Psychology of peace is focus of new study

[Dover]

Psychology of peace is focus of new study

Posted on Tuesday, November 16 2004 @ 12:59 CST

Researchers at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology are studying the relationship between experiences of another culture and peaceful traits. This study may have important implications for creating and supporting peace in the world. The research concludes on November 30th, 2004.

Palo Alto, CA - As war continues to rage in Iraq, peaceful psychological qualities like empathy and compassion are being studied by researchers. At the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) in Palo Alto, California a research group is focusing intensely on those traits. They are asking if certain experiences of other cultures coincide with peaceful psychological traits. This research group is gathering data online until November 30th.
The ITP peace psychology research class has run at continuously since January 2002. The course was created to constructively respond to the tragedies experienced in America on September 11th, 2001. The enrolled students, instructed by Residential Academic Dean Paul Roy, Ph.D., have explored the nature and history of peace psychology; developed research questions; created an experiment to test their hypotheses; and now are in the data gathering stage of their research.

Participants in this study respond to a series of questions about themselves and their experience of other cultures. The participants then answer a series of questions that measure responses on psychological scales that relate to peaceful tendencies. On December 1st, the ITP students and Dr. Roy will begin analyzing the data. The research group will compare reported experiences with scores on the relevant peace scales. It is hoped that compelling patterns will emerge from the data so that the research group can make recommendations that increasing certain types of life experience may increase peace in the world....cont'd

http://www.plebius.org/article.php?article=668

[G_j]

1. long overdue

the study of 'peace' has been neglected. A huge blind spot.
Just consider how 'strange' so many find Kucinich's dream of a Dept. Of Peace.

[H2O Man]

2. It's a sad day ....

when our nation finds thoughts of peace foreign, and mistakes empathy for weakness, and confuses Bush's policy with compassion.

[orpupilofnature57]

3. A study in this human nature will expose the divisive,selfish,shrubs e.o.

[Dover]

4. Another study: Fear is Spread By Body Language

Fear Is Spread by Body Language, Study Says

Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News
November 16, 2004



A menacing body posture can be as threatening as a frightening facial expression, according to new research.
In the past, scientists have said that human emotions are communicated mainly by facial expressions. But a new study suggests that body posture may be as important as the face in communicating emotions such as fear.

The discovery suggests that the immediate response to other people's fear may be more automatic than previously thought.

The study shows that images of fear affect the emotional part of the brain. Since the link between the emotional brain and action is stronger than the link between the visual brain and action, viewing fearful body expressions may automatically prepare the observer to respond to fear.

"When we talk about how humans communicate, we always talk about things like language," said Beatrice de Gelder, the neuroscientist who led the study. "But just like in the animal world, we also communicate through our bodies without our conscious minds being much aware of it."

De Gelder is a professor at both Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, and Tilburg University in the Netherlands. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week....cont'd

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/11/1116_041116_fear_posture.html