“Scientist studies emotion in psychology, art and acting to help autistics (PhysOrg)” plus 3 more |
- Scientist studies emotion in psychology, art and acting to help autistics (PhysOrg)
- Scientist studies emotion in psychology, art and acting to help autistics (Stanford Report)
- Psychology: Why we love that spring has sprung (The Capital)
- Christian Living Resources, Bible Study Tools, Jesus Christ (Crosswalk.com)
| Scientist studies emotion in psychology, art and acting to help autistics (PhysOrg) Posted: 25 Mar 2010 02:23 PM PDT His findings will be integrated in an interactive learning environment to train people with autism to better recognize facial emotions. Wilkins, a lecturer in Stanford's Symbolic Systems Program, is focusing on the seven universal emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, disgust and contempt. They are of fundamental importance in human communication. People with autism typically don't benefit from this common understanding of facial communication. "In everyday life, the average individual with autism has less than a 50 percent chance of knowing if your expression is happy or sad or angry. If you don't recognize universal emotions, any type of interpersonal interaction is really hindered," Wilkins said. Facing the facts The deeper scientific understanding in psychology of the seven universal facial emotions began in the 1960s, and was pioneered by psychologists such as Paul Ekman. A large amount of research now links the behavior of the facial muscles associated with universal emotions to brain states, memory and body physiology. The understanding of facial expressions in art goes back much further than in psychology. "Historically, the fields that demonstrated the deepest understanding of facial emotions have been drawing and acting. When artists draw the face or actors express facial emotions, they capture something that we find significant and that captivates us," Wilkins said. Good actors subtly and accurately portray authentic emotions. A powerful portrayal reflects an actor's understanding of what goes on in the face of someone who is joyful, sad or angry. Artists such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt and Picasso display in their portraits their own subtle and ingenious ability to interpret human facial emotions. Wilkins is collaborating with Kay Kostopoulos, a lecturer in the Drama Department; Michael Azgour, a guest artist in Symbolic Systems; and Antonio Hardan, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University Medical Center and the director of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
They plan to conduct facial emotion learning experiments with autistic children this summer. Wilkins, Kostopoulos and Azgour co-taught a course at Stanford this year, Symbolic Systems 210: Learning Facial Emotions: Art and Psychology. Psychology of the face The team is using psychology research techniques, such as the Facial Action Coding System, which categorizes how individuals move muscles in the face when displaying emotions. For example, a fearful face often raises eyebrows and pulls them together, while a surprised face often raises eyebrows and curves them. Surprised faces often also involve a drop of the jaw. "We all, depending on our culture, have a certain way of showing when we're sad or angry. But across cultures it turns out that the specific muscles associated with each of the seven universal emotions are the same. We can try to conceal their action, but even then they often contract very briefly, for about 1/25 of a second, and tell what you're really feeling even though you are trying to conceal your feelings," Wilkins said. In addition to these microexpressions, psychologists study subtle expressions. These are small, involuntary facial movements that are displayed when an emotion is first being felt. If a person is trying to conceal anger, for example, she may briefly lower the eyebrows and draw them together, without moving anything else on her face. Drawing and acting out emotions To capture facial expressions by drawing, artists from Leonardo to Picasso have traditionally drawn or painted facial portraits in a studio setting. "Common elements in the studio setting are the use a live model, an attention to the lighting of the model and having the model hold an expression for an extended period of time," Wilkins explained. "Even an abstract work like Picasso's Weeping Woman involved a live model." To exhibit facial expressions, actors often use method acting. They recall an emotional memory from their past and use it to let the emotion appear on their face. Students in the Learning Facial Emotions class performed acting exercises such as standing face to face while observing and mimicking expressions that naturally arise after hearing an emotionally charged story. Wilkins and his team are designing experiments for individuals with autism in certain kinds of art, acting and psychology techniques. The goal is to find which techniques provide the greatest improvement in facial emotion recognition. One exercise that could help an individual with autism learn surprise, for example, involves focusing on eyebrows that rise and curve on an animated, three-dimensional avatar. The avatar might bear the participant's own face. "If you wanted to teach someone to emote sadness, one exercise would be to show them a projection of what they would like to convey sadness and what they currently look like. They could be given interactive guidance to get the two projections to look alike," Wilkins said. To learn facial emotions, do artists, actors, or psychologists have the best training techniques? This fundamental question is as yet unanswered. It is what first sparked Wilkins' interest in this research area. He hopes his collaborative research projects will find the answer and help individuals with autism as well. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Scientist studies emotion in psychology, art and acting to help autistics (Stanford Report) Posted: 25 Mar 2010 10:39 AM PDT Tate collection  Artists often use live models when painting facial portraits, said researcher David Wilkins. "Even an abstract work like Picasso's 'Weeping Woman' involved a live model." BY CHRISTINE BLACKMAN Sometimes our deepest emotions are written all over our faces. Stanford researcher David Wilkins is studying how people can be trained to better recognize facial emotions. He is studying drawing techniques used by portrait artists, facial mimicry and emotional memory techniques used by actors, and microexpression and subtle expression recognition techniques developed by psychologists. His findings will be integrated in an interactive learning environment to train people with autism to better recognize facial emotions. Wilkins, a lecturer in Stanford's Symbolic Systems Program, is focusing on the seven universal emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, disgust and contempt. They are of fundamental importance in human communication. People with autism typically don't benefit from this common understanding of facial communication. "In everyday life, the average individual with autism has less than a 50 percent chance of knowing if your expression is happy or sad or angry. If you don't recognize universal emotions, any type of interpersonal interaction is really hindered," Wilkins said. Facing the facts The deeper scientific understanding in psychology of the seven universal facial emotions began in the 1960s, and was pioneered by psychologists such as Paul Ekman. A large amount of research now links the behavior of the facial muscles associated with universal emotions to brain states, memory and body physiology. The understanding of facial expressions in art goes back much further than in psychology. "Historically, the fields that demonstrated the deepest understanding of facial emotions have been drawing and acting. When artists draw the face or actors express facial emotions, they capture something that we find significant and that captivates us," Wilkins said. Good actors subtly and accurately portray authentic emotions. A powerful portrayal reflects an actor's understanding of what goes on in the face of someone who is joyful, sad or angry. Artists such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt and Picasso display in their portraits their own subtle and ingenious ability to interpret human facial emotions. Wilkins is collaborating with Kay Kostopoulos, a lecturer in the Drama Department; Michael Azgour, a guest artist in Symbolic Systems; and Antonio Hardan, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University Medical Center and the director of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.  When actors such as Katharine Hepburn express facial emotions, 'they capture something that we find significant and that captivates us,' researcher David Wilkins said. They plan to conduct facial emotion learning experiments with autistic children this summer. Wilkins, Kostopoulos and Azgour co-taught a course at Stanford this year, Symbolic Systems 210: Learning Facial Emotions: Art and Psychology. Psychology of the face The team is using psychology research techniques, such as the Facial Action Coding System, which categorizes how individuals move muscles in the face when displaying emotions. For example, a fearful face often raises eyebrows and pulls them together, while a surprised face often raises eyebrows and curves them. Surprised faces often also involve a drop of the jaw. "We all, depending on our culture, have a certain way of showing when we're sad or angry. But across cultures it turns out that the specific muscles associated with each of the seven universal emotions are the same. We can try to conceal their action, but even then they often contract very briefly, for about 1/25 of a second, and tell what you're really feeling even though you are trying to conceal your feelings," Wilkins said. In addition to these microexpressions, psychologists study subtle expressions. These are small, involuntary facial movements that are displayed when an emotion is first being felt. If a person is trying to conceal anger, for example, she may briefly lower the eyebrows and draw them together, without moving anything else on her face. Drawing and acting out emotions To capture facial expressions by drawing, artists from Leonardo to Picasso have traditionally drawn or painted facial portraits in a studio setting. "Common elements in the studio setting are the use a live model, an attention to the lighting of the model and having the model hold an expression for an extended period of time," Wilkins explained. "Even an abstract work like Picasso's Weeping Woman involved a live model." To exhibit facial expressions, actors often use method acting. They recall an emotional memory from their past and use it to let the emotion appear on their face. Students in the Learning Facial Emotions class performed acting exercises such as standing face to face while observing and mimicking expressions that naturally arise after hearing an emotionally charged story. Wilkins and his team are designing experiments for individuals with autism in certain kinds of art, acting and psychology techniques. The goal is to find which techniques provide the greatest improvement in facial emotion recognition. One exercise that could help an individual with autism learn surprise, for example, involves focusing on eyebrows that rise and curve on an animated, three-dimensional avatar. The avatar might bear the participant's own face. "If you wanted to teach someone to emote sadness, one exercise would be to show them a projection of what they would look like to convey sadness and what they currently look like. They could be given interactive guidance to get the two projections to look alike," Wilkins said. To learn facial emotions, do artists, actors, or psychologists have the best training techniques? This fundamental question is as yet unanswered. It is what first sparked Wilkins' interest in this research area. He hopes his collaborative research projects will find the answer and help individuals with autism as well. Wilkins' research is funded by a grant from the Stanford Institute for Creativity in the Arts and the Symbolic Systems Program in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Christine Blackman is a science-writing intern at the Stanford News Service. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Psychology: Why we love that spring has sprung (The Capital) Posted: 25 Mar 2010 09:14 AM PDT How things have changed for Chris over the past few weeks! With the time change and the early morning sunlight beaming through her window, she now opens her eyes before her alarm goes off. "It's amazing how my body wakes up when I can see the sun," she commented. "Last Saturday, I even tried to sleep in but I couldn't because the birds were too loud, they were calling for to me to get up." It's hard to believe that scarcely six weeks ago we had more than 30 inches of snow on the ground. Remember the snow drifts and plowed snow mountains that were so large they looked like they would be around until the Fourth of July? With the vernal equinox ushering in a new spring season last weekend, it appears we have now officially left behind our cold and snowy winter for a season that we hope will be filled with blue skies, warmth and sunshine. "Hope" is the operative word here because, like spring, it contains all of the promise of a new beginning and a fresh start. Hope is a powerful emotion and, psychologically, spring is undoubtedly the most "hopeful" of all of the seasons. For the generations of agrarian societies before us, the arrival of spring was no small matter. To see spring meant that they had survived another life-threatening winter and were now coming into the planting and growing seasons. That is why spring has always been filled with powerful spiritual themes of rebirth and regeneration. The influential Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung was one of the first modern thinkers to emphasize the importance of people existing in harmony within themselves and their environment. He believed that humans are inherently spiritual and that too much emphasis is placed upon logical positivism to the exclusion of symbolic, emotional material. He maintained this leads to an unhealthy personal and societal imbalance. Jung believed that by paying attention to both the logical and emotional themes present in our mind and trying to integrate them into our life, we could attain better personal balance. His theories about human psychological functioningconsidered involvement in religion, philosophy and art to be necessary for emotional health. In this way, spring is considered one of the most important seasons because people literally "wake up" out of their winter slumber to start living again. With the arrival of spring we can see the theory of balance expressed in real life. One example of this is the compelling desire many of us have to organize our world at this time of year. Whether it is cleaning up the storm damage in our yards, putting our winter clothing away or undertaking a wave of spring cleaning, it compels us to unite our emotional and logical minds for a common purpose. These activities satisfy our need to prepare for the planting and growing season with its emphasis on the stirring of new life, rebirth and regeneration. If we harness that natural tendency at this time of the year, we can jump into spring with our own personal plan for positive change. More than the midwinter New Year's Day rituals, spring offers us the chance for real movement and real change. With spring we have the opportunity to organize and integrate our intellectual and emotional selves to prepare for a productive spring and summer. In order to do this we must shake off the burdens and demands of modern life to create opportunities for self-discovery and emotional integration. What does that really mean? It means that we need to get in touch with our symbolically based, emotional selves and get out there and start having some fun. Just as nature is beginning to "reboot" and renew itself with budding flowers and trees, we need to follow suit and begin our own personal regeneration. That may start with personal cleansing of our body and mind, and end with rediscovery of the activities that we have always enjoyed in the past but may have forgotten. Cleansing the body might start with a healthier lifestyle, including drinking lots of pure, fresh water and exercising regularly. This is a great time to start a walking program that emphasizes getting physical movement and fresh air. While you are out, take time to get back in touch with your senses. Make sure that you see the pastel colors of spring as they start to break out all around you. Concentrate on smelling the fresh air that mixes the coolness of winter with the coming heat of summer. Let your skin feel the warmth that the sunshine has to offer as it touches you and pulls you out of the winter doldrums. Taste the vibrant fruits and vegetables that never look or taste the same during the winter months. Celebrate the renewal of life and the opportunity to just be in the moment with all of your senses. Part of regenerating this spring is to return to an activity that you have enjoyed in the past or, better yet, discovering a new form of personal expression. It might be hauling out your old bicycle from the garage and pumping up the tires for a ride or starting on a new mission like hiking the trails of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Try rediscovering the "kid" in you by going out and playing for hours without keeping close track of the time or worrying about all the adult things that can weigh you down. Play is one of the most important regenerative activities that we can do to balance our emotional and intellectual selves, and sometimes the more spontaneous it is the more fun it can be. With optimism and hope in our heart and a plan to reconnect with playful activities, this spring promises to be a good one. Saying goodbye to a cold and snowy winter while embracing the promise of a new spring gives us a chance to renew who we are by balancing ourselves spiritually, emotionally, physically and intellectually. Dr. Scott E. Smith is a licensed clinical psychologist with Spectrum Behavioral Health in Annapolis and Arnold. For services or ideas regarding this column, call 410-757-2077 or write to 1509 Ritchie Highway, Suite F, Arnold, MD 21012. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Christian Living Resources, Bible Study Tools, Jesus Christ (Crosswalk.com) Posted: 25 Mar 2010 11:27 AM PDT Dr. Joseph Nicolosi often tells his audiences that, in essence, homosexuality in males derives from lack of bonding with the father. In this YouTube video, he describes several factors which he believes could be important in the development of male homosexuality, including a masculine, sports-minded older brother, peer rejection and sexual abuse. However, referring to these hypothetical factors, Nicolosi says
Last year, at a London conference, Nicolosi said,
Thus, fathering is the lynchpin of the reparative theory of male homosexuality. Most older studies of parenting examining sexual orientation find modest differences between gay and straight groups. However, there is often much overlap between the two groups, meaning that many gay males recall warm, accepting relationships with their fathers and many straights recall distant, unaccepting fathers. Given that detachment from the father is theorized to occur before age 5, the potent experience is difficult to test directly. Researchers try to get at this indirectly via surveys of how gay males recall the relationship with the father. A finding that gay males and straight males recalled their fathers similarly would be evidence against the theory. Thus, I was surprised recently to find a review of a Finnish study of sexual orientation, parental relationships and gender atypical behavior reviewed on the NARTH (National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) website. Reviewed by Robert Vazzo, the study also provides evidence which addresses NARTH's view of homosexuality and pathology. I summarized this report last year when it came out, but I want to provide another look in light of Vazzo's review. First, the abstract (after the break):
The study investigated 3 hypotheses. They were:
The researchers found (with statistics removed):
How does Mr. Vazzo describe the results? Mostly, he summarizes the report accurately. He even points out that gay males described warmer relationships with their fathers than straight males. Given that a cardinal doctrine of reparative drive theory is that gay males had poor bonding with their fathers, this should be more than surprising. It is a disconfirming finding to the prime theory promoted by the organization. Gay males described a scenario where they had warm relationships with both mother and father. Mother was described as somewhat more controlling but in "a loving way." Without the distant, non-affirming father sending the scared pre-reparative boy to mother's apron strings, this finding is a problem for the reparative theory and the hugging advice (don't get me wrong, you should hug your sons for reasons unrelated to their sexuality). Also in Vazzo's review, there is some speculation which I believe is unwarranted. For instance, he says about the second hypothesis:
Lesbian women describe a emotionally colder parenting environment as compared to straight women. However, nothing in these results supports Vazzo's characterization of "serious relational problems" for homosexual women or men. To be consistent, if these results signify "serious relationship problems," then Vazzo would have to assume straights have them too. Regarding parenting and sexual orientation, Alanko et al write:
Much of the rest of Vazzo's article is a summary of the results of the Alanko et al study. However, Vazzo does not stop there. Out of left field, he says:
There is no evidence given for the defense mechanism hypothesis about GAB. There are parental difficulties reported but these may be a function of the GAB and not the cause. Nothing in the study renders the defense mechanism theory more plausible or complete. A more comprehensive view would be that GAB could be either a cause of parenting problems or the result of them with different outcomes arising from different situations. Alanko et al quote a 1990 Bradley and Zucker suggesting that in "extreme cases" of GAB, the behavior might be in reaction to parental incompetence and stress and indeed that could be true at the extremes. However, this study does not offer a direct test of that hypothesis. Even with these criticisms of Vazzo's summary, I commend him for placing this research in front of NARTH readers for at least two reasons. One, this study undermines reparative drive theory, although one would need to be relatively familiar with the theory to know it. Other studies which do this have not appeared there. Two, the study undermines NARTH's focus on homosexual orientation per se as pathology. On the relationship between pathology and orientation, Alanko et al say:
Whereas NARTH and many conservatives assume that the elevated levels of distress found among homosexuals is due solely to their same-sex attractions and associated behavior, this study finds evidence that GAB, admittedly more prevalent among gays, may be one underlying culprit. GAB in both straights and gays associates with psychological distress (see the bar graphs). The source of distress for gender typical gays is not so clear and may relate to issues related to negative experiences with parents. This research adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests one factor contributing to the elevated psychological distress of GLB people is related to stress of growing in a gender atypical manner. ………………………. For another study which finds this link see Skidmore, W. Christopher; Linsenmeier, Joan A. W.; Bailey, J. Michael. Archives of Sexual Behavior. Vol 35(6), Dec 2006, 685-697. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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