Impact of Meditation on Person Perception

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Impact of Meditation on Person Perception
By Katherine Aumer-Ryan Imaging Research Center
Spring 2007
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Person Perception
Personality? Social Standing?
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Person perception
Goal
--Personality (e.g., Rosenberg et al., 1968
Vazire et al., in press) --Social Identity (e.g.,
Tajfel Turner, 1986 Cosmides, Kurzban,
Tooby, 2003)
Influenced by
--Emotional Contagion (e.g., Hatfield et al.,
1993) --Own Emotions (e.g., Nielsen Kaszniak,
2006) --Circumstance (e.g., Sherfi,
1961) --Attention (Miller, 1956)
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Emotions
--Valence, arousal, motivation, and control
--Warmth and competence (Fiske et al., 2000)
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Emotions
--MPFC activation (Harris Fiske, 2006)
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Attention
attention cannot be continuously
sustained --William James (1899/1962)
Meditation
a family of self-regulation practices that focus
on training attention and awareness in order to
bring mental processes under greater voluntary
control --Walsh Shapiro (2006)
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Meditation
--Mindfulness allowing thoughts, feelings, or
sensations to pass while maintaining a mental
stance without judgment or analysis.
Popular forms zen, vipassana, and western
adaptations.
--Concentrative focus on specific mental or
sensory activity, e.g., breath or mental imagery.
Popular forms yogic, Buddhist Samatha, and
Transcendental.
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Literature
--Therapeutic relieving anxiety and depression
(MBSR Kabat-Zinn, 2003 Benson, 1984)
--Neurological increased cortical growth (Lazar
et al., 2005)
--Emotional regulation increased positive
emotions and equanimity (Davidson et al., 2003
Goleman, 2003 Travis et al., 2004)
--Voluntary autonomic control breathing and
heart rate (Lazar et al., 2000)
--Better Immune response (Davidson et al., 2003)
--Emotionally aware detect microfacial
expressions in others better (Goleman., 2003)
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Premise Meditation can enhance emotional
awareness and control through extensive practice
on the features and dynamics of emotional
responses.
Predict
Meditation affects person perception due to
increased attention and entrainment of ones own
emotional activity.
Method
Quantitative fMRI
Qualitative interviews and scales
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Quantitative Predictions
H1 () MPFC and Left PFC
() Anterior Cingulate
(-) Insula
H2 () Compassion (-) Disgust, pride, envy, and
pity
Qualitative
--Interview, report more positive interactions
with individuals. --Mood Awareness Scale (MAS
Swinkels Giuliano, 1995) --Trait Metamood Scale
(TMM Salovey et al., 1995) --Self-Assessed
Wisdom scale (Webster, 2003)
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Participants
--Meditation Group meets on campus --Surat
Shabd Yoga (Concentrative) --Sahaj Marg
(Mindfulness) --High quality and experienced
--UT Yoga Group (10 didis and dadas) --Ananda
Marga (Concentrative) --10 years of practice
--Control group --age, gender, handedness, and
diet matched.
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Procedure
Inside scanner
Step 1
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Step 2
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Outcomes
Quantitative/Qualitative show difference --Will
demonstrate that meditation/training attention
can affect ones person perceptions and social
interactions.
Quantitative no diff/Qualitative show
difference --Will demonstrate that there are
phenomenological differences that do not
pertain to quantitatively identifiable
differences with person perception and social
interactions.
Quantitative no diff/Qualitative no diff --Will
demonstrate meditation does not have a
measurable affect one person perception and
social interaction.
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Thank you
IRC Dr. Michael Domjan Manish Saggar Mithra
Sathishkumar Ronnie Hunter Brian Baldwin Dr.
David Schnyer Participant organizers Santosh
Khanjee Peter Fleury
RAs and Emotional Support Paul Aumer-Ryan Jenny
Boyd Kelly Horne Elyse LeBuffe Eunice Lee Johnson
Wu