1 / 13

Embodiment Evolution in Psychological Research

This study delves into the evolution of embodiment theory, exploring metaphor-enriched social and personality psychology while focusing on current phenomena. The research investigates how concepts are embodied in sensations, bodily states, and interactions, offering insight into the intersection of language and cognition. By analyzing phenomena like anger cues, attraction, and power dynamics through an embodied lens, the study uncovers new perspectives on human behavior and cognition. The findings suggest that an embodied approach enhances our understanding of social and personality processes, emphasizing a shift towards phenomenon-focused research rather than metaphor-centered studies.

saad
Download Presentation

Embodiment Evolution in Psychological Research

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. A Metaphor-Enriched Social and Personality Psychology Brian P. Meier Gettysburg College The Barnard Interdisciplinary Workshop on Embodiment July 22nd – 24th, 2010

  2. An Embodied Mind Approach Barsalou (1999), Lakoff & Johnson (1980, 1999) • Landau, Meier, & Keefer (in press) • Conceptual Metaphors - conceptual mappings between typically concrete source concepts and superficially dissimilar and typically abstract target concepts • Embodiment - concepts contain modality-specific representations of sensations, motor activity, and other bodily states that occur during interactions with stimuli corresponding to those concepts

  3. Where is Embodiment Headed? A Metaphor-Enriched Social and Personality Psychology • Early work was metaphor focused: • Meier et al. (2004, 2007) - brightness and bad/good • Meier & Robinson (2004, 2006) - verticality and bad/good • Meier et al. (2007) - verticality and perceptions of God.

  4. Where is Embodiment Headed? A Metaphor-Enriched Social and Personality Psychology • Current work is phenomenon focused: • Wilkowski, Meier, et al. (2009) - anger-related processing and heat cues (“hotheaded”) • Study 1 - heat cues facilitate anger-related processing • Study 4 - anger primes increase temperature estimates • Study 6 - heat cues bias emotion judgments (i.e., anger)

  5. Where is Embodiment Headed? A Metaphor-Enriched Social and Personality Psychology • Current work is phenomenon focused: • Meier & Dionne (2009) - attraction and verticality • Buss (1994, 2007) - evolution and human mating strategies (men seek youth and fidelity; women seek resources and status; a power difference?) • Verticality is a source domain for power (e.g., “high in the hierarchy”, “on the bottom rung of the ladder”; Giessner & Schubert, 2007)

  6. Where is Embodiment Headed? A Metaphor-Enriched Social and Personality Psychology • Current work is phenomenon focused: • Meier & Dionne (2009) - attraction and vertical space

  7. Where is Embodiment Headed? A Metaphor-Enriched Social and Personality Psychology F (1, 77) = 5.12, p = .027, ηp2 = .06

  8. Where is Embodiment Headed? A Metaphor-Enriched Social and Personality Psychology • Current and future work is phenomenon focused: • Meier et al. (in preparation) - the “sweet” person • Nice, pleasant, and caring people are described as “sweet” • Sweet taste may be a source domain for agreeableness

  9. Where is Embodiment Headed? A Metaphor-Enriched Social and Personality Psychology • Current and future work is phenomenon focused: • Meier et al. (in preparation) - the “sweet” person • Study 1 - participants believed strangers who liked sweet foods (e.g., candy, sugar) were higher in agreeableness than strangers who liked other food taste types (e.g., sour, spicy) • Study 2 - sweet-food preferences positively correlated with agreeableness even after controlling for other food preferences (e.g., sour, spicy)

  10. Where is Embodiment Headed? A Metaphor-Enriched Social and Personality Psychology • Current and future work is phenomenon focused: • Meier et al. (in preparation) - the “sweet” person • Study 3 - people with a higher preference for sweet foods were more likely to volunteer to help their community during a flood • Study 5 - participants randomly assigned to eat a sweet food (Dove chocolate), a non-sweet food (Carr’s Crackers), or no food • Later asked to help another researcher

  11. Where is Embodiment Headed? A Metaphor-Enriched Social and Personality Psychology F (2, 52) = 3.91, p = .026, ηp2 = .13

  12. Summary and Questions Summary • An embodied framework can enrich the basic understanding and prediction of social and personality processes • A phenomenon-based focus rather than a metaphor-based focus

  13. Summary and Questions Questions • Where’s the metaphor? • What are the commonalities/differences between conceptual metaphor theory and “purist” views of embodiment?

More Related