Bodily Effects of Conceptual Metaphors in Appraisal

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Bodily Effects of Conceptual Metaphors in
Appraisal
Lisa M. LindemanUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison
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Outline

• Background
• Research Question
• Theory
• Prediction
• Experiment

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Background

• When shouldering a heavy weight
• Hills look steeper (Bhalla and Proffitt, 1999)
• Distances look greater (Proffitt et al., 2003)

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Why?

• Effort influences perception(Proffitt et al.,
  1995 Creem-Regehr, Gooch, Thompson Berkeley,
  1709/1975 Gibson, 1979)
• Bodily sensations signal increased effort

Sensations of heaviness and pressure
Hills look steeper Distances look greater
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Research Question

• What if the burden were emotional rather than
  physical?
• Would slope and distance estimates increase?
• Do emotional burdens feel like physical burdens?

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Emotional Burdens

• Common descriptions Overwhelmed, under
  pressure, weighed down, beleaguered, overloaded
• Common sources Financial debt, caring for an
  ill family member, demands, responsibilities

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Cognitive Theories of Emotion

• Emotions often depend on how events are
  interpreted or construed attributions.
• Appraisal theories Emotions determined by
  personal significance of events (Arnold
  Gasson, 1954 Arnold, 1960, 1970 Lazarus, 1966)
• Negative appraisal emotion pathology
  (Abramson et al., 1989 Beck, 1976 Ellis, 1973)

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Appraisal of Burdens
Obligation, responsibility, difficult task
Sadness, despair, distress
?

• How do appraisals elicit emotion?
• How does cognition influence the body?

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Miracle
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Outline

• Background
• Research Question
• Theory
• Prediction
• Experiment

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Theory Part I

• Appraisal is facilitated by conceptual metaphors
• Metaphors ordinary way of thinking(Lakoff
  Johnson, 1980 Reddy, 1993)
• Thought rooted in bodily experiences(Lakoff
  Johnson, 1980 Barsalou, 1999 Glenberg
  Kaschak, 2002 Stanfield Zwaan, 2001)
• Appraisal involves determination of personal
  impact
• Impact on self conceptualized as impact on body

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The Burden Metaphor
PHYSICALBURDEN
OBLIGATION ORRESPONSIBILITY
Picking up a heavy weight, lifting, heaving,
carrying the burden, pressure
Receiving an assignment, performing duties,
fulfilling a difficult committment
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Theory Part II

• Bodily experience in metaphor in appraisal is
  reproduced
• Conceptual metaphors entail sensorimotor
  imagery(Lakoff Johnson, 1999 Marschark, Katz,
  Paivio, 1983 Harris, Lahey, Marsalek, 1980)
• Sensorimotor imagery like perception/action(Finke
  , 1980 Kosslyn et al., 1979, 1993 Cooper
  Shepard, 1973 Farah et al., 1988)
• Physiogical effects of imagery(Lang et al.,
  1980 Bauer Craighead, 1979 Carroll et al.,
  1982 Kojo, 1985, 1990)

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Emotional Burdens
Heaviness, pressure, weighed down, bracing
against weight, straining, tension in shoulders,
labored breathing
Obligation, responsibility, difficult task
Physical Burden
Sadness, distress
Emotional burdens feel like physical burdens.
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Emotional Experience

• Subjective sensations intrinsic to mental imagery
  involving various sensory modalitiesHeaviness,
  pressure, tingling
• Physiological and motor effects of mental
  imageryMuscle tension, labored breathing, warmth
  or coldness
• Innate responses to imagined stimuliIncreased
  heart rate, flinching, gasping, hunger, goose
  bumps

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Context
SOURCE DOMAIN
TARGET DOMAIN
BODILY SENSORIMOTOR EXPERIENCES
Innate Emotion Response Programs(physiological
arousal, perceptual changes, and behavioral
impulses)
Bodily Interactions with Environment(tactile,
kinesthetic, gustatory, etc.)
SUBJECTIVE INTROSPECTIVE PERCEPTIONS
Behavioral Reflexes
Physiological Processes
Learned Responses
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Context
Real-World EventSensorimotor stimuli, remembered
or imagined stimuli
Cognitive Processing
CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR
Innate or learned EMOTION response programs,
physiological processes, or behavioral reflexes
EMOTIONBodily sensations and motor impulses
(from SOURCE DOMAIN of metaphor)
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Frustration
Strong pressure and tightness around the arms and
torso, urge to destroy obstacle, break free
Physical restraint or obstruction
Lack of freedom or choice, limitations
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Sadness, Depression
Inability to act or perform a task, helplessness
Inability to move, paralysis, lack of fuel
Lethargy, immobility, sluggishness
These statistics problems are impossible!
Ill never get my homework done!
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Disgust
Skin irritation, bad taste in mouth, urge to
eject or deflect object
A disagreeable or offensive message
Contact with a rough and grating or foul and
distasteful object
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Devastation
Sudden failure or total loss of support
Sense of imbalance or sudden weightlessness,
shakiness in legs
Falling, stumbling
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Love
Warmth, softness, moderate pressure consistent
with embrace
Fondness or appreciation
Physical affection
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Outline

• Background
• Research Question
• Theory
• Prediction
• Experiment

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Predictions

• Participants with an emotional burden

• Hills will look steeper
• Distances will look greater

Physical burden
Bodily sensations of heaviness and pressure
Hills look steeper and distances look greater
Emotional burden
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Procedure
Emotion Induction You have a heavy course load.
Theres a lot of pressure on you to succeed. You
have a ton of work to do.
Visual Measure
Distance Measure From self to cone in feet/inches
Verbal Measure What is the angle of incline?
Repeat Induction
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Groups
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Comparison Group

• Loss of importance or worth
• Loss of ones worth, importance, value to others
• Loss of valued role, aspirations, dreams, future,
  important job
• Loss of honor, recognition, respect

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Metaphors for Loss

• Diminishment of self as diminishment of body.
• Loss of importance as loss of body weight or body
  densityYour opinions carry no weight. You are
  nothing. Nothing you do matters. People look
  right through you. You are empty, hollow, void
  of meaning.
• Loss of role as loss of close possessionYour
  dreams have been stolen, your future taken away.
  You are empty inside.
• Loss of respect as loss of adornmentYou are
  stripped of your honors. The respect you had has
  fallen away.

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What Does Loss Feel Like?

• Emotional losses feels like physical losses.
• Being nothing, carrying no weightLight weight,
  unperturbed motion
• Losing possession of objectCessation of
  comfortable pressure on center of body, trying to
  hold on, reaching, straining
• Emptiness, hollow, barrenHunger, exhalation,
  gaping
• Bare, stripped, unadornedCold, raw skin

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Sadness Picasso
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Too many times, abuse in the family-of-origin is
the foundation of trauma and loss of
self-worth... a child who has been abused loses
pieces of his or her soul. The process of
discovering the cause of that loss and trying to
find those missing parts of Self can be
excruciatingly painful.
http//www.spirits-rest.org/Emptiness.html
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Possible Results
Slope/Distance Estimate
Emotional Burden
Loss
Physical Burden
No Burden
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Summary

• Theory Emotions as bodily effects of conceptual
  metaphors in appraisal
• Hypothesis Emotional burdens feel like physical
  burdens.
• Predictions Emotional burdens will make hills
  look steeper, distances look greater.
• Experiment Tests predictions by inducing
  emotional burdens and slope/distance judgment
  tasks.

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Thank You!

• Lyn Y. Abramson
• Richard J. Davidson
• Morton Gernsbacher
• Art Glenberg
• Heather Abercrombie
• Jack Nitschke

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Questions
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Alternative Process Theories

• Innate links between appraisal patterns and
  emotion(Lazarus, 1994 Izard, 1993 Smith
  Kirby, 2001 Ohman, 1997)
• Associative learning or conditioning(Izard,
  1993 Smith Kirby, 1996)
• Computational processes involving symbol
  manipulation(Reisenzein, 2001)

certainty
goal-congruence
control
sadness
fear
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Conceptual Metaphor Evidence

• Linguistic
• Systematicity of literal expressions
• Novel extensions of conventional metaphors
• Polysemy
• Psychological
• Mental images for idioms constrained by
  conceptual metaphors governing idiom(Gibbs
  OBrien, 1990)
• Neurological
• Hand area active for grasping
  metaphors(Rohrer, 2001)

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Confounding Variables

• Fatigue(Bhalla Proffitt, 1999)
• General physiological arousal (heart rate)
• Emotion intensity
• Valence (Riener et al., 2003)
• Incidental elements of induction procedure

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Metaphors for Emotion

• What about emotions AS burdens?
• Metaphorical descriptions of emotion
• Emotions as objects of appraisal Meta-emotions?
• Cart before the horse?
• People describe debt as burden, but when emotion
  is burden, language differs(overwhelmed by
  emotion, weighed down by grief)
• Emotion metaphors often apt metaphors for life
  event

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Phenomenological Breakdown
Fatigue or increase in general arousal
Light-weight, emptiness
Holding on, reaching, straining
Heaviness, pressure
Loss of Importance
Burden
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Possible Results
24.52/22.57
24.52/22.57
19/27
Estimated Angle of Incline
22.58/20.19
20.63/17.80
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Emotional Burden
Loss
Physical Burden
No Burden
SE1.09/1.26
SE1.30/.95
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