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CMNS - Being Online CH2 - Understanding the Self Through the Use of Digitally Constructed Realities

Terms in this set (18)

This chapter focuses on the "spiritual self" and "social self" from the perspective of behavior (Schneider & Morris, 1987) and its relationship to the "material self," specifically the development of the body through the process of experience.
Interactive digital media experiences provide a unique interface between the realm of the biologically based processes of psychology and the silicon-based processes of today's computing machines.
While these forms of virtual reality therapy are based upon activating subconscious physiological responses, these same mechanisms are involved in conscious responses where decisions are made based upon symbolic interpretation.
Video games engage players and evoke emotional responses by manipulating symbols. Unlike passive media, video games give the player a sense of agency.
- explain what an avatar is and how it can affect the user,
- understand how the selfie can help or hinder conceptualizations of the self both online and off,
- analyze how race, culture, and gender can influence online experiences,
- evaluate concerns related to the sexualization of women online,
- explain the tendencies of individuals to self-disclose online, and
- demonstrate understanding of how your own identity manifests on the Internet.
- An intentional response that can be quantified is necessary to measure behavior. For example, interactive role-playing games in which the player is represented by an avatar provide a sense of agency in the digital environment. Their interactions in the game provide a signature that encapsulates their interpretation of the experience.
A model that represents a user's engagement of interactive digital experiences will be developed from these foundational assumptions.
1- There is a physiological basis for consciousness that is embodied—While it is widely agreed that consciousness has a physical basis, science has not yet been able to explain why and how it so arises.
2- Focus on symbolic representation
3- Interactive experience—Digitally constructed realities may be passive (e.g., animation) or interactive (e.g., video game). Because the focus of our framework is toward developing a behavior-based understanding of self, the digital experience must be interactive.
4- No action (or stillness) as baseline—In designing digital interactive experiences, no action (or user input) correlates to stillness. The premise is that any action by the user is directly based upon their subjective interpretation of the symbols and relationships presented by the experience.
Innate behaviors are determined by the "hard wiring" of the nervous system and the biochemical processes encoded in the genetics.
New knowledge is acquired by actively exploring the environment to interpret the world and their relationship with it. In Piaget terms, new schema build upon and supplant the innate schemata that we are born with.
Conditioning (classical or operant) uses the mechanisms underlying instincts for physical safety (fear) and nurturing growth (desire) that, in simple terms, trigger the activation of the sympathetic nervous system (fear) and the regulation of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin (desire).
At some point after conception or during the sensorimotor stage of development, the embryo or baby develops a sense of a self that is separate from its environment.
Symbolic knowledge and a mental worldview (i.e., the collective sum of all schemata) emerges from this sense of a separate self that consciously acts on its surroundings.
As one develops a symbolic worldview, factors that drive behavior become less about responding to the immediate physical surroundings (innate behaviors), and more about expanding their worldview and learned behaviors.
Testing and exploring the boundaries of a mental worldview leads to new experiences and its expansion. Each new experience serves to expand and refine one's conceptual worldview.
From Piaget's schemata model, this is driven by a process of adaptation to the world and happens through assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration and forms the basis of constructivism.
Experiences at earlier stages of development influence subsequent development and behavior. Attachment theory is based upon the idea that the quality of one's earliest relationship (with the primary caretaker) influences social development and subsequent relationships (Prior & Glaser, 2006).
Although we still do not know the underlying physiological mechanisms of memory or mental activity, it is experience that binds symbolic knowledge in the mental realm to the embodied somatic processes.
Antonio Damasio in his work also argues that even rational decisions have an emotional (and hence, physiological) basis and underpinning (Damasio, 2008).
The perceived consequences of these actions serve to refine and expand one's learned behaviors and worldview.
Carl Jung developed a theory of the psyche and the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious mind linked by symbolic archetypes (Jung et al., 1964). Archetypes are components of the "collective unconscious" that serve to organize, direct, and inform thought and behavior.
The conscious mind ("ego") comes to understand the nature of the unconscious (i.e., anima, animus, self, shadow) by way of projection to objects and symbols in the material world (Campbell, 1972). The "forces" driving conscious action and behavior are the physiological mechanisms underlying emotion.
Users' responses in a digitally constructed reality are based upon their interpretation of the symbolic relationships presented, their perceived role within the reality and their conditioned behavior (Fig. 2.4).
The presentation of experience in a digitally constructed reality may simulate and mirror aspects of the real world, or may be complete abstractions.
A user's behavior is thus quantified by their actions as defined by their responses to the situations and contexts delivered through the interface.
A "sense of self" is projected into the digitally constructed reality (often times in the form of an avatar). The symbolic presentation and relationships (i.e., stimulus) engage cognition and evoke a response. Every user action represents an intention.
Further evidence that digitally constructed realities share the same underlying physiological processes that drive our daily life is in their ability to entrance users into a state of "flow" (Ben Cowley et al., 2008; Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
A person's history of learning is embodied in automatic and habitual behaviors, which are more predictive of behavior than conscious, seemingly rational analysis. Much of a person's behaviors throughout the day are driven by an implicit cognition that occurs without conscious awareness (Bargh & Chartrand, 1999).
A user's cognitive, affective, and behavioral patterns may be identified and classified by analysis of their inputs to a video game (Bakkes et al., 2012; Charles et al., 2004; Lankveld et al., 2011; Spronck et al., 2012; Yannakakis et al., 2013).
Our interest is in understanding the self through the use of digitally constructed realities. The user interface (i.e., inputs and outputs) provides an objective and quantified representation of user behavior (i.e., stimuli and response). Can analysis of the stimuli and response lead to a better understanding of self?
The Jung/Campbell theory provides designers of digitally constructed realities with insight into the construction of meaningful experiences.
It is only when the archetypes of the experience connect with the unconscious of the player that deep engagement happens.
Joseph Campbell defines a symbol as an energy-evoking and -directing agent that functions on three simultaneous levels, the corporeal of waking consciousness, the spiritual of dream, and the ineffable of the absolute unknowable (Campbell, 2002).
Perceived trauma induces prolonged activation of the autonomic nervous system. The coping strategies become learned behavior patterns that influence neurological development of the brain and physiological development of the body.
At some point after your conception, a "self" emerged the moment that you became aware that you are independent of your direct experience. All of the experiences that you have had, from that moment to this moment of your reading this sentence, shape your understanding of this writing.
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