Emotional Development in People with High Capacities: Induction of Emotions through Pictorial Abstraction

Isabel De La Cuétara

doi:10.3390/su12155912

Isabel De La Cuétara

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12155912

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Jul 23, 2020
Citations: 1	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: National University of Distance Education

Abstract

The goal of this work was to help the researcher that studies emotions in people with high capacities (HCs) to understand and intervene in the socio-emotional aspects of this group, considering the features of their profile that present a certain specificity. The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) developed by Lang, and based on the dimensional theory of emotions, was applied using abstract works by Kandinsky and Mondrian as emotional stimuli. The study was conducted with university students not classified as HC, to represent the normative group and enable the establishment of comparisons, to verify the existence of social-emotional mismatches in the individuals considered HC. The results indicate that the stimuli used elicit emotional states with valence and medium-high arousal that are free of connotations derived from figurative representation and correspond only to the sensory properties of the stimulus (colour, shape, etc.), which facilitate the study of traits such as emotional intensity and sensitivity.

Highlights

In 1991, the Columbus Group, chaired by Silverman, defined high abilities (HA) as the result of an asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive capacity and hyper-emotional intensity combine to give rise to personal experiences and perceptions of the world that are qualitatively different from those of the normative group to which the person belongs
This gap in development presented by high capacities (HCs) people is defined as a discordance between the mental and chronological age, a discordance that results in difficulties that are not presented by those whose evolutionary development is harmonious
As a consequence of the research derived from Dabrowski’s approach, several researchers [8,9,10,11,12] proposed the existence of a set of features that, without constituting a defined profile and maintaining the variability observed in socio-emotional manifestations, are common to HC, among others: emotional intensity and sensitivity, perfectionism, high empathy and emotional awareness, rebelliousness, altruism, etc

Summary

Introduction

In 1991, the Columbus Group, chaired by Silverman, defined high abilities (HA) as the result of an asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive capacity and hyper-emotional intensity combine to give rise to personal experiences and perceptions of the world that are qualitatively different from those of the normative group to which the person belongs. As a consequence of the research derived from Dabrowski’s approach, several researchers [8,9,10,11,12] proposed the existence of a set of features that, without constituting a defined profile and maintaining the variability observed in socio-emotional manifestations, are common to HC, among others: emotional intensity and sensitivity, perfectionism, high empathy and emotional awareness, rebelliousness, altruism, etc Of these social-emotional traits, emotional sensitivity and intensity are highlighted, since they were investigated under the prism of Dabrowski’s theory of emotional development, which means that the interpretation of the results moves away from considering HC people as misfits, but as ordinary people. The aim of this work was essentially to offer the researcher a set of emotional stimuli, as proposed by Lang et al [27], which allow the precise selection of the stimuli according to their position in the affective space, defined by the dimensions of valence, activation, and dominance

Participants

Stimuli

Results