Mind and body

This project examines the explanatory style of Colombians, the habitual way in
which they explain the good and bad events that occur in their lives, and its relationship
to life satisfaction. Two hundred and twenty Colombians completed a life satisfaction
question, the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ), and demographic questions.
Simple means, correlations, and a multiple regression analysis were used to assess the
results. The results of the ASQ were also compared to two previously conducted studies:
a comparison of American and Chinese national levels of explanatory style and a study
conducted on a non-clinical sample of American adults. The results of this study showed
that the mean of Colombian overall explanatory style is more optimistic than the mean
overall explanatory style for participants in both the United States and mainland China.
There are no correlations between individual responses of life satisfaction and
explanatory style for the full sample; however, national means for explanatory style seem
to correlate with national means of life satisfaction. The multiple regression analysis showed that when taking explanatory style, gender, age, stratum, income, education,
occupation, and city into account, the only factors that are statistically significant are
occupation and city. More specifically, the results show that those Colombians who Jive
in Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, and Medillfn will tend to have higher levels of life
satisfaction than those who live in Bogota, and those who are unemployed will tend to
have a lower level of life satisfaction than those who work.

How do neuronal connectivity and the dynamics of distributed brain networks process
information during bimanual coordination? Contemporary brain theories of cognitive
function posit spatial, temporal and spatiotemporal network reorganization as mechanisms
for neural information processing. In this dissertation, rhythmic bimanual coordination is
studied as a window into neural information processing and subsequently an investigation of
underlying network reorganization processes is performed. Spatiotemporal reorganization
between effectors (limbs) is parameterized in a theoretical model via a continuously varying
cross-talk parameter that represents neural connectivity. Thereby, effector dynamics during
coordinated behavior is shown to be influenced by the cross-talk parameter and time delays
involved in signal processing. In particular, stability regimes of coordination patterns
as a function of cross-talk, movement frequency and the time delays are derived. On the
methodological front , spatiotemporal reorganization of neural masses are used to simulate
electroencephalographic data. A suitable choice of experimental control conditions is used
to derive a paradigmatic framework called Mode Level Cognitive Subtraction (MLCS) which
is demonstrated to facilitate the disambiguation between spatial and temporal components
of the reorganization processes to a quantifiable degree of certainty. In the experimental
section, MLCS is applied to electroencephalographic recordings during rhythmic bimanual
task conditions and unimanual control conditions. Finally, a classification of reorganization
processes is achieved for differing stability states of coordination: inphase (mirror) primarily
entails temporal reorganization of sensorimotor networks localized during unimanual
movement whereas spatiotemporal reorganization is involved during antiphase (parallel)
coordination.

The practice of yoga is an increasingly popularized movement within the West that incorporates the desire for physical fitness, spiritual consciousness, and environmentalism. Emanating from the New Age movement, the popularity of yoga has proliferated as a subculture that seeks to encourage mind–body wellbeing while representing an ethos that assumes environmental responsibility. This thesis examines the techniques of modern yoga and the influence that asana (posture) and meditational relaxation have on the senses and subsequently on environmental awareness and activism.

Many studies have supported the overall health benefits of mindfulness meditation practices for adults, but research exploring such benefits for children is sparse. The present study explored the psychophysiological effects of mindfulness meditation over a 10 week-period on a sample of 2nd-and 4th-grade children. Electroencephalograph (EEG) asymmetry and coherence were recorded at baseline and immediately after the meditation intervention for the experimental group, and at baseline and after 10 weeks for the control group. Measures of affect, behavioral motivation, creativity, and depression were also administered. The primary findings indicated that when improvement in depressive symptoms occurred for 4th-grade students who were somewhat engaged in meditation practice, left-sided frontal EEG activity was also more prominent. Additionally, 4th-grade students who actively participated in meditation practice experienced decreases in self-reported levels of negative affect. Results suggest that mindfulness meditation is beneficial for improving 4th-grade students’ mood and brain regions associated with mood.

This study is a pilot concerning the relationship between acute pain management and biofeedback training. The population studied included patients from a local community hospital undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery. The study applied theories of the mind/body connection and stress frameworks for exploring the correlation between patients' hand temperatures and their reported levels of pain pre-operatively and post-operatively. Study findings indicated that there was significant within-subjects effect in hand temperature after biofeedback treatment across three points in time. But the study also found no difference between-subjects in hand temperature after biofeedback treatment across three points in time. Therefore, the sample proved to be heterogeneous. Further study was indicated with larger samples to demonstrate the analgesic effects of biofeedback in the management of acute pain.

In this paper the literature of shamanism as well as psychology, biofeedback, hypnosis and other alternative therapies was researched, synthesized, and combined with direct clinical experience to provide a broad context for discussing why shamanic healing works. This approach was used in order to move shamanism out of the area of magic and sleight-of-hand into explanation systems more acceptable to western minds. Shamanic healing methods are demonstrated to be similar to those underlying many alternative therapies, especially in their use of altered states of consciousness and self-healing. Examples are given of their effectiveness in overcoming the broad spectrum of illnesses caused by alienation and separation which are presently beyond the healing powers of allopathic medicine and psychology. Finally, ways to integrate shamanic philosophy and the potential efficacy of its healing approaches into psychology and allopathic medicine are suggested, an integration shown to be prerequisite to a genuine lasting cure for the ills of an alienated society.

The ethnographic research conducted for this thesis focuses on why some Florida residents opt for complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapies, specifically acupuncture, when conventional biomedical therapies are also available. Some of the variables include dissatisfaction with current biomedical practice, economic status, social and peer pressure, and curiosity. The results are compared with national trends on CAM usage. In this study, it was found that the primary reason that individuals opt for CAM modalities was their negative experience with the practice of biomedicine. Overall, participants who have undergone a course of acupuncture therapy are empowered, relieved, and healthy.

This design thesis project explores the psychology, significance, and power of play. The value of play is supported through historical and cultural context. Research for the subject unfolds the relationship between play, productivity and the mastery of creative thinking. Examination of the engagement of play addresses its power to inspire in both design education and practice. It also touches upon crucial dynamics of physical, intellectual, social, and emotional development in the human life cycle of learning. As the facilitator of play in the context of three-dimensional space, I seek to elucidate the value of activating human behaviors that stimulate play such as curiosity, imagination, spontaneity, and personal expression. Serious fun is no game; play provides a meaningful strategy for solving serious design problems and developing mastery in the classroom and the practice of design.

This dissertation focuses on the elements of performance that contribute to the actress's development of somatic practices. By mastering the art of articulation and vocalization, by transforming their bodies and their environment, these actors created their own agency. The female actors lived the life of the characters they portrayed, which were full of multicultural models from various social and economic classes. Somaesthetics, as a focus of sensory-aesthetic appreciation and somatic awareness, provides a pragmatic approach to understanding the unique way in which the woman of the early modern Spanish stage, while dedicating herself to the art of acting, challenged the negative cultural and social constructs imposed on her. Drawing from early modern plays and treatises on the precepts and practices of the acting process, I use somaesthetics to shed light on how the actor might have prepared for a role in a comedia, selfconsciously cultivating her body in order to meet the challenges of the stage.

Establishing and maintaining a clear and stable view of oneself is one of the major goals that human beings are motivated by. Individuals' environment is overflowing with a variety of self-relevant feedback. Yet, humans are able to generalize their experience into idiosyncratic self-concept, that despite being the largest, and most complex of all cognitive structures provides a good frame of reference for regulation of action, emotion, and cognition. This research project examined a dynamic model of self-regulation that explains how humans manage to arrive at and maintain a coherent understanding of who they are and what they are like despite the abundance and constant influx of often contradictory self-relevant information. The dynamic model of self-regulation emphasizes the role of selective attention to specific regions of the self-concept as a prerequisite for self-concept adaptive development and functional expression. From a dynamical systems perspective the self-concept is conceptualized as a dynamic cognitive structure of knowledge that becomes organized into meaningful self-aspects (i.e., identities, self-perceived traits, roles) that differ with respect to evaluative coherence. Some self-aspects are coherent and comprise exclusively positive or exclusively negative elements, while other do not achieve evaluative coherence and are comprised of self-beliefs with mixed evaluations. As the focus of conscious attention changes between coherent and incoherent areas, the experience of Self and implications of self-concept for ongoing processes change accordingly. The total number of 296 participants took part in four studies conducted in Poland and in the United States.