική
τη συναισθηματική,
τη συμπεριφορική,
τη γνωστική ανάπτυξη των παιδιών.

Ταυτόχρονα η επίδραση αυτή έχει αποδειχτεί ότι επιμένει στο πέρασμα του χρόνου και δεν αποτελεί ένα παροδικό φαινόμενο. Για παράδειγμα, η πρόωρη έκθεση του βρέφους σε συμπτώματα κατάθλιψης ή άγχους της μητέρας, έχει συσχετιστεί:
με μειωμένη ακαδημαϊκή επίδοση
με προβλήματα συμπεριφοράς στην εφηβεία.

Τα τελευταία χρόνια η έρευνα έχει στραφεί και στην σημασία που έχει η συναισθηματική κατάσταση των πατέρων κατά τη διάρκεια της εγκυμοσύνης, καθώς και στο κατά πόσο ευθύνεται για μακροπρόθεσμες συνέπειες στη ζωή των παιδιών μετά τη γέννησή τους.

Που καταλήγει νέα έρευνα;

Νέα μελέτη, με επικεφαλής το Πανεπιστήμιο του Cambridge, είναι η πρώτη που συμπεριέλαβε τόσο τις μητέρες όσο και τους πατέρες και παρακολούθησε την ανάπτυξη του παιδιού σε διάστημα δύο ετών. Σύμφωνα με το πόρισμα της μελέτης όταν ο πατέρας είχε άγχος κατά τη διάρκεια της εγκυμοσύνης τα παιδιά είχαν περισσότερες πιθανότητες να εμφανίσουν:
συναισθηματικά προβλήματα,
προβλήματα συμπεριφοράς.

Τα βρέφη με αγχώδη πατέρα έτειναν να εμφανίζουν αυξημένη ευερεθιστότητα και ανησυχία, καθώς επίσης και να δυσκολεύονται περισσότερο στον ύπνο.

Η συγκεκριμένη μελέτη, που δημοσιεύτηκε τον Αύγουστο του 2019 στο επιστημονικό περιοδικό Development & Psychopathology, μελέτησε 438 ζευγάρια τα οποία, χρησιμοποιώντας ερωτηματολόγια και απαντώντας σε δομημένες συνεντεύξεις, κατέγραφαν συμπτώματα κατάθλιψης και άγχους σε τέσσερα χρονικά σημεία (στο τελευταίο τρίμηνο της εγκυμοσύνης και 4, 14 και 24 μήνες μετά τον τοκετό). Οι μητέρες και οι πατέρες αξιολόγησαν επίσης την ποιότητα της σχέσης τους, αλλά και την κοινωνικοσυναισθηματική προσαρμογή του παιδιού τους στους 14 και στους 24 μήνες.

Τα αποτελέσματα της έρευνας έδειξαν άμεση επίδραση στα παιδιά:
της συναισθηματικής κατάστασης του πατέρα
της ποιότητας της σχέσης των γονιών κατά τη διάρκεια της εγκυμοσύνης

Τα παιδιά έως 2 ετών ήταν πιθανότερο:
να έχουν συναισθηματικές δυσκολίες,
να είναι ανήσυχα,
να κλαίνε,
να φοβούνται περισσότερο,
να προσκολλώνται στους γονείς.

Τα προβλήματα αυτά ήταν πιο έντονα όταν εκείνοι αντιμετώπιζαν προβλήματα στη σχέση τους κατά την περίοδο της εγκυμοσύνης και μετά τη γέννηση. Τα προβλήματα αυτά ποικίλουν από απλή έλλειψη επικοινωνίας και θετικών συναισθημάτων στο ζευγάρι έως καυγάδες και έλλειψη σεξουαλικής ζωής.

Αν και οι γενετικοί παράγοντες μπορούν να εξηγήσουν εν μέρει τη σχέση μεταξύ της συναισθηματικής κατάστασης του πατέρα κατά την προγεννητική περίοδο και της συναισθηματικής και συμπεριφορικής ανάπτυξης των παιδιών, δεν μπορούν να εξηγήσουν πλήρως τη συσχέτιση. Παράλληλα, οι ερευνητές υποθέτουν ότι για τις μητέρες με αγχώδεις συντρόφους, το στρες μπορεί να μεταφέρεται ενδομητρίως και στο έμβρυο, ακόμα και αν οι ίδιες δεν εμφανίζουν συμπτώματα άγχους. Τα ευρήματα της μελέτης υπογραμμίζουν την ανάγκη για έγκαιρη και πιο αποτελεσματική στήριξη των ζευγαριών έτσι ώστε να προετοιμαστούν καλύτερα για την μετάβαση στο ρόλο του γονέα.


Βασιλειάδης Ηλίας
Ψυχολόγος, M.Sc. Συμβουλευτικής Ψυχολογίας
Επιστημονικός Συνεργάτης ΙΨΣΥ

ΠΗΓΗ:

https://www.askitis.gr/articles/view/%CF%84%CE%BF-%CE%AC%CE%B3%CF%87%CE%BF%CF%82-%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%85-%CF%80%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%AD%CF%81%CE%B1-%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B7%CE%BD-%CE%B5%CE%B3%CE%BA%CF%85%CE%BC%CE%BF%CF%83%CF%8D%CE%BD%CE%B7-%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%B9-%CE%B7-%CE%B5%CF%80%CE%AF%CE%B4%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%83%CE%B7-%CF%83%CF%84%CE%BF-%CE%B2%CF%81%CE%AD%CF%86%CE%BF%CF%82-%CE%BC%CE%B5%CF%84%CE%AC-%CF%84%CE%B7-%CE%B3%CE%AD%CE%BD%CE%BD%CE%B7%CF%83%CE%AE-%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%85(accessed 5.2.20)

Even Preschoolers Associate Positions Of Power With Being A Man

An imbalance in power — personal and political — is at the heart of many of the conversations we have around gender. #MeToo sparked a global conversation on the topic, and issues around the gender pay gap and women in leadership roles also deal with matters of unequal power.

But our assumptions about how gender and power interact may start far before we even reach the workplace, new research suggests. In a paper published in Sex Roles, Rawan Charafeddine from the CNRS in Paris and colleagues conclude that associations between power and masculinity start when we’re barely out of nappies, with children as young as four making the link.

We already know that children internalise gendered hierarchies from a young age: one 2010 study, for example, found that children rate traditionally masculine jobs as more valuable. But researchers hadn’t studied how children assess the relative power of men and women, or what they believe about the way power dynamics affect relationships between genders.

Charafeddine’s team asked 148 French preschoolers to look at an image featuring two non-gendered individuals, one adopting a dominant physical posture and one adopting a submissive or subordinate posture. The children were told that one character was saying “you have to do everything I say!” and one “Ok! I will do what you want!”. They were then asked which character had power and which did not. In the second part of the study, the children were told that one of the figures was actually a man and the other a woman, and asked to identify which was which.Children saw these figures and were asked to identify the gender of each. Via Charafeddine et al (2019)

Identifying who was the dominant party was not a struggle for the children: 87.4% of participants correctly matched the dominant statement with the upright posture and the subordinate posture with the subordinate statement. And 75% of those children who correctly identified the dominant party were also convinced that the figure was male.

And the findings held across different cultures, too: in a second study, children from Norway, a country with exceptionally high gender equality, were compared to children from Lebanon, where gender equality is lower. And as in the first part of the experiment, 4- to 6-year-old children were more likely to associate the dominant posture with men — though, notably, 3-year-olds were less likely to come to the same conclusion, which the team suggests may be down to a lower awareness of how postures can convey power among younger children.

In a second experiment, 160 schoolchildren were shown the same materials, but this time asked to imagine themselves as one of the two characters (they could choose which). In one condition, participants were told the other character was the same gender as them; in another, the character was of the opposite gender.

Again, a significant number of children were able to identify dominant and subordinate positions (146 of the 160 participants correctly identified which was which). Differences between conditions, however, were interesting. Boys and girls in the “same gender” condition tended to identify with the dominant character. But in the “opposite gender” condition, boys identified more with the dominant character, whilst girls did not tend to identify with one more than the other.

In a final experiment, 213 4- to 5-year-old French and Lebanese children heard a series of exchanges between two hidden puppets, one male and one female, and were asked to guess which puppet occupied the powerful position and which the subordinate. In one scenario, the powerful puppet imposes their will upon the other; in the other, one puppet has more resources than the other.

Again, most of the boys surveyed felt that the powerful puppet in both scenarios was male. But female participants didn’t tend to make this attribution, suggesting that the association between power and masculinity may be weaker in girls.

It is obviously hard to deny a strong societal association between masculinity and power — and an association, as these results suggest, that we learn about from a young age. But this isn’t to say that we’re not making progress, nor that children are not internalising some of the more equality-based messaging that now exists around gender. One recent study, for example, looked at how differently children draw figures now compared to 1977: 2015’s participants were far more likely to draw female figures than they were in the 1970s, which the study’s authors took to be related to increased gender equality.

The fact that children under the age of four seemed not to have the same prejudices also suggests that encouraging children to rethink traditional gender roles from an extremely young age may be a helpful way to combat inequalities.

Of course, this is about more than just perception: our beliefs about gender and power affect the way we have relationships with one another, and have a material impact in the workplace. Understanding how our beliefs about power develop may not be enough to combat them entirely, but it could be a useful first step.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2020/02/03/even-preschoolers-associate-positions-of-power-with-being-a-man/#more-39048(accessed 3.2.20)