4 research outputs found
Is Self-Generated Thought a means of Social Problem Solving?
No full textAppropriate social problem solving constitutes a critical skill for individuals and may rely on processes important for self-generated thought (SGT). The aim of the current study was to investigate the link between SGT and social problem solving. Using the Means-End Problem Solving task (MEPS), we assessed participants’ abilities to resolve daily social problems in terms of overall efficiency and number of relevant means they provided to reach the given solution. We also asked participants to perform non-demanding choice reaction time task (CRT) and a moderately demanding working memory task (WM) as a context in which to measure individuals’ SGT (assessed via thought sampling). We found that although overall SGT was associated with lower MEPS efficiency, it was also associated with higher relevant means, perhaps because both depend on the capacity to generate cognition that is independent of the here and now. The specific content of SGT did not differentially predict individual differences in social problem solving, suggesting that the relationship may depend on SGT regardless of its content. In addition, we also found that performance at the WM but not the CRT was linked to overall better MEPS performance, suggesting that individuals good at social processing are also distinguished by their capacity to constrain attention to an external task. Our results provide novel evidence that the capacity for SGT is implicated in the process by which solutions to social problems are generated, although optimal problem solving may be achieved by individuals who display a suitable balance between SGT and cognition derived from perceptual input
Compassion Meditators Show Less Anger, Less Punishment and More Compensation of Victims in Response to Fairness Violations
No full textFairness violations elicit powerful behavioral and affective responses. Indeed, people are willing to incur costs to sanction unfair behavior. Here we study the possible impact of long-term mental training in socio-affective capacities such as compassion on altruistic punishment and compensatory behavior in economic games. To this end we recruited a group of long-term meditation practitioners (LTPs) who had engaged in an average of 40K hours of mental training exercises including compassion-related meditation, along with a group of meditation-naïve controls. Participants played several adaptations of the dictator game in which they had the opportunity to punish the dictator both when they were the recipients of the dictator’s offer and when they were third-party witnesses to the dictator’s treatment of an anonymous second player. Compared to controls, LTPs were less likely to punish when they were the victims of fairness violations. However, both groups punished equivalently when they witnessed others receiving unfair treatment. In post-task questionnaires, controls reported significantly more anger in response to unfair offers than LTPs, although fairness judgments did not differ between groups. These data suggest that because the LTPs were less angered by unfair treatment of themselves, they punished that behavior less. However, when they witnessed the unfair treatment of others, they engaged in norm-reinforcing punishment. Finally, when participants played an additional game which included the opportunity to recompense victims, LTPs were more likely to do so. Together these data point to differential approaches to justice whereby LTPs engaged less in vengeful, retributive justice and focused more on norm reinforcement and the restoration of equity. These differences suggest that social preferences are plastic and that altruistic responses to unfairness may be shaped by the prolonged cultivation of prosocial motivation, altruism and compassion
Differential changes in self-reported aspects of interoceptive awareness through three months of contemplative training
No full textInteroceptive body awareness (IA) is crucial for psychological well-being and plays an important role in many contemplative traditions. However, until recently, standardized self-report measures of IA were scarce, not comprehensive, and the effects of interoceptive training on such measures were largely unknown. The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) Questionnaire measures IA with 8 different scales. In the current study, we investigated whether and how these different aspects of IA are influenced by a 3-month contemplative intervention, in the context of the ReSource project, in which 148 subjects engaged in daily practices of Body Scan and Breath Meditation. We developed a German version of the MAIA and tested it in a large and diverse sample (n=1,076). Internal consistencies were similar to the English version (.56-.89), re-test reliability was high (rs: .66-.79), and the MAIA showed good convergent and discriminant validity. Importantly, interoceptive training improved 5 out of 8 aspects of IA, compared to a retest control group. Participants with low IA scores at baseline showed the biggest changes. Whereas practice duration only weakly predicted individual differences in change, self-reported liking of the practices and degree of integration into daily life predicted changes on most scales. Interestingly, the magnitude of observed changes varied across scales. The strongest changes were observed for the regulatory aspects of IA, that is, how the body is used for self-regulation in daily life. No significant changes were observed for the Noticing aspect (becoming aware of bodily changes), which is the aspect that is predominantly assessed in other IA measures. This differential pattern underscores the importance to assess IA multi-dimensionally, particularly when interested in enhancement of IA through contemplative practice or other mind-body interventions
Illuminating the Dark Matter of Social Neuroscience: Considering the Problem of Social Interaction from Philosophical, Psychological, and Neuroscientific Perspectives
No full textSuccessful human social interaction depends on our capacity to understand other people’s mental states and to anticipate how they will react to our actions. Despites its importance to the human condition, there are still quite a few debates about how we actually solve the problem of understanding other peoples’ actions, feelings and thoughts. Here we consider this problem from philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific perspectives. In a critical review we show that attempts to draw parallels across these complementary levels of analysis are premature: The second-person perspective does not map directly to simulation theories, online social cognition or shared neural networks underlying action observation or empathy. Nor does the third-person perspective map onto theory-theory accounts of other agents mental states, offline social cognition or the neural networks that support Theory of Mind. We further propose that important qualities of social interaction emerge through the reciprocal interaction of two independent agents whose unpredictable behaviour requires a continual updating of models of their partner internal state. This analysis draws attention to the need for paradigms that allow two individuals to interact in a spontaneous and natural manner and to adapt their behaviour and cognitions in a response contingent fashion due to the unpredictability of their partners behaviour. Even if such paradigms were implemented, it is possible that the specific neural correlates supporting such reciprocal interaction would not reflect the processes unique to social interaction because much real social behaviour may reflect the use of basic cognitive and emotional process in a novel and unique manner. Given the role of social interaction in human evolution, ontogeny and every-day social life, a more theoretically and methodologically nuanced approach to the study of social interaction will help to shed new light on the dark matter of social neuroscience
