{"id":19621,"date":"2014-03-14T02:08:25","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T06:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=19621"},"modified":"2015-06-08T08:26:19","modified_gmt":"2015-06-08T12:26:19","slug":"well-known-psychologist-returns-to-emu-to-discuss-research-on-relationships-and-interdependence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/well-known-psychologist-returns-to-emu-to-discuss-research-on-relationships-and-interdependence\/","title":{"rendered":"Well-known psychologist returns to EMU to discuss research on relationships and interdependence"},"content":{"rendered":"

During a recent lecture at Eastern Mennonite University, James Coan<\/a>, PhD, demonstrated why his work has been widely featured in both the academic and popular presses. Coan, associate professor of clinical psychology and director of the Virginia Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Virginia, struck a playful yet serious tone while discussing his groundbreaking study of how relationships affect emotions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t electric shock children. Even I wouldn\u2019t do that,\u201d Coan reassured the audience, with an infectious laugh.<\/p>\n

At EMU\u2019s 2011 Attachment Conference<\/a>, Coan delivered a keynote address entitled \u201cThe Social Regulation of Emotion<\/a>.\u201d That presentation was published as a chapter in the conference book, Integrating the New Science of Love and a Spirituality of Peace: Becoming Human Again<\/i><\/a> (Cascade Books, 2013).<\/p>\n

On March 10, 2014, Coan brought his chock-a-block Powerpoint slides back to EMU for another entertaining, anecdote-filled lecture about his neuroscience research on how simply holding a loved one’s hand can regulate stress in threatening situations.<\/p>\n

Research shows calming effect of companionship<\/h3>\n

In his lab, Coan shows subjects threat cues on a screen that indicate a one-in-five chance of receiving a small electric shock to the ankle. Using an MRI scanner and cutting-edge brain-mapping tools, he and his colleagues observe blood flow through various regions of their brains when exposed to this threat of pain.<\/p>\n

These threat cues and shocks are administered under three conditions: with the subjects alone, while holding the hands of strangers and while holding their spouses\u2019 hands.<\/p>\n

Coan and his team of researchers found that holding a loved one\u2019s hand during stressful and threatening situations causes a big decrease in the response to threat when compared to being alone or holding a stranger\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

In cases when their subjects, reassured by a spouse\u2019s presence, showed a decreased threat response, Coan and other neuroscientists expected an alternate sector of the brain to \u201clight up.\u201d Curiously, however, they found that no other area of the brain was doing this. This suggests, Coan says, that an expected function of the test subject\u2019s brain was being \u201coutsourced\u201d to another person.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn traditional psychology, we see the individual \u2013 the single person \u2013 as our unit of analysis. But what if that isn\u2019t the case?\u201d asks Coan. Accordingly, he and his fellow researchers have proposed an alternative perspective, which they call \u201csocial-baseline theory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interdependence as a survival strategy<\/h3>\n

Humans are not designed to efficiently solve problems alone, Coan continues. \u201cWe are designed to be interdependent, always and constantly to be placed in a social frame,\u201d he says. Alone, we have to devote more of our brain\u2019s resources to solving problems and responding to threats. \u201cIf you are by yourself, the world is a more daunting place.\u201d<\/p>\n

He saved the \u201cweirdest\u201d (his descriptor) bit for last as he postulated what folks from the world\u2019s religious traditions will readily affirm: The \u201cself\u201d is extendable and dynamic, distributed and malleable, and most at home when connected to a healthy community.<\/p>\n

The significance of Coan\u2019s research, says Christian Early<\/a>, professor of philosophy & theology<\/a>, is its suggestion that life \u201cis much less daunting \u2026 in a community in which you can trust that people are there for you in a moment of need.\u201d The bright side of community in the Anabaptist tradition \u2013 \u201csending help to a far corner of the world or a sign-up list for bringing meals to someone who has fallen sick\u201d \u2013 is, however, not the complete picture.<\/p>\n

Early points to \u201cthe shadow-side of community: betrayal, conflict and histories of abuse. If we want to take seriously our mission to bring healing to the world, we will need to accept that that includes the inner world as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coan\u2019s work has been featured in the New York Times, Time, BBC News, Discovery Channel and other major media outlets, and his groundbreaking research with John Gottman appeared in Malcolm Gladwell\u2019s bestseller Blink<\/i>. He also has about 70 academic publications to his name<\/a>. (Interestingly, his first paper describing the hand-holding research was rejected by six journals prior to its 2006 publication.)<\/p>\n

His visit was co-sponsored by Shenandoah Anabaptist Science Society and EMU\u2019s master of arts in counseling program<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During a recent lecture at Eastern Mennonite University, James Coan, PhD, demonstrated why his work has been widely featured in both the academic and popular presses. 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