scholarly journals Examining interpersonal self-transcendence as a potential mechanism linking meditation and social outcomes

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoona Kang
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
The Self ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Social Outcomes ◽  
Meditation Practice ◽  
Potential Mechanism ◽  
Social Signals ◽  
Self Transcendence ◽  
The Brain

Distinct types of meditation practice addressed in this review can help cultivate skills people may bring to later social interactions. We examine self-transcendence, or the drive to benefit others beyond the self, as a key mechanism through which meditation may promote positive social outcomes. Self-transcendence cultivated through various styles of meditation can impact social outcomes through two main pathways: First, self-transcendence can turn rigid, defensive self-focus into flexible and receptive self-construals. Second, it can increase positive other-focus by integrating reward and social signals in the brain. These accounts offer one practical solution of positively transforming social relations and highlight potential usefulness of considering self-transcendence in researching social effects of meditation.

scholarly journals The Neural Basis of Shared Preference Learning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Farmer ◽  
Uri Hertz ◽  
Antonia Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
The Self ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Neural Processes ◽  
Specific Manner ◽  
The Brain

AbstractDuring our daily lives, we often learn about the similarity of the traits and preferences of others to our own and use that information during our social interactions. However, it is unclear how the brain represents similarity between the self and others. One possible mechanism is to track similarity to oneself regardless of the identity of the other (Similarity account); an alternative is to track each confederate in terms of consistency of the similarity to the self, with respect to the choices they have made before (consistency account). Our study combined fMRI and computational modelling of reinforcement learning (RL) to investigate the neural processes that underlie learning about preference similarity. Participants chose which of two pieces of artwork they preferred and saw the choices of one confederate who usually shared their preference and another who usually did not. We modelled neural activation with RL models based on the similarity and consistency accounts. Data showed more brain regions whose activity pattern fits with the consistency account, specifically, areas linked to reward and social cognition. Our findings suggest that impressions of other people can be calculated in a person-specific manner which assumes that each individual behaves consistently with their past choices.

The interaction between the self and the environment – a two way traffic due to the brain

2000 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Karli
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Goal Pursuit ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
The Self ◽  
Affective Processes ◽  
The Brain

Affective processes fuel and orient social behaviour throughout life; if they did not exist, there would be no striving, no goal-pursuit, no goal-oriented action. Two interconnected brain regions are deeply involved in the socially adaptive functions of affect and emotion. Both the maturation and functioning of the brain mechanisms involved undergo the shaping influence of the manifold experience that is derived from social interactions.

Self-Transcendence: Conceptualization and Measurement

2005 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Levenson ◽  
Patricia A. Jennings ◽  
Carolyn M. Aldwin ◽  
Ray W. Shiraishi
Keyword(s):  
Principal Axis ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The Self ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Meditation Practice ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Principal Axis Factor Analysis ◽  
Self Transcendence ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Principal Axis Factor

Self-transcendence has been hypothesized to be a critical component of wisdom (Curnow, 1999) and adaptation in later life (Tornstam, 1994). It reflects a decreasing reliance on externals for definition of the self, increasing interiority and spirituality, and a greater sense of connectedness with past and future generations. The Adult Self-Transcendence Inventory was administered to 351 individuals along with the NEO-FFI Personality Scale (McCrae & Costa, 1989). A principal axis factor analysis identified two factors: self-transcendence and alienation. The relationships between self-transcendence and neuroticism, openness to experience, extraversion, and agreeableness were significant, although modest, suggesting that self-transcendence cannot be accounted for in terms of positive personality traits alone. As expected, a multiple regression analysis indicated that self-transcendence was negatively related to neuroticism and positively related to meditation practice. The present study appears to lend support to the construct of self-transcendence.

Narcissism and Political Left-Right Orientation in view of Basic Human Values

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatma Ülkü Selçuk ◽  
Nil Demet Güngör
Keyword(s):  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Openness To Change ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Political Left ◽  
Self Transcendence

<p>The study explores the relation of narcissism to political orientation and their association with basic human values, using an undergraduate sample from Turkey. Leftwing orientation is weakly and negatively correlated with narcissism, and specifically with its self-sufficiency dimension. Leftwing is correlated positively with universalism and negatively with tradition. Narcissism is positively correlated with the self-enhancement and openness to change dimensions and negatively correlated with the self-transcendence and conservatism dimensions of the basic values. Hierarchical regression results indicate that the value tradition is a stronger predictor of political orientation than narcissism. In multinomial logistic regression, for narcissism, statistical significance appears for only extreme right compared to moderate left political positions. We did not find power-hunger to be related to political orientation. We did not find pro-sociality to be related to familial-religious customs. We did not find any sex difference for mean narcissism scores. However, females are more leftwing oriented than males and they report more eagerness to strive for justice for others. Striving for justice for others is negatively correlated with the value power; positively correlated with leftwing orientation and striving for justice for self; and uncorrelated with narcissism. Males have higher mean scores for the value tradition and females have higher mean scores for the value security.</p>

Narcissism and Political Left-Right Orientation in view of Basic Human Values

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatma Ülkü Selçuk ◽  
Nil Demet Güngör
Keyword(s):  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Openness To Change ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Political Left ◽  
Self Transcendence

<p>The study explores the relation of narcissism to political orientation and their association with basic human values, using an undergraduate sample from Turkey. Leftwing orientation is weakly and negatively correlated with narcissism, and specifically with its self-sufficiency dimension. Leftwing is correlated positively with universalism and negatively with tradition. Narcissism is positively correlated with the self-enhancement and openness to change dimensions and negatively correlated with the self-transcendence and conservatism dimensions of the basic values. Hierarchical regression results indicate that the value tradition is a stronger predictor of political orientation than narcissism. In multinomial logistic regression, for narcissism, statistical significance appears for only extreme right compared to moderate left political positions. We did not find power-hunger to be related to political orientation. We did not find pro-sociality to be related to familial-religious customs. We did not find any sex difference for mean narcissism scores. However, females are more leftwing oriented than males and they report more eagerness to strive for justice for others. Striving for justice for others is negatively correlated with the value power; positively correlated with leftwing orientation and striving for justice for self; and uncorrelated with narcissism. Males have higher mean scores for the value tradition and females have higher mean scores for the value security.</p>

From many to one: Meditation and the plasticity of the predictive mind

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruben Laukkonen ◽  
Heleen A Slagter
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
The Self ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Conceptual Processing ◽  
Current State ◽  
Contemplative Science ◽  
Open Monitoring ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
The Brain

How profoundly can humans change their own minds? In this paper we offer a unifying account of meditation under the predictive processing view of living organisms. We start from relatively simple axioms. First, the brain is an organ that serves to predict based on past experience, both phylogenetic and ontogenetic. Second, meditation serves to bring one closer to the here and now by disengaging from anticipatory processes. We propose that practicing meditation therefore gradually reduces predictive processing, in particular counterfactual cognition—the tendency to construct abstract and temporally deep representations—until all conceptual processing falls away. Our Many- to-One account also places three main styles of meditation (focused attention, open monitoring, and non-dual meditation) on a single continuum, where each technique progressively relinquishes increasingly engrained habits of prediction, including the self. This deconstruction can also make the above processes available to introspection, permitting certain insights into one’s mind. Our review suggests that our framework is consistent with the current state of empirical and (neuro)phenomenological evidence in contemplative science, and is ultimately illuminating about the plasticity of the predictive mind. It also serves to highlight that contemplative science can fruitfully go beyond cognitive enhancement, attention, and emotion regulation, to its more traditional goal of removing past conditioning and creating conditions for potentially profound insights. Experimental rigor, neurophenomenology, and no-report paradigms combined with neuroimaging are needed to further our understanding of how different styles of meditation affect predictive processing and the self, and the plasticity of the predictive mind more generally.

The ”true me”—one or many?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris Berent ◽  
Melanie Platt
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
True Self ◽  
Behavioral Test ◽  
Brain Scan ◽  
Moral Behaviors ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Constraint Ranking

Recent results suggest that people hold a notion of the true self, distinct from the self. Here, we seek to further elucidate the “true me”—whether it is good or bad, material or immaterial. Critically, we ask whether the true self is unitary. To address these questions, we invited participants to reason about John—a character who simultaneously exhibits both positive and negative moral behaviors. John’s character was gauged via two tests--a brain scan and a behavioral test, whose results invariably diverged (i.e., one test indicated that John’s moral core is positive and another negative). Participants assessed John’s true self along two questions: (a) Did John commit his acts (positive and negative) freely? and (b) What is John’s essence really? Responses to the two questions diverged. When asked to evaluate John’s moral core explicitly (by reasoning about his free will), people invariably descried John’s true self as good. But when John’s moral core was assessed implicitly (by considering his essence), people sided with the outcomes of the brain test. These results demonstrate that people hold conflicting notions of the true self. We formally support this proposal by presenting a grammar of the true self, couched within Optimality Theory. We show that the constraint ranking necessary to capture explicit and implicit view of the true self are distinct. Our intuitive belief in a true unitary “me” is thus illusory.

scholarly journals Three Strategies for Describing Social Interactions of Adolescents in a Multicultural Environment—Indicators for the Quality of Life Research

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (15) ◽  
pp. 8166
Author(s):  
Alicja Szerląg ◽  
Arkadiusz Urbanek ◽  
Kamila Gandecka
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Life Assessment ◽  
Multicultural Environment ◽  
Multicultural Community ◽  
The Social

Background: The analysis has involved social interactions in a multicultural environment. The social context has been defined by the Vilnius region (Lithuania), where national, religious, and cultural differences exist across generations (multicultural community). The space of “social relationships”, as one of the modules of the WHO quality of life assessment, has been studied. An innovation of the research has been related to the analysis of the phenomenon of community of nationalities and cultures as a predictor of quality of life (QoL). The social motive of the research has been the historical continuity (for centuries) of the construction of the Vilnius cultural borderland. Here, the local community evolves from a group of many cultures to an intercultural community. Interpreting the data, therefore, requires a long perspective (a few generations) to understand the quality of relationships. We see social interactions and strategies for building them as a potential for social QoL in multicultural environments. Methods: The research has been conducted on a sample of 374 respondents, including Poles (172), Lithuanians (133), and Russians (69). A diagnostic poll has been used. The respondents were adolescents (15–16 years). The research answers the question: What variables form the interaction strategies of adolescents in a multicultural environment? The findings relate to interpreting the social interactions of adolescents within the boundaries of their living environment. The description of the social relations of adolescents provides an opportunity to implement the findings for further research on QoL. Results: An innovative outcome of the research is the analysis of 3 interaction strategies (attachment to national identification, intercultural dialogue, and multicultural community building) as a background for interpreting QoL in a multicultural environment. Their understanding is a useful knowledge for QoL researchers. The data analysis has taken into account cultural and generational (historical) sensitivities. Therefore, the team studying the data has consisted of researchers and residents of the Vilnius region. We used the interaction strategies of adolescents to describe the category of “social relationships” in nationally and culturally diverse settings.

Neural Dynamics in the Processing of Personal Objects as an Index of the Brain Representation of the Self

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Muñoz ◽  
Pilar Casado ◽  
David Hernández-Gutiérrez ◽  
Laura Jiménez-Ortega ◽  
Sabela Fondevila ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Neural Dynamics ◽  
The Brain
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