The Art and Science of Embodied Research Design

Concepts, Methods and Cases

Jennifer Frank Tantia, Jennifer Frank Tantia

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000218596
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Investigación en educación

The Art and Science of Embodied Research Design: Concepts, Methods, and Cases offers some of the nascent perspectives that situate embodiment as a necessary element in human research. This edited volume brings together philosophical foundations of embodiment research with application of embodied methods from several disciplines.

The book is divided into two sections. Part I, Concepts in Embodied Research Design, suggests ways that embodied epistemology may bring deeper understanding to current research theory, and describes the ways in which embodiment is an integral part of the research process. In Part II, Methods and Cases, chapters propose novel ways to operationalize embodied data in the research process. The section is divided into four sub-sections: Somatic Systems of Analysis, Movement Systems of Analysis, Embodied Interviews and Observations, and Creative and Mixed Methods. Each chapter proposes a method case; an example of a previously used research method that exemplifies the way in which embodiment is used in a study.

As such, it can be used as scaffold for designing embodied methods that suits the researcher's needs. It is suited for many fields of study such as psychology, sociology, behavioral science, anthropology, education, and arts-based research. It will be useful for graduate coursework in somatic studies or as a supplemental text for courses in traditional research design.

PART I
Concepts in embodied
research

1
EMBODIED RESEARCH DESIGN – A
TRANSFORMATIONAL PARADIGM IN
SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY

Michael Changaris

Embodiment has been studied systematically for decades (Shapiro, 2010; Wilson, 2002). This literature has produced measurable predictable outcomes with clear implications for research design and hypothesis development, as well as new implications for addressing confounding factors, hypothesis testing, and understanding research (Lakoff & Johnson, 2008). In the literature on embodiment and cognitive science, three core principles have immerged that can be used as guides for a method of embodied study construction and research design (Barsalou, 2008).

The first of these three principles is that embodiment is “situated,” i.e., there is a specific time, place, memory, working model, and history (Barsalou, 2008; Wilson, 2002). Rather than attempting to separate out history and location, embodiment recognizes that history and location are core aspects of understanding a process. The second core aspect of embodiment is that bodily/system states change outcomes. States often act like a filter on the behavior of the system e.g. stress changes memory test outcomes. The third aspect of embodiment is simulation. The brain is fundamentally developed for actions and predicting outcomes of actions, which requires a model (i.e., simulation) of the self, one’s ability, and the world. Embodied simulation creates working models of the environment and the available responses to the world (i.e. affordances) (Barsalou, 2008; Gallese, 2011; Wilson, 2002).

Situated embodiment

Embodied understanding is situated in a location and responds to a specific time and a specific place from a particular history (Anderson, 2003). Embodiment in research seeks to understand the impact of location, place, and history on processes and outcomes, while the aim of traditional research is to remove context as thoroughly as possible. Conversely, embodied research incorporates context, folds it into design, and lets context inform outcomes (Anderson, 2003).

The most paradigm shifting aspect of situated embodiment for research and research design is that context is a fundamental part of outcomes and cannot be ignored. It requires researchers to stop simply attempting to control away and eliminate the impacts of context, culture, history, and environment and to consider how these factors affect a studied phenomenon in a systematic way. Situated embodiment necessitates that researchers begin to ask three core questions about phenomenon: when, in what context, and what other factors need to be present for an outcome to occur (Anderson, 2003).

One of the more egregious reductionist attempts to decontextualize reality pertains to controlling away female bodies in research design (Liu & Dipietro Mager, 2016). Many medications, treatments, and interventions have never been studied in women due to a prevailing view in the research community that women’s or female animal bodies are too complex and the monthly fluctuations impact the outcomes. However, this approach ignores the fact that the complexity is the data (Liu & Dipietro Mager, 2016).

The irony, from a research perspective, is that fluctuations in female bodily states were expected to be sufficient enough to impact data in a significant way, but no significant effort was dedicated to elucidating what that impact might be. For 51% of humanity, these fluctuations and their interaction with a medication are fundamental to both pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. However, looking at this issue through the lens of situated embodiment, one could not simply wash that data right out of the study. There is no current way of knowing how many lives have been lost or damaged by ignoring the impact of situated embodied effects of sex or genetic differences on a medication’s action on the body.

Systemic behaviors are the emergent behaviors present in a system when a sufficient proportion of its components are interacting (Anderson, 2003; Barsalou, 2008; Wilson, 2002). Situated systemic factors have two core components – structures (defined parts of a system that interact) and dynamics (how the parts interact, create emergent properties and system behaviors). Structural factors are rather broad in their definition and can include other systems, behaviors (affordances available to a system structure/person/part), processes (e.g., chemical behaviors like gradients), objects (e.g., chemicals, buildings, airports, cities etc.). Systemic dynamics are interactional behaviors of the system that emerge as epi-phenomena (emergent properties) when enough system components are present (some of these are feedback loops, feedforward loops, cascades, bifurcations, paradoxical reactions, and many others).

Understanding the components of a system can help elucidate how they interact; however, at some level, these interactions must be examined as well. The hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA-Axis) is central to how the body modulates its state for extreme stress events (De Kloet et al., 2006). An environmental threat combined with the triggering of the hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal glands, and behavioral output are the structures of the system and the way it functions (i.e. negative feedback loop or like a thermostat) to mobilize energy for protection are system dynamics (De Kloet et al., 2006). Recognizing both the structures and functional dynamics of a system allows clinicians or researchers to develop models and understanding of human behavior.

Another core factor in situated embodied impacts on research design pertains to history or cultural factors (Anderson, 2003; Barsalou, 2008; Wilson, 2002). These factors can affect both research questions and design. A clear biological example of history factors can be seen in activity-dependent neuroplasticity (Haas, Greenwald, & Pereda, 2016). For neurons, the history of recent firing changes their likelihood of firing, tilting the brain’s probabilistic context towards neuroplastic changes that represent experience (Haas, Greenwald, & Pereda, 2016; Yeomans, 1979). Adapting research to incorporate situated embodiment is possible. A researcher could assess for the impact of situated embodiment by (a) recognizing historical/social location factors, (b) understanding factor x environment interactions, and (c) examining systemic dynamics and behaviors.

Embodiment and system/bodily state

Bodily and system states profoundly affect how a variable influences outcomes (Bornemann, Kok, Böckler, & Singer, 2016). Certain behaviors are only present in certain states, or certain behaviors are more likely to manifest under certain conditions (Porges, 2001, 2007). If researchers attempted to study group problem-solving skills using a sample of hungry people, they might note high incidence of irritability and paucity of solutions compared to a satiated group (Wallner & Machatschke, 2009).

In an unpublished study on human relationships, John Gottman asked couples to have a difficult discussion about their relationship while one partner was on a treadmill (Gottman, 2011). As the exercising spouse heart rate increased, the bodily stress response (sympathetic activation) would increase. He described a predictably intense argument that ensued between couples in the experiment (Gottman, 2011). The bodily state of heightened sympathetic tone changed the likelihood of aggressive behavior. A researcher who ignored bodily state would be at a real risk for ignoring confounds and moderating/mediating impacts of state × behavior interactions. Bodily state’s impact on outcomes is often profound even changing perception of the physical world.

In one study of how system/bodily state impacts perception, the researchers asked two groups of participants to rate how steep a hill was (Schnall, Zadra, & Proffitt, 2010). Both groups were given a pink clear liquid to drink prior to the assessment. In one group’s glass, the pink liquid contained sugar, while the other group drank pure water. These groups were subsequently asked to look at a picture of a hill and rate its gradient. As this is a fundamental perception of physical reality, it should not be affected by blood glucose level fluctuations (Schnall, Zadra, & Proffitt, 2010). However, the researchers found that the group that drank sugar water rated the hill as less steep than the group that drank pink water without sugar.

Sugar provides body with energy. Our brain is an embodied system whose main goal is predicting how we can interact with our environment and helping us adapt our behaviors to increase success. To a brain-body with lower blood glucose levels, the hill looked steeper. It looked harder to climb. The person then perceived the steepness of the hill and the task ahead as having a higher impact on energy reserves (Schnall, Zadra, & Proffitt, 2010). The embodied experience of the hill includes the ongoing assessment of blood sugar. One might wonder how many studies of the stress system or social learning failed to control for blood sugar levels as a confound.

In reality, the environment and the bodily/system state interact. The state x environment interactions could be seen in the treadmill argument experiment mentioned earlier. The bodily state of the exercising spouse led to their increased irritability, resulting in irritable behavior towards their spouse. This irritable behavior altered the stress level of the non-exercising spouse (environmental factor), prompting more irritable responses, creating a positive feedback loop escalating anger and fighting. Gottman calls such arguments “sticky” as they are hard to pull out of (Gottman, 2011). Historical factors impact this as well: if a couple has a history of negative interactions, that history changes their perception of the interaction, making escalation of the argument more likely and intense (Gottman, 2011).

The system/bodily state can also affect research findings through state-based dynamics. Movements across a state, between states, and in state intensity have predicable and measurable impacts on outcomes. Researchers could address fundamental ways in which bodily or system state could affect research design (bodily/system state causal influences, system/bodily state x environment interactions, and system/bodily state dynamics). The fundamental shift in embodied research design is from What is the impact of A on B? to Under what conditions is “this” impact of A on B present?

Embodiment and simulation

All systems require some degree of simulation of the world, as well as their affordances of responses to the world. Plankton, while small and not highly complex, have an ability to protect themselves from predation. Due to their inability to move quickly from threat, they protect themselves by chemical strategies, migration, or via adaptation to climates where predators cannot survive (Lass & Spaak, 2003).

The brain creates systemic simulations of the world to predict reality. These simulations can take place consciously, such as when considering choices of schools, which would prompt simulation of outcomes (e.g. how likely it is to get in, quality of education, campus life, etc.). Embodied simulation also takes place well below conscious awareness (Barsalou, 2008; Porges, 2007; Wilson, 2002). For instance, well below awareness, as a person stands up from bed, the brain modulates the tone of the sympathetic nervous system, increasing the overall blood pressure in the body to adjust to the new position. Dysfunctions in orthostatic modulation are seen in Parkinson’s disease increasing fall risk (Bloem, Hausdorff, Visser, & Giladi, 2004). Simulation is both how the brain creates memories and how it stores them with enough precision to be useful, yet with sufficient generality to be widely applied.

In his seminal theory of convergent divergent zone (CDZ) architecture, Damasio articulates a core aspect of how the brain simulates the world (Meyer & Damasio, 2009). He posits that the brain area where sensory input converges (CDZ) in an experience that leads to developing a memory can then be activated using memory and imagination. Imaginal exposure is a psychological intervention whereby an individual can bring up a difficult experience in their mind. These experiences act...