The conformity of the Oriental children
"But the cultural vision of the self also influences emotions through physiological component, ie, of how it satisfies our body. As independent selves, European Americans highly value the states high arousal (activation), because for them it is important to be in a pleasurable state. Maybe that's why present a greater physiological arousal during the emergence of emotion and also tend to take longer to recover normal activation status.
"The interdependent selves, in turn, were more interested in states of low arousal. Recall that the independent self is self-centered and want to feel good, but let's not forget also that high arousal can make others feel bad. Thus, during the emergence of a particular emotion, interdependent selves show a low arousal and more easily recover the state normal arousal so that others do not feel bad. In short, the interdependent self is your emotional state causes the least impact on the emotional state of others. "
Then Jeanne went on to recount the results of research by Jerome Kagan, an evolutionary psychologist Harvard comparing the physiological responses of children from four months in Beijing with Euro-American children the same age. "
" The researchers showed children a series of sensory stimuli, such as moving objects, and observed their behavior and found that European Americans were crying and vocalizing more and, in short, seemed more uneasy. "
The Dalai Lama seemed intrigued by these comments, while he bowed and gesticulated intensely while discussing the data with the translators. So argued the following explanation:
-I find this very interesting. Was there any significant differences in the experiences they had during those four months?
"That question is crucial," said Jeanne, and I must say we do not know the answer.
"This seems crucial," said the Dalai Lama, because the existence of any difference of an environmental rule out any possible genetic explanation. Moreover, these differences so early could also be due to the effect of environmental factors operating in utero through the mother's emotional reactions or how they are treated from birth.
"Yes," said Jeanne, considering all those implications. The truth is we do not know whether these differences are truly genetic.
- What evolutionary psychology says then asked the Dalai Lama about the time when the baby is a cognitive recognition of his mother? Jeanne
then this question led to Mark Greenberg, a psychologist evolutionary, who said:
-It depends on the sensory modality to consider, "explained Mark. During the first days of life, babies can identify olfactory his mother's breast.
- Right? Asked the Dalai Lama. So it seems to have a spontaneous feeling of dependence.
"In regard to the auditory area, the baby can recognize the voice of the mother from the moment of birth," continued Mark. In the visual field, however, that recognition is the later, because the visual system has not matured enough.
Passion the Dalai Lama for experimentation then passed to the forefront:
- What would happen then asked Mark if it gave the newborn baby's chest and his mother the next day, another woman's breast? Would there be any difference then perhaps the answer or reject the baby? "Yes," confirmed Mark. Richard Davidson
then added another finding of the research, saying:
"Research has shown that the physiological response of the fetus of three months to a voice outside the mother is different than that occurs when you hear the voice of his mother.
"But," Jeanne nuance is not clear whether these differences are due to genetic or environmental differences.
- And what about what happens to the children of Taiwan? Asked the Dalai Lama.
"I would like to do that study," said Jeanne with a smile. The Dalai Lama
continued with the theme of environmental influences saying
Mastering the
-emotional skills would also be different if the child was raised in an orphanage and had been in a nursery.
"Yes," agreed Jeanne.
"If parents work, children may be in kindergarten," said the Dalai Lama, considering the data of Beijing babies Kagan, which is what usually happens in the communist system.
"Yes. That's right.
"So it does not allow us to discern clearly whether it is exclusively an eastern influence or china. Jeanne
coincided again with the commentary of the Dalai Lama and added:
"So far we could not determine the reasons for these cultural differences. But one of them could be different views of self.
This avalanche of questions Jeanne was unfortunate that the cultural psychology was located in a very rudimentary stage. Everything you mentioned-rearing practices, different ways in which different cultures care for babies may account for cultural differences discovered by Kagan and others. Unfortunately, however, currently have very little data to allow us to identify cultural factors involved.
-Communist China Eastern is a company that deliberately uses engineering-if you do not mind using the word social, and I think, therefore, that his example is representative of all communities, "said then east Dalai Lama, addressing the issue from another perspective.
"That is very true," agreed Jeanne. But I must say that other eastern groups that have not been influenced by Communism also show similar differences in comparison with Western or Euro-American cultures. Jeanne
proceeded, then, to present data from a research comparing children with children sinoamericanos European Americans.
"All these studies show the presence of the same pattern, and sinoamericanos children seem to take less return to normal after a state of agitation."
-Me wonder if all these differences and similarities can not be due to family environment they have grown again insisted the Dalai Lama, now focusing their attention on a methodological issue.
"Unfortunately," said Jeanne, the authors of this research only children grouped according to their cultural heritage and did not consider the possibility of studying other specific factors that may determine these differences.
questions the Dalai Lama Jeanne surprised since focused precisely on the aspects that cultural psychology did not yet know and suggested possible mechanisms by which the cultural environment can exert its influence. Then summed:
"It looked like oriental children experienced less arousal and were also more able to return to normal than Westerners. There are also some studies that suggest that this difference is maintained in the case of adults and that the study of couples mentioned above, for example, couples sinoamericanas showed significantly less increase in heart rate during the conflicts that Euro-American couples .
Then Jeanne presented the results of a study on startle reflex, the same factor studied by Paul Ekman and Robert Levenson with the Lama Oser. According to this study the sinoamericanos recover more quickly-that is, your heart rate returns to normal soon after hearing a sudden noise and intense that the Americans mexicano.11 Generally speaking, the longer the startle reflex, the more emotional response is typical of the individual. According to Jeanne concluded, all these data suggest the presence in the cultural environment of a factor that determines our physiological response to emotion, but still ignore which one it is.
Does self-focused attention or focus on others? Another cultural difference
is that during emotional episodes, Easterners tend to focus on others, while Westerners do themselves.
"Clearly," said Jeanne differences between Easterners and Westerners, but the point is that, during a social interaction in the West (they have an independent self) think more of themselves, while the Eastern (which have an interdependent self) think more about others. And it is very curious that when asked about the time they tend to experience more intense emotions, the first relating to events that are related to others, while the latter, meanwhile, claim to experience them in situations they themselves commit. "Jeanne has investigated
shame, an emotion is especially relevant to Asian cultures, often considered as a negative evaluation by others . The data presented here by Jeanne referred to one of his studies that compared to European-Americans with the Asian group of the Hmong, located southwest of Laos.
This began by reading the following description of an embarrassing experience by a Euro-American: "On one occasion, I accepted a job as deputy I thought it would help. After five months, however, was completely ashamed of my bad management. " The description given by an American woman hmong source of embarrassing experience, meanwhile, was completely different: "I am an" X "[a hmong name]. At one point, it was discovered that the pastor of our church who is also an "X" - took three years to maintain relations with one of his parishioners, and, even among us there is no blood ties, the sharing the same name we are deeply ashamed. " In the latter case, were the actions of another person which the embarrassed because, although it is not known, shared the same name and belonged to the same clan (the basic social unit of society hmong).
Jeanne also spoke of another study in which college students had to describe scenarios which need to imagine what would happen if they or their siblings had made a mistake.
"This study showed that when the action was responsible for his brother, the Chinese felt much more embarrassed than Americans," concluded Jeanne. "^
then summarized saying
"Orientals feel more ashamed and guilty for the mistakes of others-as well as more proud of their achievements to the West because, as we have said, his vision of the self is interdependent. Thus, the cultural vision of the self seems to determine both the way we experience emotions as we consider most desirable, whether we focus on ourselves or others. We may well say, in this sense that culture is embodied in our body and determines our physiological functioning.
"I believe that these cultural differences have implications well deep and that we should take them into account when outlining a program like we mentioned yesterday. It is very unlikely, for example, that Americans believe they do not need both programs to develop emotional skills and other social groups, while things may be very different in Eastern cultures. "
"I do not think that attitude is especially characteristic of Americans because to Tibetans, when they hear the Buddha's teachings, they think:" This is fine for others but not for me, "the Dalai Lama said ironically . That led
Jeanne to wonder if the attitude of the Americans with regard to compassion, for example, would run on the same channels. He said there are some studies that show that Americans, rather than members of any other culture, they believe lie above average and better than others.
"I find it very unfortunate that Americans hold that attitude. Programs need appropriate and acceptable for members of different cultures. I think any program for the cultivation of compassion who aspires to be universal in application should receive and consider the existence of all these cultural differences. "
When Jeanne finished his presentation, the Dalai Lama took his hands and bowed to her.
The recognition of similarities
Although the Dalai Lama remained very attentive throughout the exhibition Jeanne, also maintained a somewhat skeptical attitude toward the importance of cultural differences with respect to inheritance common humanity and the universality of the problems that afflict humans. In a subsequent discussion follows outlined their doubts:
"I'm still somewhat puzzled by Jeanne's insistence on clinging to the idea that there is a difference essential in the way that Easterners and Westerners manage their emotions. We are talking about something that has to do with spirituality. Perhaps these differences are not really settle in cultural or ethnic factors, but in their different religious media.
Judaeo-Christian tradition, for example, focuses on the Divine and directs all its efforts towards the achievement of transcendent unity, simultaneously ignoring the need to address emotional problems or the search for inner balance. From that perspective, just love God for everything else, including love of neighbor, we give in addition. In this case, issues such as killing, stealing or loot goes against the belief in God, a very powerful message to become a good person.
But the ultimate aim of Buddhist practice is the attainment of nirvana. In this case, the emphasis is within oneself, and the resulting negative emotions and actions become important in themselves and in doing so, you should know what goes on inside the mind. Thus, the aim of Buddhism is different from that of Christianity, and it determines a different cultural view of emotion from which even the most subtle attempt to identify with the reality of self and the world becomes obstructive and negative.
therefore believe that the differences between Christianity and Buddhism may arise from their different orientation toward the transcendent or essential to national development, respectively. But if we put aside religious beliefs, I think these subtle differences are mere side issues and that there is, from the perspective of a strictly secular ethics, fundamental difference between the Western view and the Eastern view. That's my conclusion.
Sometimes I think, he added that scholars tend to give too much importance to the differences within their field of study, then lost sight of the holistic vision that unifies everything and focusing too much on small differences. Within myself, for example, there are many different Dalai Lamas: The Dalai Lama in the morning, the Dalai Lama and the Dalai Lama later in the evening, many Dalai Lamas that differ according to mood and hunger you have.
Then we returned to issues raised in this remote conversation between Margaret Mead Paul Ekman and around the implicit social agenda in cultural studies. Jeanne coincided with the Dalai Lama on the existence of cultural similarities and differences and that, within each individual, a large behavioral variability. Indeed, at one level, individuals are essentially equal. But she felt that research science could not ignore the magnitude of cultural differences and that was precisely what she and many others were trying to determine. Jeanne was also agreed that the decision to focus on similarities or cultural differences depends on one's level of interest. In that respect, he stated that, more likely, a special interest in cultural differences were a reaction against the apparent ignorance about the field house American scientist and the consequent need to attract the attention of Western psychology in this regard. Jeanne was very aware that, when Western psychology talks about emotions "universal" usually refers, too often, the mainstream "Anglo-American and white." Similarly, she understood perfectly that the Dalai Lama, whose interest it aims to unify people from different cultural backgrounds, I would focus on the similarities and highlight the universal nature of human experience.
"I agree, said that the religious traditions of Eastern and Western cultures may explain the cultural differences of which I have spoken today. But I should also note that studies sinoamericanos I presented this morning there were Buddhists, but Christians and that despite this, the differences seem to remain.
"But," said Jeanne, I agree with His Holiness that, within each cultural group, there are many individual differences and that these cultural visions I represent the different ways to be global to the individual is responding. Of course there are Westerners who are very interested in Buddhism and probably more interdependent, but even in that case, the individual in a given context must somehow respond to messages predominant culture.
"American culture, for example, conveys the message that each individual is special and encourages in this regard, the uniqueness. This I am not saying that all Americans in this room have to feel that way, but, in one way or another, are forced to respond to the message transmitted by dominant culture. And I think that is where they settle cultural differences we are talking about. "
The individual versus the collective
The many trips I have made throughout my life have convinced many modern Western cultures are not as individualistic as the United States and that also is of a more collectivist as in the East.
"The ethics of Scandinavian culture," I said, to illustrate this point is very similar to that of Eastern cultures and, in their view, the individual must not stand.
In fact, Jeanne data show that European-Americans of Scandinavian descent are less expressive emotionally than those whose ancestors come from Central and Southern Europe, especially in regard to the demonstrations of joy. Jeanne
was aware of studies comparing the differences between individualism and collectivism across cultures present occidentales.17
"But he added, the investigation yet to determine whether a Western collectivist culture is more individualistic or Eastern culture.
"All this seems a bit strange," observed then the Dalai Lama. On the one hand we have the traditional view of a creator God held by the three Mediterranean religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. From this perspective, we are all children of the same creator, which makes us members of the same family. Do not you think that this vision should encourage a sense of belonging, of uniformity and homogeneity?
traditional Eastern religions like Buddhism, meanwhile, do not support the same notion of an external creator. From this perspective, individual karma is what determines the conditions of every living thing and we inserted in this world. Even the world we experience is derived from our karma. One of the four laws of karma is that if you do not think the cause will not experience the outcome, but if you created the cause, definitely will be forced to experience their consequences. All this seems very related to individuality, because there is no external source that unifies us and one as an individual, who creates the world we live.
Should not, therefore, that attitude, the Buddhists print a strong sense of individuality? But it seems that things do not work that way. So Therefore, Western individualism and interdependence must not settle in Eastern religious grounds, but on other factors. What factors might be?
"They may have to do with the family or economic variables such conjectured Jeanne. I think there are many factors that affect the self. These things are very complex. Not all Western cultures are well and that all Asian cultures are like that. In an individualistic culture, for example, there are more or less bicultural individuals, like myself, who have been influenced by more than one cultural tradition. And I must say that in some contexts, I am very independent while in others, I am very interdependent. So how all this manifests in a given individual is very complex.
"If we consider a religion such as Christianity, for example," then said Alan, is very important to pay attention to its historical development. The Protestant Reformation emphasized the importance of the individual's relationship with God without priestly mediation, while decreasing the importance of community. The Enlightenment, in turn, placed the emphasis on individual reason. I believe that the strong emphasis on the individual is a fact rather new and I suspect that in medieval Christianity, before the Protestant Reformation we would find a situation very similar to the typical eastern form.
"Which highlights Jeanne-concluded that the culture is subjected to a continuous process of change.
According to the Dalai Lama, that was a crucial point because, as I said later, still had some methodological doubts and questions about the validity of generalizations from cultural differences, if only for the fact that they are in a continuous process of change. He had directly witnessed the change wrought in their own culture by contact with other cultures. Perhaps it is useful to know the differences in how different cultures express their emotions but even so, he believed that, beneath it, everyone experiences the same kind of emotions. Furthermore, as shown on the world stage, it is understandable that the Dalai Lama prefers to focus on issues that unite us and not where we differ. In his view, all people are essentially talking about the same, which means he does not care whether someone is Chinese, Indian or American, since that aims to find solutions to the problems facing mankind.
During the tea break, there was a more personal exchange between Jeanne and the Dalai Lama. She considered it important to let you know sympathy for the Tibetan cause in their struggle against Communist China. He, on his part. He replied that he felt no animosity towards the Chinese and deeply respected their culture. Then she took the opportunity to say that, although they were proud of their heritage china, sinoamericanos were many who sympathized with the struggle of the Tibetan people. When the Dalai Lama said he was very moved by this, their eyes filled with tears.
11. THE EDUCATION OF THE HEART
One of the topics I am most concerned when, in 1995, I wrote Emotional Intelligence was that children could benefit from the application of emotional literacy to the school environment. At that time, however, it was a very novel idea for the educational world and very few schools were interested in putting it into practice ... still less those who were willing to scientifically evaluate its effectiveness.
One of the notable exceptions to this situation was an emotional literacy program developed, among others, by Mark Greenberg, who will be our next speaker. The program in question was called PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) and aspired to deaf children learn to use language to become aware, recognize and manage more accurately their emotions and emotions others.1 All these skills are key building blocks of emotional intelligence, and in my book I cited the program as a model of emotional literacy, or what the educational world today, as Mark has above, called "social and emotional learning."
After the tea break, our attention is focused on the theme of social and emotional learning. As I said, today there are many schools that have implemented the type of programs we were talking yesterday to the development of emotional skills of children. I have also said that Mark, a pioneer in developing such programs in wide use today, we speak of them and have added that this program has successfully passed the rigorous evaluation to determine its effectiveness-something, incidentally, somewhat unusual in the field of education, thereby laying the foundation for the scientific application of teaching emotional intelligence to children's area.
Mark is also concerned about the application of their work in fields that transcend the merely educational and has become a primary prevention tool, a strategy to reduce the risks faced by young people begin to face with life. Currently, Mark directs the Edna Peterson Bennett Chair of Prevention Research at Pennsylvania State University, is director of the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development and also manages, in collaboration with four universities, two federal grants (which, in a period of thirteen years, have received nearly $ 60 million) to corroborate the effectiveness of a program that serves to reduce the risks associated with violence, crime and school dropout.
"The idea that encourages work-started-is that if today we care about teach children these things, we can reduce the future incidence of certain problems, especially those arising of disturbing emotions, such as violence, suicide, drug abuse, etcetera. Mark Greenberg
belongs to the baby boom generation, grew up in Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) and studied at the Johns Hopkins University. That's where he began his training with the renowned developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth and was fascinated by the subject. Recall that Ainsworth was a contributor to the famous British psychologist John Bowlby, the world's foremost expert on early parent-child relationship in which sits the subject's ability to establish relationships for the rest of his life. Since that time, Mark became interested in the effect of personal relationships in the first years of life in the development of personality. Then
Mark majored in psychology and clinical psychology at the University of Virginia, where he worked casually with deaf children. One day he had to pass a test to determine the IQ (Intelligence Quotient) of a deaf child of five years realized how much the child is frightened when his mother left the room. That's when he began to investigate the parent child bond hearing impaired children, research that led him interested in behavioral problems that plagued deaf children and how to prevent which, in turn, ultimately leads to develop, together with his colleague Carol Kusch, the PATHS program.
The rigorous scientific assessment was submitted PATHS program proved so effective that the directors of the schools that was tested was asked to adapt it to apply to all types of students. Today, that program is implemented in a hundred U.S. school districts and has spread to many other countries such as Holland, Australia and England. PATHS
Mark became a pioneer in the field of prevention primary, a new field of psychology that aims to protect children by teaching emotional skills essential for life. The program is part of a movement for social and emotional learning that aspires to be implemented in all schools teaching these basic skills. Today, Mark is co-director of research of the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning at the University of Illinois (Chicago) under the supervision of Roger Weissberg.
Mark was eager to share their experience with the Dalai Lama and to relate it to the prefrontal lobes in upholding the social and emotional development. But this meeting also was personally very meaningful to him because, since his college days, was very interested in meditation and believed that the West has much to learn from the Eastern psychologies such as Buddhism.
The methods used in psychology and Western psychotherapy contribute to developing a healthy self, ie a proper emotional, a feeling of efficiency and issues like that, but not much more than that. However, as rightly said transpersonal psychology theorists like Daniel Brown and Ken Wilber, and we have noted in passing when talking about Buddhist and Western methods to deal with emotions -destructive, eastern psychology supports the need to develop a healthy ego before you can leave and also stresses the need to transcend and to promote development beyond ego.
The Dalai Lama represents for Mark, a model that perfectly balances the spiritual concerns to social action and is fascinated by the importance given to learning the management of destructive emotions, their area of \u200b\u200bprofessional interest. I would like to conclude this presentation by noting that, from both a scientific and spiritual perspective, Mark believes that the fundamental challenge we face is adequately balance the heart and mind discover the best way to teach children to find that balance.
education of heart
For his presentation, Mark was dressed in the traditional Tibetan maroon vest. The previous night had been joking and saying that, as the days passed, the presenters had a growing aspect Tibetan and that continued well all week end up wearing robes. Mark speaks softly, but does so very quickly and, as happened also with Owen, he had to make repeated and deliberate effort to speak more slowly.
Mark began his presentation by thanking the Dalai Lama and the Mind and Life Institute interest in the topic of destructive emotions and said to him was a pleasure and a blessing to share their ideas. We then introduced his wife Christa, who is also a psychologist. As we said, many of the discoveries made over the last twenty years are the result of close cooperation both with her and with other specialists.
"I thought it was appropriate," he began to start with a quote from His Holiness: "Although the company does not mention it, the main value of knowledge and education is to help us understand the importance of disciplining the mind and engage in healthier activities. The proper use of intelligence and knowledge should lead us to undertake the necessary internal changes to encourage kindness. "
"My talk will focus on data submitted by the Western psychology of some of the factors that can be used for the education of the heart, ie to develop caring people. The simile of the immune system used by His Holiness seemed to me very interesting and useful and I think that from a secular perspective, our goal should focus on the development of an appropriate emotional immune system. In this case, they appear destructive emotions, and are not the slightest doubt that, at one time or another, will we use our intelligence and our hearts to better cope. I would like to emphasize that what matters most is when we are caught in an emotion, because it is then that we can learn to manage better.
"This immunity he receives, in the field of child development research, the name of" protective factors. " Today I speak both protective factors and risk factors that affect the emotional welfare of the child. Start devoting few minutes to talk about childhood and then will devote the bulk of our paper, as Dan has asked us to practical issues related to teaching social and emotional skills in schools.
"Yesterday was very interesting that His Holiness said that Buddhism often refers to compassion and empathy using the template provided by the relationship between mother and child. It has also been very interesting to hear your comments about romantic love, especially since, at certain stages of development, the identification may be necessary and even useful. Now I want to emphasize three important issues related to the link parent-child.
"First, research indicates that when parents recognize their children's negative emotions, anger and sadness, and help them deal with them, they eventually develop, over time, greater capacity physiological regulation of emotion and exhibit more positive behavior. When, however, parents ignore these feelings, get angry or punish their children by having them-and I must say that many parents who, curiously, angry with their children (even when they are babies) and angry, "the child seems to conclude not to share certain emotions and just disconnecting of them. However, in this way, more disturbing still, both physiologically and psychologically, because they do not, therefore, the emotion disappears and ends up hindering the establishment of basic trust between children and adults. According to observations made by Mary Ainsworth on the relationship between the child and his mother, there are children who, one year, do not seek contact with their mother when they are upset and distressed, but, quite the contrary, we shun. These are children who have a problem of approach / avoidance with respect to emotional and physical contact and therefore have great difficulty to properly manage their emotions.
"Secondly, I must say that the mother's depression is the main variables that seriously endanger the child's emotional development. Therefore, mothers sad, apathetic or depressed are more aggressive, anxious and depressed.
"Remember that the investigation led by Richie Davidson has highlighted the presence of reduced left frontal lobe activity in depressed adults, a pattern that research by Geraldine Dawson has confirmed in depressed mothers. Another study conducted by Dawson has also shown that, one year, children of depressed mothers show a characteristic pattern low activation of left frontal lobe.
"The children of depressed mothers appear to show, therefore, an unusual pattern of brain activation and a lower incidence of positive emotions. And do not forget that the relations established during early childhood determine the course of subsequent social and emotional development. The rate of positive emotions such as joy, for example, found in children's relationships therefore seem essential to establish the appropriate neural pathways. Today we know that all developmental stages are important for emotional development and we must pay special attention to the very beginning. "
short, Therefore, the happiness of the baby helps to establish the neural connections needed to experience positive emotions, like joy, for example for the rest of his life. Subsequently, the Dalai Lama told me how much he was pleased to learn of this discovery, as the biological desire for affection is a fundamental element of its secular ethic. Now had more arguments to support his view that the need for affection is as important as the need for food. Then
Mark referred to the third point I wanted to point out the effects caused by emotional and social deprivation in the infant brain and said
"We know that deprivation can determine the level of neurotransmitters like dopamine and, consequently, influence the development and plasticity of the brain. Should therefore pay attention to the alarming increase in the number of children who are forced to live in orphanages, deprived of affection and a close emotional bond with their caregivers. The terrible effects of AIDS herald in the next decade, a dramatic increase in the number of orphans, especially in Asia and Africa. Consider that, currently, 28 percent of pregnant South African women, for example, are HIV positive, so hopefully over the next decade, appearance in this country of one million orphans. This is a more pressing problem to correct its effects, it is seen of paramount importance. "
view such a doom scenario, the face of His Holiness, which is usually very transparent with your emotions is filled with an immense sadness, as if about to mourn. But after a moment he recovered and closed his eyes as if offering a brief prayer.
prefrontal window emotional competence
'I would now like to focus on the preschool years, "continued Mark, an era marked by learning and the brain still is in the process of formation. Between three and seven years begin to develop some important social skills that His Holiness mentioned with some frequency. I refer, of course, a self-control skills, the ability to stop and calm down when they're angry, and the ability to keep the attention of Alan told us yesterday.
"During this period, children also show a great development of emotional awareness. In the early stages of language development, the child has very few words to describe emotions, but in the preschool years, there is a dramatic increase in their ability to recognize emotions and discuss them. In addition, the child can begin, then, for the first time in his life, to plan and reflect on the future. After four or five years, for example, we may ask the child what to do if one should mock him because, at that age, is now able to use their new cognitive skills to think about the future and outline ideas and plans .
"As Richie told us yesterday, today it is known that the frontal lobe is closely linked to these new developmental skills that combine information from the emotion and thought. It is very unlikely, in this sense, a clearly aggressive style of play in children five or six years just vanish, and is expected to persist throughout life. The research data seem to confirm that more than half of violent aggressive children become teenagers cruel and violent. "
"by Mark Studies show that aggressive children have difficulty integrating emotion and reason. This aggressiveness appears to stem from the difficulty to plan ahead and a little emotional impulse control, two activities which, lest we forget, are closely linked to the prefrontal lobes.
"Also significant is the low rate of recovery of frontal lobe lesions of young children-whether by accident or sickness, something that is very disturbing, because the prefrontal lobes are crucial for the integration of thought and emotion. Unlike what happens with the temporal lobes (related to language), the recovery rate is very low prefrontal lobes. In the event that the child experiences an injury to the temporal lobes, for example, is very likely that other regions take over and that the child will not suffer a huge decline in language skills, but if the damage occurs in the region prefrontal, it is almost inevitable to experience a significant emotional and social impairment.
"These neurological data underscore the importance of the prefrontal region to the healthy development of the child's emotions. As you said Richie, the frontal lobes of humans are much larger and more advanced than those of other primates. Moreover, the fact that in the case of the brain region evolutionarily younger explains their low redundancy with other areas. "
In either case, the prefrontal cortex is very plastic, and during the long training period in which still developing, is establishing connections with the rest of brain function and learning experiences. Do not forget the brain is the organ that most takes to reach maturity and that anatomical milestones in this process are in mental and social development. And remember also that, in turn, the prefrontal area is the most evolutionarily recent brain region that does not reach maturity until the mid-twenties anatomical, making the first years of life in a real opportunity for young people to learn to dominate the most important lessons of life. That was precisely the meaning of what Mark stated below:
"On the other hand, children who have good ability to plan and are aware of their emotions to enter in school, about five or six years, are much less risk of experiencing subsequent disorders of aggression and anxiety. Today we know that the present guidelines at the time the child starts attending the school are very important in determining their future, although this relationship is not completely stable.
"This has much to do with the concept of selective perception that we have already spoken. Aggressive or self-conscious children have been hurt by earlier remain very alert to find anyone who could return to harm them. These are children who are on the defensive and react easily.
"In the field school children have to be many times in a row, to go to lunch, to go to recess, to return it, etc., "and there are many problems that, in this case may arise. When a bully, for example, is pushed by another, does not usually stop to see what happened, but reacts violently waging a fight. These fast emotional reactions are very important, because children who have been attacked are very prone to focus on the harm they have done, even if such a thing is not true or it is merely a
accidente.6" ; As we said yesterday Matthieu, schools are perhaps the only institutions we can use to promote emotional health. Twenty years we have been trying to prove scientifically, along with other colleagues in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world to effectively use the school to promote emotional health, and I am happy to say that today we have a scientific evidence that irrefutably confirms that the use of PATHS with a regular program of two to five times a week contributes very positively to improving the welfare infantil.7 The proper use of this program allows the development of emotional and social skills children as well as improving some of their rational capacities. Would much mistaken if we believed that emotional and social skills are not linked to the rational capacities. Not surprisingly, according to the Buddhist model, the intelligence includes both. It is true that in the U.S., we split and we believe that social and cognitive development are two distinctly separate areas, but today we are convinced that these are two very closely related domains. "
practice: First, calm down and then think
"I would like now," said Mark then spend the rest of my presentation practical issues and I would like to use our work with PATHS for the last nineteen years as an example of how to work in the field of education, a secular structure extremely conservative and, therefore, very reluctant to change. Our work has been mainly implemented in the U.S. public schools and has also begun to apply in England, Holland, Canada, Belgium, Australia and Wales ... and, although still not been established in France, has been translated into French, "he added, raising the laughter of those present and giving rise to what eventually became a private joke that is repeated many times during these days.
"begin by saying that, in my view, our work is still in a rudimentary stage and therefore will not expose a complete model, but as a simple starting point. I must say that this work has drawn on the work of many researchers in the field of prevention, as Maurice Elias, Roger Weissberg and Myrna Shure.
"We now know that effective programs are characterized by the following five features. First, should focus on helping children to calm down, that is, to reduce the recovery time of emotional arousal (which he referred to Paul on Tuesday) regardless of the emotion in question. Second, should help to raise awareness of the emotional states of others. The third distinctive feature is perhaps the most western and refers to the need to talk about feelings to resolve interpersonal problems. The fourth is to develop the ability to think and plan ahead how to avoid difficult situations. Any effective program, finally, should take into account the effects of our behavior on others, a point that implies both empathy and interpersonal relationships.
"Let's use some guidelines that we consider very important and also teachers teach and children. Then I shall set out the practical procedures to which we often appeal to the development of each of these skills. "We have determined that emotions conform to certain rules, which we might call principles. In this regard, we convey to children and their teachers four great ideas. The first is that feelings are signals, which can come from both inside and outside and therefore give us very important information about yourself (what you need or want) or others (about what need or want another person).
"For this reason we are interested children learn to properly assess the information. To become aware of emotions must not only realize the way we feel, but we must also learn to verbalize our feelings and recognize them in others. I think this notion also has a lot to do with intelligence, and the Buddhist notion of flourishing, as it involves the ability to use reason not to repress emotions, but to take them into account and build on them to when making decisions.
"So, one of the guidelines of our program is that emotions are very important signals. But, as we shall see, we do not just tell the children all these things, but we also care about providing tools that can help to put them into practice. This is very important, because many children are afraid of their feelings and that very often do not know to separate them from their behavior ... something which, incidentally, also true of many adults. This is a very complex issue and that many forms of adult psychotherapy spend much time. It is very important therefore that we help children to differentiate their feelings for their conduct.
"To do that, for example, we placed large posters in the classroom that read" All feelings well. They are behaviors that may be wrong. " It is important that children realize that everyone feels, sometimes, jealousy, greed, disappointment, etc., the full spectrum, in short, sentiments. But one thing is quite another feeling and behavior, and it alone can be right or wrong.
"What do we do in practice to teach all this? Take, for example, what happens in the case of a lesson about jealousy, an emotion very important for children. In this case, we speak of jealousy and show them pictures of faces of different people expressing that emotion in order to become familiar with it. We can also tell a story of an occasion when a child was jealous and how they solved it, we invite you to discuss any situation that they were jealous, or draw a picture or write in their journals about them. We also insist that a thing is the emotion and other behavior that, while it may be difficult to control the appearance of jealousy, yes we can decide to behave in one way or another.
"The second point is to distinguish clearly the feelings of behavior. In this case, trying to determine what types of conduct are well and what are not something that can be time consuming. Very often, when children experience certain emotions, like anger, for example, and are punished, end up confusing the emotion with the conduct and conclude the inadequacy of certain emotions. It is therefore very important that children learn that feelings are an integral part of themselves and that, therefore, should take them into account. The feelings are therefore natural and there is nothing wrong with them.
"The third guideline we try to convey is that, before thinking, should calm down. If you want to see it, this is a mantra of our classrooms is closely linked to the idea that Matthieu emotions condition the mind to see in a certain way, as exemplified also the experience of a phone call from Paul. For this reason we insist too much on that in order to see clearly what is happening and act accordingly, they must first calm down, and to this end, specific techniques to teach children can appeal to calm down when they are trapped in a emotion. "
- Is not it then asked the Dalai Lama to calm down the same proposal to adequately assess the excitement and see what they can do with it already implies an invitation to change the emotion? "Well
"Said Mark-we want to convey is the need to learn to better manage the excitement that accompanies the emotion. We do not pretend that desembaracen of emotions, all I want is to learn to calm down so that they can then say to themselves: "I'm angry. Why am I angry? What I can do with this anger? "We do not invite them to deny their emotions, but only to modify the activation of the emotion and calm down before using our intelligence.
Paul Ekman stated, then, that means reducing the intensity of emotion. According
PATHS, then, any emotion is fine, but the actions resulting therefrom may not be, which, incidentally, contrasts sharply with the Buddhist notion that certain emotions are not good. The Dalai Lama then took some time to think before making a sign to Mark to continue.
"The fourth guideline is the" golden rule "," continued Mark, which we consider as a masterpiece of wisdom. For this we say to children: "Treat others as you would have them do unto you", an idea which obviously implies the need to assume point of view of others.
These are the four guidelines that try to pass again and again, but not only children but also teachers, the principal and all staff members who are in contact with children. "
The Dalai Lamathen returned to his earlier question:
"I seem to notice a contradiction between the claim that all emotions are good, but not the behavior and the fact that, only displayed an emotion (like anger, for example), they tell the children: "Calm down." Would not it be more appropriate to say something like, "I see you angry. I also get angry but would not it be better not to be so angry? ", Ie helping the child to calm the excitement that accompanies anger.
"This is just replied Mark, what we do. I do not see the slightest contradiction there and I think we do in practice what His Holiness has said.
CONTINUED ....
0 comments:
Post a Comment