What I'm Reading: The Next Bit of My Book...

Well, hello there.

It is time to start reading my book again - Emotional Processes in Music Therapy, by John Pellitteri. I am in Chapter Four and have reached page 78. There are about 160 pages to go before I hit the references. Let's see if I can get to the end of this book by the end of the calendar year...

Anyway, time to head back into the ideas...

Emotional States - p. 78 - emotional states are "inferred constructs." I like this statement because it means that all states have to be interpreted - either by the person experiencing them or by others who are observing specific behaviors.

There are five theories shared in the text - each of these is based on the research and information from specific researchers.

Physiological-Behavioral - James-Lange

Cognitive Appraisal Theory - Lazarus

Cognitive View - Implicit Memory Model

Physiological-Cognitive - Schachter & Singer

Social-Cognitive - Sociology, Cultural Psychology

In these different foundational emotional theories and approaches, several things are in common - there are internal responses and settings that produce behaviors that are interpreted, often through a cultural set of expectations. These ideas seem to vary based on how and when these responses and interpretations occur. For this in the Implicit Memory Model corner, many of these responses seem to start in infancy without the framework of verbal language to define the feelings. There is lots of discussion about "mental representation" and where people develop their meanings of various emotions.

Emotional Expressions - p. 89 - We start this part of the chapter talking about various ways that humans express emotional content - nonverbal and verbal indicators. When looking at how people communicate with a view of both historical and cultural aspects of experience, it becomes interesting to start to understand why someone might not understand that hitting someone else causes that other person pain - it was not a sensation that was interpreted as a bad one in previous interactions with humans. Perhaps pain was always interpreted as love rather than pain. This provides me a new way of approaching clients within a trauma-informed context. It also provides a satisfying sense of closure within the behavioral and humanistic contexts that I choose for my own life as a music therapist.

Emotional Experiences - p. 93 - conscious attention to physiological states and the subsequent evaluation of those states and the social expectations of the culture. Often, we do not have the words to label how we feel. We may find ourselves reacting to things that others may not notice at all, and there is little to no reasoning for the reaction. I can relate to this concept due to what I thought was an irrational fear of fireworks that turns out to be related to a significant accident at a fireworks show where things went wrong. I also have visceral responses to the thoughts of specific things that I don't know why I respond that way. For example, I feel nauseous when someone talks about cooking pancakes. I don't know why. I can eat pancakes if I am not around the cooking process, but I cannot endure the process of cooking pancakes - either being present or even thinking about the process.

Excuse me as I try to get something to settle my nervous stomach...See?

It is interesting to see the idea that emotions are learned and cultural in nature. That really resonates with me with the clients I work with daily. My students often respond to things that I find very aversive in ways that do not match my expectations - I have learned that these situations are not good for me. They have not. Part of my job is to expand their emotional vocabulary and experience in ways that enrich their response repertoire and awareness.

That's the end of the chapter!