Lesson 2 – Theory of Mind/Intuitive Psychology & Perspective-Taking

Theory of Mind/Intuitive Psychology & Perspective-Taking

VIDEO REVIEW 

1. Cognitive attunement and insight are accomplished primarily by employing Theory of Mind/Intuitive Psychology and the Perspective Taking process.  
2. Theory of Mind describes how we unconsciously project our internal mental and emotional states onto others, assuming they see the world and process experience much as we do.
3. The assumption that the other has a sense-of-self similar to our own facilitates the ability to understand the other’s thoughts and feelings.
4. Perspective Taking, the ability to put yourself in the other person’s shoes, employs separate but functionally overlapping “Self”/”Other” brain areas.
5. As you focus on yourself or the other person, the “Self” and “Other” brain areas are both partially engaged. The degree of engagement of these “Self/Other” brain areas is largely an unconscious process.        
6. Five Psycho-Social Factors unconsciously inform the extent to which you may be willing to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.
7. In early development we acquire the ability to cognitively override the hardwired aspects of empathy, which protects against emotional contagion and embodied simulation, helping us maintain an autonomous sense-of-self.

Perspective Taking – The Importance of Cognitive Override

REVIEW

The ability to put yourself in the other person’s shoes is a complex process that employs separate but overlapping brain areas.

We have separate brain cortices that activate when thinking about oneself, or the other person. However, there is functional overlap between these separate brain areas.

When the “I/Me” brain area is engaged, the “Other” perspective is also partially engaged and vice versa. Thus, our brain has a “Self/Other” system and thinking about self or other is not an either/or proposition.

The degree of engagement of these Self/Other brain areas is largely an unconscious process as you focus on yourself, or on the other person.

The extent to which you will entertain one perspective or the other (Self/Other) will largely depend on five psycho-social factors;

1. Social, moral & ethical context
2. Level of emotional distress involved
3. Nature of your personal history in relationships in general (going back to childhood)
4. Your personal history with this particular person
5. The perceived similarities between Self and Other in terms of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender

The Self/Other system naturally develops as a protection against emotional contagion and the potential of being overwhelmed by the other person’s feelings.

Paradoxically, without the cognitive ability to override the embodied simulation and emotional contagion phenomena, we would be confused about our emotional boundaries. Early in our development we unconsciously learn how to cognitively shut off the hard-wired components of empathy to help maintain an autonomous sense-of-self.