Research for d eterminant factors and features of emotional responses of "kandoh" (the state of being emotionally moved)

Abstract: The feature and determinants of the emotional response kandoh (the state of being emotionally moved) were positively examined (kandoh has rarely been made the object of research in the field of psychology). First, the author reviewed the research done so far and summarized the features of kandoh, and the structural model of the process leading to kandoh was introduced from the results of the above research. Furthermore, experimental examination about the model was performed of different types of stories, and even stories with opposing the emotional frameworks of happiness or sadness, both were shown that they were able to become heart-warming good stories. Moreover, it was shown that the event-related knowledge was important for evocation of kandoh. From the experiment results, consideration was made about new aspects of kandoh.     

Acknowledging the Archetypal Elements of Grief

The universality of grief as a soul-aching experience within the human condition is evident in even the oldest recorded stories and myths around the world. Theories and scientific studies in the past few decades have attempted to understand the phenomenon of grief, forming a significant body of research and a myriad of ideas and guidelines for the grieving process. Acknowledgment and appreciation of the archetypal elements of grief broadens our understanding of the painful emotions that arise as part of a natural reaction in the aftermath of loss and can assist helping professionals to make wise choices for therapeutic interventions in clinical practice.     

Grayson Perry and the recalibration of masculine emotional reactions to vulnerability and healing

The so-called ‘crisis in masculinity’ in the post-industrial/post-feminist world is not a new idea but in recent years it does seem to have forced its way back onto the agenda due to a lack of traditional employment, such as coal mining, thus robbing generations of men of their cultural identities. This collective ‘crisis’ has emerged through media attention on a succession of well-known men in the arts and sports worlds such as Bruce Springsteen, Stormzy, Professor Green and Rio Ferdinand, who share in common a strong sense of masculine identification. In addition, all have openly discussed the healing and relief experienced by embracing the vulnerable, emotional aspects of themselves, or what has been historically characterized as the anima archetype in Jungian psychology. This essay will recount some of their stories of struggle as they have bravely spoken up about their mental health issues, perhaps diminishing, by example, the erroneous notion of depression as a ‘woman's problem’. As noted, in recent times we have witnessed a proliferation of famous men speaking out about their emotional difficulties, often in the context of loss and depression, thus providing potential role-modelling for a more expanded view of contemporary masculinity. This paper attempts to consider the tendency amongst a particular type of modern man who is both traditionally macho and simultaneously emotionally articulate with the capacity to open up about the experiences of their inner worlds and the environmental pressures they face in a fast-paced and ever-changing world. Beginning with some brief stories about the men listed above, the primary focus will be on the work of the UK cross-dressing artist and Turner Prize winner (2003) Grayson Perry (b. 1960), by studying his unusual and highly creative clarion call to challenge modern men to recalibrate their emotional behaviour and to speak openly about loss and emotional difficulty. As readers will see, he has developed a unique method that includes filmed, televised interactional interviews with various individuals and groups and he then produces art pieces that embody what has transpired through his engagement with their suffering and real-life dilemmas. This highly creative process offers a double or even triple containment for those struggling with all-too-human pain via the holding interview with him directly; the artwork that he creates as a result; and then through the recording on film that is shared with television audiences who are deeply affected by what they witness and who perhaps find a form of healing via identification.     

I Listen,Therefore I Am: An Asian American Approach to Post‐Materialist Living

Abstract : Consumerism is a cultural atmosphere that permeates societies when they are saturated with market‐driven values at the expense of social values. It prioritizes personal needs over the common good and reduces even religion to a “brand” that people wear like an emblem. It simultaneously approaches the world itself as a resource to be managed, forgetful of the fact that all living beings are songs and stories worth hearing. As Christianity becomes a post‐western religion, opportunities emerge for Christians to develop cross‐cultural poetics that are conducive to post‐materialist ways of living in the world. Poetics are not theologies, but rather outlooks on life or, perhaps more appropriately, ways of listening to the voices of people and other living beings. The purpose of this essay is to propose one such Asian American theology that can be a commitment to deep listening: that is, to dwelling musically in the world. This manner of dwelling can recognize that even the heart of the universe—even God—is a listening presence at the heart of the universe.     

A Group of Black South Africans' Experience of Telling their Untold Stories about the Apartheid Era

The aim of this research was to explore a group of black South Africans' experiences of telling their untold stories of survival about the apartheid era. The expectation was that if they did become more aware of these alternative stories, it could have a far-reaching effect on their lives. A qualitative study was conducted with a group of seven black South African survivors of the apartheid era, ranging in age from 42–62 years (males =5, females =2). These participants formed part of an earlier study investigating their perceptions regarding factors that helped them to survive the apartheid era. For the present study, unstructured interviews were conducted focusing on their subjective experiences after the initial study. Analysis of the data yielded seven prevalent themes, namely a positive experience that made a difference, gaining of a positive attitude, not all white people are bad, transgressing the past and moving on, awareness of personal strengths, forgiveness and starting to talk to family and friends. The participants became aware of their untold stories of survival and experienced a positive change within themselves, towards others, the past and the future.     

Mighty prophet/wounded healer

The concept of wounded healer is revisited from the perspective of a pastoral counselor working in a pastoral counseling center, and this experience is generalized to pastoral caregivers working in other settings. Three types of wounds are reviewed: wounds resulting from the life experience of the caregiver, wounds resulting from listening to and containing the horrendous content and emotionally laden nature of client stories, and wounds brought about by doing our work within an unsupportive culture. Properly dealt with, these wounds offer a foundation of shared life experience connecting us with our clients. Coupled with messages clients bring us about hurtful and destructive aspects of our culture, these wounds also call us to become mighty prophets. In this role, we are urged to move outside our normal practice contexts into the larger community, and to speak out against social forces that hurt and destroy the selves and souls of persons.     

REALLY BELIEVING IN FICTION

Abstract: How is it possible to respond emotionally to that which we believe is not the case? All of the many responses to this “paradox of fiction” make one or more of three important mistakes: (1) neglecting the context of believing, (2) assuming that belief is an all‐or‐nothing affair, and (3) assuming that if you believe that p then you cannot also reasonably believe that not‐p. My thesis is that we react emotionally to stories because we do believe what stories tell us – not fictionally‐believe, not make‐believe, but believe in the ordinary way in which we believe anything at all.     

The Joy of Suffering: Nietzsche,Theodicy and women’s bodies

Abstract

I use Nietzsche’s work on theodicy to explore gendered valuation systems around women’s bodies. The notion of theodicy provides a different entry point to questions of ideology as it begins with an account of people’s attempts to find meaning in their lives. Nietzsche traced humans’ propensity to look for and create stories that give meaning to their lives, even when this meaning is one that may ultimately oppress them or celebrate something negative such as suffering. For him it is not the suffering that torments humans, but rather its meaninglessness. In the slums of Northeast Brazil, Afro-Brazilian women invest in the Christian glorification of suffering in a context where they experience their bodies in terms of loss, shame and alienation. I explore how, through a process of creative deception, this suffering comes to be experienced as pleasure. That is, the women reconstruct their bodies using two dominant stories to which they have access: Christianity and the glamorous Brazilian soap operas.     

‘Are you a woman—or a flower?’: The capacity to experience beauty1

Being surprised by beauty, being drawn to and moved by it and surrendering to its sensory nature are all part of beauty's emotionally transformative power. And yet, psychoanalysis has had little to say about such an enriching dimension of psychological life. The author highlights how experiencing beauty is a capacity that is not isolated but is part of the lifelong experience of being changed by and changing the experience of the world we live in. She suggests that the capacity to experience beauty takes different forms at distinct points in development and in psychoanalytic treatments. The author describes two clinical occasions from a case where an analytic pair struggled to develop a greater capacity to experience beauty over time. She discusses how a theory of the aesthetic conflict was useful in helping to understand her patient's inner object world but was not sufficient when it came to understanding the experience of beauty. She shows how for both patient and analyst, experiencing beauty's full effect required responding to the call toward emotional life, surrendering to the surprise and the unknown, and letting go of the mind's struggle to find meaning and opening up to transforming and being transformed through sensory experience.     

A psychoanalytic approach to language delay: When autistic isn't necessarily autism

This paper describes family work with four children from different ethnic backgrounds presenting with autistic features in the context of delayed or deviant language development and, in one case, elective mutism. It begins by describing how psychoanalytic approaches to language development have tended to see the process as underpinned by symbol formation as a compensation for loss of the object. This is contrasted with an approach which, following Bion, emphasizes language development as an aspect of a broad process concerned with enabling emotional experience to become thought. I also emphasize the significance of the survival and development of the self in achieving separation. In the case studies, the paper highlights the degree of trauma in the parents' backgrounds, which had impeded them from containing their children's developmental anxieties. The parents' telling their stories was both valuable to them and enabled them to become more emotionally available to their children. In all cases the work promoted language development and autistic features disappeared or waned considerably after relatively brief intervention. The conclusions discuss the relevance of these findings to the autistic child population, and the value of child psychotherapy to differential diagnosis within the autistic spectrum.     

Preschool children's identification and understanding of mixed emotions

Children up to age 10 typically deny, on verbal tasks, that mixed emotions can occur. The experiments presented in this article explore whether partial knowledge of mixed emotions exists in the preschool years. In Experiment 1, 4-year-olds, 5-year-olds, and adults chose mixed-emotion responses (e.g., “both happy and sad”) to describe mixed-emotion faces more than pure-emotion faces. In Experiment 2, 5-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds, chose mixed-emotion faces and/or labels, to match emotionally mixed stories more than emotionally consistent stories. Thus, both 4- and 5-year-olds can identify mixed emotions, but only 5-year-olds can acknowledge their expression in appropriate situations. The results are discussed in terms of a two-step developmental sequence occurring between ages 4 and 6.     

Comparison Of Narratives Of Loss Experiences Of World War Ii and Vietnam Combat Veterans

Abstract

While their continuing grief now is receiving periodic media attention, for years and even decades, American soldiers who fought in World War II (WWII) and who fought in Vietnam have suffered their life-altering experiences of loss in silence. Many of the WWII generation now have died and cannot share their grief with us. We as scholars of loss and trauma have a special obligation to reach out to the living survivors of WWII for information about their experiences. As has been often noted (e.g., Kuenning, 1990), for years after the conclusion of the Vietnam War, the stories of loss and grief of Vietnam veterans were not welcomed. The purpose of this chapter is to report some comparative narrative evidence from veterans of these two wars. Our major question was whether strong differences between groups in perceived long-term impact of combat experience would be reported.     

Continuity and change in the life story: a longitudinal study of autobiographical memories in emerging adulthood

If a person's internalized and evolving life story (narrative identity) is to be considered an integral feature of personality itself, then aspects of that story should manifest some continuity over time while also providing evidence regarding important personality change. Accordingly, college freshmen and seniors provided detailed written accounts of 10 key scenes in their life stories, and they repeated the same procedure 3 months and then 3 years later. The accounts were content analyzed for reliable narrative indices employed in previous studies of life stories: emotional tone, motivational themes (agency, communion, personal growth), and narrative complexity. The results showed substantial continuity over time for narrative complexity and positive (vs. negative) emotional tone and moderate but still significant continuity for themes of agency and growth. In addition, emerging adults (1) constructed more emotionally positive stories and showed (2) greater levels of emotional nuance and self-differentiation and (3) greater understanding of their own personal development in the 4th year of the study compared to the 1st year. The study is the first to demonstrate both temporal continuity and developmental change in narrative identity over time in a broad sampling of personally meaningful life-story scenes.     

Cognitive resources, valence, and memory retrieval of emotional events in older adults

In 2 studies with older adults, the authors investigated the effect of executive attention resources on the retrieval of emotional public events. Participants completed a battery of working memory tasks, as a measure of executive attention, and a battery of tasks assessing memory, as well as subjective experiences associated with the retrieval of remote public events. Participants also rated the valence of each public event story. The group-rated valence of the public event stories predicted retrieval and the quality of experiences associated with them, such that emotionally arousing events elicited the highest memory rates and the richest experiences. Furthermore, positive public events elicited the highest memory rates. Executive attention moderated only the relationship between event valence and how participants' associated memories are experienced at retrieval, such that superior executive attention resources predicted richer experiences associated with positive relative to neutral and negative stories. The current results extend previous findings on the effects of aging on emotion regulation, suggesting that cognitive control resources modulate subjective experiences associated with retrieved memories for remote real life events, but not memory retrieval itself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).     

Sadness and ruminative thinking independently depress people's moods

Depression and rumination often co‐occur in clinical populations, but it is not clear which causes which, or if both are manifestations of an underlying pathology. Does rumination simply exacerbate whatever affect a person is experiencing, or is it a negative experience in and of itself? In two experiments we answer this question by independently manipulating emotion and rumination. Participants were allocated to sad or neutral (in Experiment 1), or sad, neutral or happy (Experiment 2) mood conditions, via a combination of emotionally evocative music and autobiographical recall. Afterwards, in both studies, participants either ruminated by thinking about self‐relevant statements or, in a control group, thought about self‐irrelevant statements. Taken together, our data show that, independent of participants' mood, ruminators reported more negative affect relative to controls. The findings are consistent with theories suggesting that self‐focus is itself unpleasant, and illustrate that depressive rumination comprises both affective and ruminative components, which could be targeted independently in clinical samples.     

Instigation to aggress and escalation of aggression examined from a personological perspective: The role of irritability and of emotional susceptibility

Two studies were conducted using Buss hostility machine paradigm to investigate the role of individual differences in irritability and emotional susceptibility on the instigation to aggress by a self-esteem lowering manipulation and on the hypothesized escalation of aggression over trials. The role of sex was also examined. In the first study, 60 highly irritable and 60 low irritable subjects were given the opportunity to deliver electric shocks to an experimental confederate, half after being provoked by a negative judgement on their performance in a learning task, half without such an experience. Each group of subjects was divided equally between males and females. It was found that highly irritable subjects, both males and females, delivered higher shocks after provocation than low irritable subjects under similar circumstances. An upward drift of shock level over trials was found only in provoked males and only in highly irritable females. In the second study, 60 highly emotionally susceptible and 60 low emotionally susceptible males and females were given the opportunity to deliver electric shocks to an experimental confederate, half after experiencing provocation, half without such an experience. It was found that provoked subjects delivered higher shocks than unprovoked subjects and that highly emotionally susceptible subjects delivered higher shocks than low emotionally susceptible subjects. Whereas an upward drift of shock levels over trials was found only in provoked males, the same effect was found in females, whether provoked or not. These findings are discussed in terms of the importance of stable personality characteristics that may mediate aggressive response.     

Terrorists brought down the plane!—No,actually it was a technical fault: Processing corrections of emotive information

It is well known that people often continue to rely on initial misinformation even if this information is later corrected and even if the correction itself is remembered. This article investigated the impact of emotionality of the material on people's ability to discount corrected misinformation. The focus was on moderate levels of emotionality comparable to those elicited by real-world news reports. Emotionality has frequently been shown to have an impact upon reasoning and memory, but the generality of this influence remains unclear. In three experiments, participants read a report of a fictitious plane crash that was initially associated with either an emotionally laden cause (terrorist attack) or an emotionally more neutral cause (bad weather). This initial attribution was followed by a retraction and presentation of an alternative cause (faulty fuel tank). The scenarios demonstrably affected participants' self-reported feelings. However, all three experiments showed that emotionality does not affect the continued influence of misinformation.     

On the concept of amae

A concept deriving from the Japanese word amae is introduced as that which bridges dependence and attachment, two conceptually different states. The word primarily refers to what an infant feels when seeking his or her mother, but it can also apply to an adult to indicate the presence of a similar feeling of being emotionally close to another. Significantly, the feeling of amae is not mediated by words, though it can be acknowledged as such on reflection. Also, when frustrated, it can easily lead to a desire for such a feeling. Two popular stories, one French and the other American, are cited to illustrate the existence of amae, and, in fact, its central importance, even in non-Japanese contexts. The psychology of keeping pets can also be understood in terms of amae. It is thus maintained that though the concept comes from Japanese, it is universally applicable and can shed new light on the emotional life which has been the main target of psychoanalytic investigation.     

Girls’ Stories About Their First Sexual Intercourse: Readiness,Affection and Experience-Seeking in the Process of Growing into Womanhood

This study introduces Finnish girls’ views on and explanations for the factors contributing to their decisions concerning their first sexual intercourse. The data consists of personal interviews with girls aged 16–19, and stories produced through process drama. The analysis was conducted by narrative methods. Two model story categories of the first sexual intercourse stories were constructed: the close relationship and the casual relationship. The close relationship category consists of elements of two sub-stories: the conventional and the planned love story. The casual relationship category consists of elements of the tragic love, the teenage party and the experience-seeking sub-stories. Being prepared for sex was a shared plot element in all of the first intercourse stories. In the close relationship category the other major explanatory factors were mutual love and a steady relationship. In the casual relationship category the explanatory factors were girl’s affection for the partner without a relationship or getting experience, respectively. The girls’ agency in the use of contraception and the intercourse itself differed between the sub-stories. Girls regarded intercourse as an important step towards their womanhood. Those who work with teenagers should be aware of these stories in order to reinforce those stories where teenagers are active agents.