scholarly journals Cultural development of empathy-identification and empathy-modeling

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-17
Author(s):  
Veronika V. Nourkova
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Joint Activities ◽  
Dynamic Representation

Background. The article develops the concept of the originality of the functions, structure and genesis of empathy-identification (EI) and empathy-modeling (EM). EI is viewed as a psychological tool for organizing joint activities such as a mono-role coalition, which has developed in anthropogenesis, and consists in the ability to appropriate the emotional states of another person. In contrast, EM is a cultural technology for maintaining joint activity such as poly-role coordination, which requires the subject of activity to create and maintain in consciousness a dynamic representation of the mental state of another person while maintaining the authenticity of awareness of his own mental state. A consequence of the conceptual separation of EO and EM is the provision of two non-matching lines of their development in ontogenesis. Objective. The aim of the article is to explicate the qualitative uniqueness of EI and EM as higher mental functions in relation to the social situation of their development and the arsenal of ideal forms, cultural means and technologies that set the content and trajectory of this development. Design. From the standpoint of cultural-evolutionary and activity-based approaches, a conceptual analysis of literature relevant to the connotative field of the proposed constructs of EI (affective empathy, emotional contamination, emotional mimicry, imitation) and EM (theory of the mental, everyday psychology, mentalization, emotional intelligence) as well as the analysis of EI and EM constructs from the point of view of cultural determination of their development in ontogenesis was performed. Results. It has been substantiated that EI is formed in the process of dyadic joint experience with an adult of various mental states, which an adult presents first in a visual way, and then verbally. Further development of EI takes place in play activities that include imagination. EI rarely reaches the level of complete voluntary regulation and needs to rely on external cultural means. EM is derived from the dialogical nature of human thinking. In ontogeny, EM is formed along two converging lines. On the one hand, mastering the mental vocabulary serves as the basis of “emotional literacy”, and, on the other hand, EM is the result of the interiorization of a specific social and communicative position — the autonomization of an adult as a mental agent in the third person. The role-playing game with the subjective “animation” of the toy is of particular importance for the development of EM. At an older age, various forms of dramatization, in particular theatrical activity, act as cultural practices for the development of EM. Conclusions. The results of the work showed that EI and EM have different sources, driving forces, ideal forms and socio-cultural technologies of formation. The originality of the lines of cultural determination of the development of EI and EM is associated with the difference in their functional role in organizing joint activities.

scholarly journals STUDY OF THE MENTAL STATE OF STUDENTS IN THE PROCESS OF ONLINE EDUCATION DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (11) ◽  
pp. 2705-2710
Author(s):  
Larysa L. Borysenko ◽  
Larysa V. Korvat ◽  
Olga V. Lovka ◽  
Antonina M. Lovochkina ◽  
Oksana P. Serhieienkova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Confined Space ◽  
Prolonged Stay

The aim: Exploring the specifics of the underlying mental states of university students in the context of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and identifying their relationship to mental health. Materials and methods: The study of mental states was carried out using three valid methods, namely: a clinical questionnaire for the detection and evaluation of neurotic states (K. Yakhin, D. Mendelevich), a questionnaire for diagnosing the level of social frustration (L. Wasserman, adaptation of V. Bojko), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) (Ch. Spielberger, adaptation by Yu. Khanin). The author’s questionnaire (L. Borysenko) was used to study the connection between the factors of online learning and emotional states of students. The obtained empirical data were subjected to qualitative and quantitative processing. Results: The analysis of the obtained data allows to state the fact of predominance of high and increased level of situational and personal anxiety in the subjects in the conditions of online learning. In the process of psychodiagnosis of neurotic states, it was found that most students have a level of painful or borderline mental conditions such as anxiety, neurotic depression, asthenia and autonomic disorders. It was found that students have an elevated level and high level of social frustration. The main factors of online learning, which, according to students, cause them to deteriorate mental health are: forced to stay in a confined space, lack of direct social contacts, prolonged stay in a static position, increased study load and volume of tasks, anxiety for academic success and quality professional training, concern for their health and the health of their loved ones. Conclusions: The forced transition to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the mental state of many students. In most respondents, this manifested itself in increased anxiety, depression, autonomic reactions due to limited opportunities to communicate with teachers and classmates, new learning conditions and increased workload.

scholarly journals The mental state of population of cities and towns during the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktoriya Edigareva ◽  
◽  
Yuliya Makarevskaya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Small Population ◽  
Severe Form ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
The World ◽  
Almost All

In late 2019 - early 2020, the world was faced with a massive infection of COVID-19. The spread of the disease was quite high and affected almost all countries of the world. The infection was transmitted in a severe form, and therefore there were many deaths. Undoubtedly, the situation affected the mental state of people in many regions of the world and our country. Therefore, the aim of our research was to study the mental state of residents of cities and towns during the COVID-19. We assumed that during the spread of COVID-19 across Russia, the indicators of mental states, namely "frustration", "neurotization" and "energy" in cities and towns, will differ. However, the level of "anxiety" will not have significant differences. Particular hypotheses: the level of "frustration" will be higher in big cities, "neurotization" and "energy" will have a higher rate in small towns. The following methods were used in the research: Eysenck H.J. «Scale of mental states, Boyko V.V. «Method of neurotization diagnostics», method "Self-assessment of emotional states" A. Wessman and D. Ricks, nonparametric Mann-Whitney test. The research involved 83 people, 44 people lives in large cities, 39 – lives in small, 16 – males, 67 – females. Age: from 13 to 74. According to the results of the work, the hypothesis of the same level of anxiety in both groups was fully confirmed. The differences in the level of frustration and neurotization were not statistically confirmed. The hypothesis of a higher level of "energy" in regions with a small population was partially confirmed.

scholarly journals Influence Of Optimism Upon The Accumulation Of Stress, Mental State And Perceived Risks For The Future Of Students, In The Conditions Of Covid–19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 93 (6s) ◽  
pp. 63-72
Author(s):  
Valeri Stoyanov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Isolation ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Naval Academy ◽  
Perceived Risks ◽  
Qualitative Approaches ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Negative Expectations

An empirical psychological study was conducted with students from Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The aim of the research was to test the role of optimism on the accumulation of stress in the conditions of pandemic of COVID-19, their mental states, experiences in connection with social isolation and perceived risks for the future and career. It has been found that optimism, as a generalized personal expectation, has a strong buffering effect on the impact of accumulated pandemic stress on students’ emotional states. Negative expectations do not have a significant effect on the emotional state. Optimism and negative expectations have no effect on fears for the future and perceived risks for young people as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Obviously, other personal and social factors determine the negative expectations for the acquired competencies during distance learning – online, as well as for more difficult careers and career problems for this reason. More pronounced negative expectations make it more difficult for students to tolerate social isolation, while optimism has no statistically significant impact on social isolation experiences during a pandemic. Students with more optimism perceive their mental state as stable, good, while those with reduced optimism and more pronounced negative expectations as shaky, depressed. The results of the study suggest the need for additional activity of higher education institutions in such conditions to support and advise students.

scholarly journals The McGill Face Database: validation and insights into the recognition of facial expressions of complex mental states

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunnar Schmidtmann ◽  
Ben J. Jennings ◽  
Dasha A. Sandra ◽  
Jordan Pollock ◽  
Ian Gold
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Small Subset ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Side View ◽  
Face Database ◽  
Recognition Of Facial Expressions ◽  
Wide Range

Current databases of facial expressions of mental states typically represent only a small subset of expressions, usually covering the basic emotions (fear, disgust, surprise, happiness, sadness, and anger). To overcome these limitations, we introduce a new database of pictures of facial expressions reflecting the richness of mental states. 93 expressions of mental states were interpreted by two professional actors and high-quality pictures were taken under controlled conditions in front and side view. The database was validated with two different experiments (N=65). First, a four-alternative forced choice paradigm was employed to test the ability of participants to correctly select a term associated with each expression. In a second experiment, we employed a paradigm that did not rely on any semantic information. The task was to locate each face within a two-dimensional space of valence and arousal (mental state – space) employing a “point-and-click” paradigm. Results from both experiments demonstrate that subjects can reliably recognize a great diversity of emotional states from facial expressions. Interestingly, while subjects’ performance was better for front view images, the advantage over the side view was not dramatic. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the high degree of accuracy human viewers exhibit when identifying complex mental states from only partially visible facial features. The McGill Face Database provides a wide range of facial expressions that can be linked to mental state terms and can be accurately characterized in terms of arousal and valence.

scholarly journals Spontaneous Mentalizing Predicts the Fundamental Attribution Error

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 569-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Moran ◽  
Eshin Jolly ◽  
Jason P. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Personality Characteristics ◽  
Fundamental Attribution Error ◽  
Dispositional Attributions ◽  
Attribution Error ◽  
Medial Pfc ◽  
State Inference

When explaining the reasons for others' behavior, perceivers often overemphasize underlying dispositions and personality traits over the power of the situation, a tendency known as the fundamental attribution error. One possibility is that this bias results from the spontaneous processing of others' mental states, such as their momentary feelings or more enduring personality characteristics. Here, we use fMRI to test this hypothesis. Participants read a series of stories that described a target's ambiguous behavior in response to a specific social situation and later judged whether that act was attributable to the target's internal dispositions or to external situational factors. Neural regions consistently associated with mental state inference—especially, the medial pFC—strongly predicted whether participants later made dispositional attributions. These results suggest that the spontaneous engagement of mentalizing may underlie the biased tendency to attribute behavior to dispositional over situational forces.

Stable neural representations of mental states across target people and stimulus modalities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam E. Weaverdyck ◽  
Mark Allen Thornton ◽  
Diana Tamir
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
The Self ◽  
Similarity Analysis ◽  
Multiple Modalities ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Conceptual Core ◽  
Stimulus Modalities ◽  
Huge Variety

Each individual experiences mental states in their own idiosyncratic way, yet perceivers are able to accurately understand a huge variety of states across unique individuals. How do they accomplish this feat? Do people think about their own anger in the same ways as another person’s? Is reading about someone’s anxiety the same as seeing it? Here, we test the hypothesis that a common conceptual core unites mental state representations across contexts. Across three studies, participants judged the mental states of multiple targets, including a generic other, the self, a socially close other, and a socially distant other. Participants viewed mental state stimuli in multiple modalities, including written scenarios and images. Using representational similarity analysis, we found that brain regions associated with social cognition expressed stable neural representations of mental states across both targets and modalities. This suggests that people use stable models of mental states across different people and contexts.

Mental state dynamics explain the origin of mental state concepts

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Allen Thornton ◽  
Milena Rmus ◽  
Diana Tamir
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Artificial Neural Network ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Social World ◽  
The Social ◽  
Artificial Neural ◽  
Ebb And Flow

People’s thoughts and feelings ebb and flow in predictable ways: surprise arises quickly, anticipation ramps up slowly, regret follows anger, love begets happiness, and so forth. Predicting these transitions between mental states can help people successfully navigate the social world. We hypothesize that the goal of predicting state dynamics shapes people’ mental state concepts. Across seven studies, when people observed more frequent transitions between a pair of novel mental states, they judged those states to be more conceptually similar to each other. In an eighth study, an artificial neural network trained to predict real human mental state dynamics spontaneously learned the same conceptual dimensions that people use to understand these states: the 3d Mind Model. Together these results suggest that mental state dynamics explain the origins of mental state concepts.

People represent their own mental states more distinctly than others’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Allen Thornton ◽  
Miriam E. Weaverdyck ◽  
Judith Mildner ◽  
Diana Tamir
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Privileged Access ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
External Cues

One can never know the internal workings of another person – one can only infer others’ mental states based on external cues. In contrast, each person has direct access to the contents of their own mind. Here we test the hypothesis that this privileged access shapes the way people represent internal mental experiences, such that they represent their own mental states more distinctly than the states of others. Across four studies, participants considered their own and others’ mental states; analyses measured the distinctiveness of mental state representations. Two neuroimaging studies used representational similarity analyses to demonstrate that the social brain manifests more distinct activity patterns when thinking about one’s own states versus others’. Two behavioral studies support these findings. Further, they demonstrate that people differentiate between states less as social distance increases. Together these results suggest that we represent our own mind with greater granularity than the minds of others.

Dehumanization and Mentalizing Animals

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.J. Kasperbauer
Keyword(s):  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Mental State Attribution ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Phenomenal States

This chapter applies the psychological account from chapter 3 on how we rank human beings above other animals, to the particular case of using mental states to assign animals moral status. Experiments on the psychology of mental state attribution are discussed, focusing on their implications for human moral psychology. The chapter argues that attributions of phenomenal states, like emotions, drive our assignments of moral status. It also describes how this is significantly impacted by the process of dehumanization. Psychological research on anthropocentrism and using animals as food and as companions is discussed in order to illuminate the relationship between dehumanization and mental state attribution.

scholarly journals Propositionalism and Questions that do not have Correct Answers

Erkenntnis ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Felappi
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Mental Life ◽  
Do So

AbstractAs the label suggests, according to propositionalism, each intentional mental state, attitude or event is or involves a relation to a proposition. In this paper, I will discuss a case that seems prima facie not to be accountable for by propositionalism. After having presented the case, I will show why it is different from others that have been discussed in the literature as able to show that propositionalism cannot be correct. I will then consider what the propositionalist can say to fix the problem and I will show that no strategy that is genuinely propositionalist seems promising. I will not conclude that propositionalism is doomed. But I will show that if propositionalism can account for our case at all, it can only do so by losing its main appeal, i.e. its elegance and simplicity. But then propositionalism seems to have lost its advantage with respect to its obvious alternative, i.e. a pluralist account according to which mental states, attitudes and events are not all homogeneously relations to propositions, but rather our mental life should be accounted for in terms of a plurality of kinds of relata.

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