Reading body language and empathy seperate?

Page 2 of 2 [ 21 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2

cavernio
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Aug 2012
Age: 41
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,462

02 Jan 2016, 3:19 pm

Ettina wrote:
It sounds like you may have trouble with higher-level theory of mind.

There are three distinct things that are often called 'empathy'.

The first is an emotional reaction more appropriate to your perception of someone else's situation, rather than your own. For example, if you believe a loved one is unhappy (whether they actually are or not), you feel unhappy. This is unaffected by autism.

The second is an ability to perceive and interpret nonverbal cues, such as eye gaze, facial expressions, tone of voice, etc. This is usually affected by autism, but probably not in your case.

The third is a cognitive ability to analyse your own and other people's thought patterns, to predict what they'll think or feel based on inferring what they are likely perceto understand the connection between your own perceptions and understanding of the world. This is also usually affected by autism, but I personally don't have trouble with this.

Citations needed. I disagree that the first thing is unaffected by autism. It rather seems that every autistic for whom the first doesn't apply argues vehemently that it is not a part of autism because they don't want people assuming they are that callous. I have yet to read any sort of scientific corroboration of that often touted 'fact'.

I don't know if I'm on the spectrum but I have issues with 1. It doesn't mean I want people to be unhappy at all, nor that i use people, but I have very little emotional sympathy. And no, this is not because i lack the second 2 things either.


_________________
Not autistic, I think
Prone to depression
Have celiac disease
Poor motivation


Last edited by cavernio on 02 Jan 2016, 3:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

cavernio
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Aug 2012
Age: 41
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,462

02 Jan 2016, 3:26 pm

Pieplup wrote:
Aren't reading body language and ready emotions separate?

Body language represent emotions much of the time, so they are kind of the same thing. However emotions can also be interpreted by things like tone inflection and actual words like 'I am angry'. There are also some body movements and motions that are purposefully put in by people as things closer to a real language,eg: someone giving you the finger or someone pointing a finger to their head like its a gun, but body language is not real language and it generally only conveys emotions.


_________________
Not autistic, I think
Prone to depression
Have celiac disease
Poor motivation


quaker
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Aug 2010
Age: 58
Gender: Male
Posts: 556
Location: London

02 Jan 2016, 4:06 pm

I have HFA and very righted- brained orientated - Most of the aspies I have met who are right brained have a more natural ability to read emotions in themselves and others.

As a child I had to be other-ly focused otherwise I would be humiliated and abused for being odd. This all enabled me to develop highly adaptive skills of reading people's emotional states of mind through non verbal means.

However much I can read body language in others - I teach the Alexander Technique - I am seriously challenged in conveying my feelings non verbally through body language.

The myraid of times I have presented myself to Accident and emergency with overwhelming pain, only to not be taken seriously because I can only intellectualize the expression of pain. The world for the most part operates non verbally.

I used to think that I had spent much of my life studying the human condition as apposed to allowing myself to be human. However, today I can accept myself for being just as I am, and this includes communicating differently my emotions and how I convey love.



rugulach
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 14 Jun 2014
Age: 2004
Gender: Male
Posts: 282

02 Jan 2016, 4:09 pm

cavernio wrote:
I disagree that the first thing is unaffected by autism.


Why?



Ettina
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Jan 2011
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,971

03 Jan 2016, 10:23 am

cavernio wrote:
Ettina wrote:
It sounds like you may have trouble with higher-level theory of mind.

There are three distinct things that are often called 'empathy'.

The first is an emotional reaction more appropriate to your perception of someone else's situation, rather than your own. For example, if you believe a loved one is unhappy (whether they actually are or not), you feel unhappy. This is unaffected by autism.

The second is an ability to perceive and interpret nonverbal cues, such as eye gaze, facial expressions, tone of voice, etc. This is usually affected by autism, but probably not in your case.

The third is a cognitive ability to analyse your own and other people's thought patterns, to predict what they'll think or feel based on inferring what they are likely perceto understand the connection between your own perceptions and understanding of the world. This is also usually affected by autism, but I personally don't have trouble with this.

Citations needed. I disagree that the first thing is unaffected by autism. It rather seems that every autistic for whom the first doesn't apply argues vehemently that it is not a part of autism because they don't want people assuming they are that callous. I have yet to read any sort of scientific corroboration of that often touted 'fact'.

I don't know if I'm on the spectrum but I have issues with 1. It doesn't mean I want people to be unhappy at all, nor that i use people, but I have very little emotional sympathy. And no, this is not because i lack the second 2 things either.


http://www.drru-research.org/data/resources/72/Jones-A.-P.-et-al.-2010..PDF

http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/11879/1/11879.pdf

http://www.nips.ac.jp/fmritms/conference/references/Mano/Blair_2005.pdf

Do you by chance have alexithymia? Alexithymia can affect emotional empathy.

http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/04/05/brain.awq060.full



cron