DOCSLIB.ORG

Gender Differences in Emotional Prosody Processing — an Fmri Study —

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Gender Differences in Emotional Prosody Processing — an Fmri Study — Psychologia, 2004, 47, 113–124 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN EMOTIONAL PROSODY PROCESSING — AN FMRI STUDY — Satoshi IMAIZUMI1), Midori HOMMA1), Yoshiaki OZAWA1), 1)Hiroshima Prefectural College of Health Sciences, Japan, Masaharu MARUISHI2) and Hiroyuki MURANAKA2) 2)Hiroshima Prefectural Rehabilitation Center, Japan To clarify how the brain understands the speaker’s mind for verbal acts, we analyzed fMRI images obtained from 24 subjects when they judged linguistic meanings or emotional manners of spoken phrases. The target phrases had linguistically positive or negative meanings and were uttered warmheartedly or coldheartedly by a woman speaker. Significant interaction effects of meaning and manner were observed on the acoustic characteristics of utterances, such as F0 range, and also on the perceptual behavior evaluated by response time and judgment correctness. When compared to the female subjects, the male subjects showed significantly stronger activation only in the right frontomedian cortex, which can be hypothesized to analyze and understand speaker’s hidden but true intentions from speaking acts. These results suggest that emotion modulates linguistic processes not only in speech production but also in speech perception, and such modulations differ between the genders at least in perceptual processes. To interpret the communicative intent of others, how emotionally something is said may be as important as what is linguistically said. Emotional prosody is an important non- linguistic component of verbal acts conveying speaker’s emotional intent, and is acoustically characterized by pitch height and range, the temporal structure and other supra-segmental features of speech (Ladd, 1996). Phrases with positive linguistic meanings may convey negative intent when uttered with coldhearted emotion. For instance, “It’s wonderful” uttered with evident sarcasm may convey the information “It’s not wonderful at all.” Phrases with negative linguistic meanings may convey positive intent when uttered with warmhearted emotion. A verbal act “What a stupid guy you are” may be interpreted as “What a nice guy you are” when uttered with a friendly feeling evoking strong sympathy. Listeners have to correctly extract the speaker’s emotional intent separately from the linguistic meanings of the phrases, and integrate them to understand hidden but true intentions of the speaker. Interaction between linguistic meanings and emotional prosody in the brain has recently started to be analyzed (Mitchell, Elliot, Barry, Cruttenden, & Woodruff, 2003; Schirmer & Kotz, 2003). But it is not yet clear how linguistic and Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Satoshi Imaizumi, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Hiroshima Prefectural College of Health Sciences, 1-1 Gakuen, Mihara, Hiroshima 723-0053, Japan (e-mail: [email protected]). 113 114 IMAIZUMI, HOMMA, OZAWA, MARUISHI, & MURANAKA emotional information is processed in the brain to read the speaker’s mind, and if there are any sex differences in the neural resources responsible for mind reading with regard to verbal acts. The primary purpose of this study is to help clarify how the mind reading system for speaking acts is organized in the brain. The secondary purpose of this study is to investigate how the functional organization of the male brain for mind reading differs from the female brain. As the following brief review of the literature shows, neither behavioral nor brain imaging studies have yet provided a clear picture of the functional organization of the brain for language and prosody processing, and their gender differences. Some recent data indicate that both hemispheres engage in the perception of emotional prosody (Kotz, Meyer, Alter, Besson, von Cramon, & Friederici, 2003), while some other studies suggest that both emotional and linguistic prosody (Bryan, 1989; Dykstra, Gandour & Stark, 1995), or only emotional prosody (Blonder, Bowers, & Heilman,1991; Borod, 1993; Starkstein, Federoff, Price, Leiguarda, & Robinson, 1994), or only linguistic prosody (Bradvik et al., 1991; Weintraub, Mesulam, & Kramer, 1981) are processed in the right hemisphere. Some results imply that sentence-level linguistic prosody is processed in the left hemisphere (Emmorey, 1987; Van Lancker, 1980). Alternatively, it has been proposed that the lateralization of prosodic processing may vary as a function of the acoustic parameters of prosody, such as fundamental frequency, intensity or duration under study (Zatorre, Belin, & Penhune, 2002). Some others suggest that the lateralization of prosodic and phonetic processing may vary depending on the tasks imposed and subjective attention (Imaizumi, Mori, Kiritani, Hosoi, & Tonoike, 1998; Mitchell et al., 2003), and the left hemisphere activity may vary depending on the magnitude of task demands (Kotz et al., 2003). A much debated question is whether sex differences exist in the functional organization of the brain for language and prosody (Baxter et al., 2003; Frost et al., 1999; Koelsch, Maess, Grossmann, & Friederici, 2003; Kotz et al., 2003; Schirmer, Kotz, & Friederici, 2002; Schirmer & Kotz, 2003; Shaywitz et al., 1995; Vikingstad, George, Johnson, & Cao, 2000). A long-held hypothesis posits that language functions are more likely to be highly lateralized in males and to be represented in both cerebral hemispheres in females. This hypothesis was developed based on behavioral results that aphasia was more common in males with left hemisphere damage (48% in males vs. 13% in females), while language deficits were observed after both right and left hemisphere damage in females (Hampson & Kimura, 1992; McGlone, 1977). However, attempts to prove this hypothesis have been inconclusive. Some data indicate that language primarily lateralizes to left in males, and approximately half have left lateralization and the other half have bilateral representation in females (Vikingstad et al., 2000), while other results suggest that men and women show very similar, strongly left lateralized activation patterns (Frost et al., 1999). Using spoken phrases with positive or negative meanings uttered warmheartedly or coldheartedly by a female Japanese speaker, we analyzed brain activities when subjects judged linguistic meaning and emotional manner of the phrases. Based on the fMRI GENDER DIFFERENCES IN EMOTIONAL PROSODY PROCESSING 115 analyses, we discussed possible neural mechanisms for mind reading for verbal acts and their gender differences. METHOD All experiments in this study were conducted in accordance with Declaration of Human Rights, Helsinki 1975 and the research ethics regulations of the authors’ affiliate. Written informed consent was obtained from each subject after explaining the purpose and the outline of the method for this research and the advantages and disadvantages expected for the subjects. Speech Material: Eighty frequently-used phrases with positive linguistic meanings, such as “I love you,” and 80 phrases with negative linguistic meanings, such as “I hate you,” were uttered warmheartedly or coldheartedly by 2 female and 3 male Japanese speakers. The warmhearted utterances were made with strong pleasure, while the coldhearted ones were made with strong hatred. These utterances were digitized and analyzed to extract prosodic characteristics such as F0 contour, and then used for listening tests in preliminary experiments. In a preliminary listening experiment, 24 right-handed healthy Japanese adults judged whether the linguistic meaning of a randomly presented speech sample is positive or negative by pressing one of two buttons as fast and correctly as possible. In another preliminary experiment, the same listening subjects judged whether the emotional manner of speaking is warmhearted or coldhearted for a randomly presented speech sample by pressing one of two buttons as fast and correctly as possible. The male subjects showed significantly lower correctness scores with longer response time (RT) than the female subjects in these preliminary listening experiments. Based on the judgment correctness scores in these preliminary experiments, 40 linguistically positive and 40 linguistically negative phases uttered in two emotional modes were selected so as to minimize the sex-dependent differences in the correctness scores from speech samples uttered by a female speaker who gave the highest correctness scores. The selected samples were used in fMRI measurement. This selection was done to minimize the effects of task difficulties due to speaker’s verbal skill on the brain imaging results, and eventually speaker-dependent effects could not be addressed in this study. Acoustic Analyses: Fundamental frequency at various characteristic timing points and the total length of utterances were measured and analyzed by ANOVA with two factors of Manner (Warmhearted vs. Coldhearted) as a within- item measure and Meaning (Positive vs. Negative) as a between- item measure. Listening Tasks: The listening subjects were 24 right-handed healthy Japanese adults (12 males and 12 females aged 24.7 on average). Two listening tasks were imposed, the language task and the emotion task. For the language task, the listening subjects were instructed to judge whether the linguistic meaning of a presented speech sample is positive or negative by pressing one of two buttons as fast and correctly as possible. For the emotion task, they were instructed to judge whether the emotional prosody of a presented speech sample is warmhearted or coldhearted by pressing one
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Neural Mechanism for Understanding Speakersâ Intentions
    Acoustics 08 Paris Neural mechanism for understanding speakers’ intentions: developmental analyses of children with and without communication disorders S. Imaizumi The Prefectural Univ. of Hiroshima, 1-1 Gakuen-machi, 723-0053 Mihara, Japan [email protected] 657 Acoustics 08 Paris Ability to understand speakers’ intentions through linguistic contents and affective prosody is examined for children between 5 and 12 years-old with and without communication disorders. Four types of spoken short phrases, expressing admiration, sarcasm, blame and humor or joke, were presented. For each stimulus, the subjects were asked to choose between two cards, one with a written word “praise” and another with “no praise” accompanied by corresponding drawings. For children without any communication disorders, the percentage of the correct judgment of speaker intentions was high and stable for admiration and blame phrases which have congruent linguistic and affective valences. It was significantly low for 6-year-old children and increased with age for the sarcastic or joking phrases which have incongruent linguistic and affective valences. The percent correct was significantly lower for autistic children than normally developing children particularly for the phrases with incongruent valences. Although a significant difference was found between children with severe- and mild-hearing impairment, no significant difference was found in the percent correct between the congruent and incongruent phrases for them. Based on these results together with brain activation analyses using fMRI, a model of neural mechanism for understanding speakers’ intentions is discussed. 1 Introduction 2 Method Phrases with positive linguistic meanings may convey All experiments in this study were conducted in accordance negative meanings when uttered with coldhearted emotion.
    [Show full text]
  • QUESTION 34 Hatred We Next Have to Consider the Vices Opposed To
    QUESTION 34 Hatred We next have to consider the vices opposed to charity: first, hatred, which is opposed to charity itself (question 34); second, acedia and envy, which are opposed to the joy of charity (questions 35-36); third, discord and schism, which are opposed to peace (questions 37-42); fourth, scandal and giving offense, which are opposed to beneficence and fraternal correction (question 43). On the first topic there are six questions: (1) Can God be hated? (2) Is hating God the greatest of sins? (3) Is hating one’s neighbor always a sin? (4) Is hating one’s neighbor the greatest of the sins against one’s neighbor? (5) Is hatred a capital vice? (6) From which of the capital sins does hatred arise? Article 1 Can God be hated? It seems that no one can hate God (Deum nullus odio habere possit): Objection 1: In De Divinis Nominibus, chap. 4, Dionysius says, “What is itself good and beautiful is lovable and delectable to everyone.” But God is goodness itself and beauty itself. Therefore, He cannot be hated by anyone. Objection 2: In the apocryphal books of Esdra it says, “All things call forth truth and do well in its works.” But as John 14:6 says, God is truth itself. Therefore, everyone loves God and no one can hate Him. Objection 3: Hatred is a certain sort of aversion. But as Dionysius says in De Divinis Nominibus, chap. 4, God “turns all things toward Himself.” Therefore, no one can hate Him. But contrary to this: Psalm 73:23 says, “The pride of those who hate You ascends continually,” and John 15:24 says, “But now they have both seen and hated me and my Father.” I respond: As is clear from what was said above (ST 1-2, q.
    [Show full text]
  • Insufficient Emotion: Soul-Searching by a Former Indicter of Strong
    Emotion Review Vol. 2, No. 3 (July 2010) 234–239 © 2010 SAGE Publications and The International Society for Research on Emotion Insufficient Emotion: Soul-searching by a Former ISSN 1754-0739 DOI: 10.1177/1754073910362598 Indicter of Strong Emotions er.sagepub.com George Loewenstein Department of Social & Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Abstract Contrary to the many accounts of the destructive effects of strong emotions, this article argues that the most serious problems facing the world are caused by a deficiency rather than an excess of emotions. It then shows how an evolutionary account of emotion can explain when and why such deficiencies occur. Keywords decision making, emotion At that moment I was fully aware for the first time how far advanced the researchers have argued that these types of emotions are benefi- process of paralysis already was in me – it was if I were moving through cial, based on the finding that their absence, whether due to brain flowing, bright water without being halted or taking root anywhere, and I damage (Damasio, 1994) or experimental intervention (e.g., knew very well that this chill was something dead and corpse-like, not yet Wilson & Schooler, 1991) tends to degrade the quality of decision surrounded by the foul breath of decomposition but already numbed beyond recover, a grimly cold lack of emotions. making. Representing a similar perspective, there are myriad (Stefan Zweig, 1922 / 2004, p. 19) stories, presented in books such as The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us From Violence (De Becker, 1997), of Do emotions help or hurt decision making? This question has people who report having survived against the odds as a result of been the focus of much implicit and explicit debate.
    [Show full text]
  • Sexual Domination: Colonial Guilt and Postcolonial Hatred in J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace
    Sexual Domination: Colonial Guilt and Postcolonial Hatred in J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace Janet Migoyan Student [Should be like this. This is just to signify that the author does not represent a department] Vt 2021 Examensarbete för kandidatexamen, 15 hp Engelska Abstract J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace was published during a defining moment in South African history in 1999. Five years earlier Nelson Mandela had been elected president after the first general election. The healing process in a country divided by race and a history marked by racial crimes, committed under long time by collective actions of many generations of colonizers, was a decisive historical necessity. Disgrace illustrates the economical and emotional mechanisms of sexual exploitation of women in post- apartheid South African society. Those socioeconomic mechanisms are fueled by postcolonial hate, making the reconciliation process difficult in the new democracy. The aim of this bachelor project is to show how Coetzee’s Disgrace contextualizes the collective humanitarian guilt and disgrace caused by sexual oppression of woman and illustrates the challenges that post-apartheid South Africa faces to reconcile with the racial crimes committed during apartheid when sexual crimes continue under the historical shadow of colonial power and postcolonial hatred. Keywords: collective guilt, gender, race, sexual oppression, post-apartheid, colonialism, postcolonialism Table of contents 1.Introduction 5 2.Previous research 7 3. Gender aspects of postcolonial theory in Disgrace 9 4. Racial aspects of feminist theory in Disgrace 16 5. Whose disgrace? 20 6.Conclusion 21 7.Works Cited 22 1 Introduction J. M. Coetzee’s novel Disgrace was published in 1999 and is situated in South Africa during the post-apartheid period.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Aurel Kolnai Íngrid Vendrell Ferran PENULTIMATE DRAFT Published
    Aurel Kolnai Íngrid Vendrell Ferran PENULTIMATE DRAFT Published in: Landweer, Hilge, and Szanto, Thomas (eds.): The Routledge Handbook of Phenomenology of Emotion, Routledge, 2020 Aurel Kolnai (1900–1973) is best known for his political and moral writings, but he also chiefly contributed to the phenomenology of the emotions. In a series of papers devoted to hostile and aversive emotions and, in particular, to disgust, haughty pride, fear, and hatred (Kolnai 1929, 1931, 1935 and 1998) Kolnai presents his most comprehensive views on the affective life and its ethical significance. Scattered discussions on the emotions can also be found in an early paper written on Scheler and under the influence of psychoanalysis (1925), in his dissertation Der ethische Wert und die Wirklichkeit (Ethical Value and Reality) (1927), which is his first phenomenological writing, and in later papers “On the Concept of the Interesting” (1964) and “The Concept of Hierarchy” (1971). This chapter is divided into four sections. The first reconstructs Kolnai’s general approach to the emotions as embedded within the larger context of early phenomenology. Sections 2–4 present Kolnai’s analyses of hostile emotions by focusing on disgust, haughty pride, and hatred. 1. Kolnai’s General Approach to the Emotions “Max Schelers Kritik und Würdigung der Freudschen Libidolehre” (Max Scheler’s Criticism and Praise of Freud’s Doctrine of the Libido) (1925), published in Imago, is the first writing in which Kolnai directly approaches the topic of the emotions. The text was written during a period in which Kolnai embraced psychoanalysis (he was trained in this movement by Ferenczi and Rank).
    [Show full text]
  • The Great Compassion and Fraternity in Mahayana Buddhist Traditions
    Because Catholicism and Buddhism share the same aim—peace and greatness in humanity—the Great Compassion’s emphasis on the nonjudgmental and on removing the notion of races, hostili- ties, sexism, sexual orientations, and even the concept of national- ism and so forth, can benefit us all, whether we are from the East The Great Compassion or the West. Thus today I would like to share my understanding of the Great Compassion with you. and Fraternity in The Great Compassion is one of the important qualities of the Buddha, and it forms the basis of all perfections (pāramitās). It Maha¯ya¯na Buddhist is a chief aspiration for Mahāyāna practitioners to carry on their faith to save sentient beings and to carry on the Buddhist messages Traditions from one life to another life with passion. The Great Compassion Ven. Dr. Dhammadı¯pa Sak (Fa Yao 法曜) contains several important concepts in relation to human beings Chuang Yen Monastery regardless of their race, ethnicity, economic status, gender, and so forth; and it calls us to treat everyone as their own sister or brother. Therefore, this paper tries to establish the connection between the “Great Compassion” as a perfection of the Buddha and the impor- uddhism appeared in India 2,600 years ago as a “moral tance of “fraternity” for humanity today. revolution.” It inverted the accepted values and transferred the center of interest from the world without to the world The Great Compassion in Relation to Perfections (Pa¯ramita¯s) Bwithin. To the Buddha himself, creed and ritual and caste were The Great Compassion is one of the important qualities of the among the things that did not really matter.
    [Show full text]
  • Cross Linguistic Interpretation of Emotional Prosody
    Cross Linguistic Interpretation of Emotional Prosody Åsa Abelin Jens Allwood Abstract This study has three purposes: the first is to study if there is consensus in the way listeners interpret different emotions and attitudes expressed by a Swedish speaker, the second is to see if this interpretation is dependent on the listeners’ cultural and linguistic background, and the third is to ascertain whether there is any reoccurring relation between acoustic and semantic properties of the stimuli. Recordings of a Swedish speaker uttering a phrase while expressing different emotions were interpreted by listeners with different first languages, Swedish, English, Finnish and Spanish, who were to judge the emotional contents of the expressions. The results show that some emotions, e.g. anger, fear, sadness and surprise, were interpreted in accordance with intended emotion to a greater degree than others, which were interpreted as expected to a lesser degree. Emotions were interpreted with different degrees of success depending on the first languages of listeners; native listeners were the most successful. The results suggest that emotions with similar semantic features, e.g. anger and dominance or fear and shyness have similar acoustic features e.g. short duration and strong intensity (anger and dominance) or longer duration and weak intensity (fear and shyness). Key words: Cross-linguistic interpretation, emotion, prosody 1. Introduction This study had the purposes of: (i) Investigating if there is any consensus in the way in which listeners interpret different emotions and attitudes expressed by a Swedish speaker (ii) Investigating if this interpretation is dependent on the cultural and linguistic background of the listener 1 (iii) Making acoustic analyses of the prosody of the stimuli used in the study, and making semantic analyses of the responses to the stimuli.
    [Show full text]
  • Treatise of Human Nature Book II: the Passions
    Treatise of Human Nature Book II: The Passions David Hume Copyright © Jonathan Bennett 2017. All rights reserved [Brackets] enclose editorial explanations. Small ·dots· enclose material that has been added, but can be read as though it were part of the original text. Occasional •bullets, and also indenting of passages that are not quotations, are meant as aids to grasping the structure of a sentence or a thought. Every four-point ellipsis . indicates the omission of a brief passage that seems to present more difficulty than it is worth. Longer omitted passages are reported on, between [brackets], in normal-size type. First launched: June 2008 Contents Part ii: Love and hatred 147 1: The objects and causes of love and hatred............................................ 147 2: Experiments to confirm this system............................................... 149 3: Difficulties solved.......................................................... 154 4: Love for people with whom one has some connection..................................... 156 5: Esteem for the rich and powerful................................................ 158 6: Benevolence and anger...................................................... 162 7: Compassion.............................................................. 164 8: Malice and envy.......................................................... 166 9: The mixture of benevolence and anger with compassion and malice............................. 171 10: Respect and contempt....................................................... 174
    [Show full text]
  • 'Love and Hatred Are Common to the Whole Sensitive Creation': Animal Feeling in the Century Before Darwin1
    1 ‘Love and Hatred are Common to the Whole Sensitive Creation’: Animal Feeling in the Century before Darwin1 Jane Spencer Darwin was willing to discern a wide range of emotions in animals: not just those now considered basic in humans – anger, fear, sadness, disgust and enjoyment – but jealousy, pride, shame, ennui, wonder and curiosity. In Part I, chapter iii, of The Descent of Man (1871) he writes: Most of the more complex emotions are common to the higher animals and ourselves. Every one has seen how jealous a dog is of his master’s affection, if lavished on any other creature; and I have observed the same fact with monkeys. This shows that animals not only love, but have desire to be loved. Animals manifestly feel emula- tion. They love approbation or praise; and a dog carrying a basket for his master exhibits in a high degree self-complacency or pride. There can, I think, be no doubt that a dog feels shame, as distinct from fear, and something very like modesty when begging too often for food. ... Several observers have stated that monkeys certainly dislike being laughed at … Dogs show what may be fairly called a sense of humour, as distinct from mere play; if a bit of stick or other such object be thrown to one, he will often carry it away for a short distance; and then squatting down with it on the ground … will wait until his master comes quite close to take it away. The dog will then seize it and rush away in triumph, repeating the same manoeuvre, and evidently enjoying the practical joke.2 A monkey who disliked being laughed
    [Show full text]
  • Retributive Hatred As a Reactive Moral Attitude
    Retributive Hatred as a Reactive Moral Attitude Jeramy S. Gee A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2014 Reading Committee: Jean Roberts (Chair) Stephen Gardiner Ingra Schellenberg Cass Weller Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Department of Philosophy ©Copyright 2014 Jeramy S. Gee University of Washington Abstract Retributive Hatred as a Reactive Moral Attitude Jeramy S. Gee Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Jean Roberts Department of Philosophy Philosophers’ attention to negative attitudes has grown in recent decades. However, whereas philosophers have offered a number of descriptions of, and justifications for, attitudes like resentment and contempt, hatred is usually met with antipathy even when we might be inclined to be sympathetic to the hater. In this dissertation I offer a sustained examination of hatred I and make a rather startling claim: There are cases of hatred that are morally justifiable. The kind of hatred I defend is what some philosophers have called retributive hatred. This is hatred adopted in response to wrongdoing and in which hostility is driven by a retributive notion of moral desert. To make my case I argue that retributive hatred is distinguishable from such attitudes as prejudicial hatred, malice, and spite—attitudes with which it is often confused—and that it is not liable to the kinds of criticisms that can be levied against these types of hatred. I then show that retributive hatred should be classified among the reactive attitudes. Thus there are conditions governing when retributive haters can be understood as properly representing their targets as hateful and I argue that these conditions can be met.
    [Show full text]
  • The Psychology of Hatred
    Send Orders of Reprints at [email protected] 10 The Open Criminology Journal, 2013, 6, 10-17 Open Access The Psychology of Hatred José I. Navarro*, Esperanza Marchena and Inmaculada Menacho Department of Psychology, University of Cadiz, Spain Abstract: Hatred is a deep and emotional extreme dislike. The objects of such hatred can vary extensively. Hatred is often associated with disposition towards hostility against the objects of hatred. And can drive oneself to extreme behaviors such as violence, murder, and war. In childhood and adolescence the attitudes of intolerance - impregnated with hatred – are formed, and these are extremely difficult to eradicate later. This paper goes through psychological perspective of hate and the different roles of cognition in hatred and violence. Then the duplex theory of hatred is presented considering some approaches to the origin of violent behaviors. Taking into consideration that complex problems do not respond to simple solutions, a potential alternative based on family and school education plays a major role. Learning conflict resolution based on negotiation and compromise seems essential, in addition to adopting intellectually and morally combative atti- tudes against violence. Keywords: Hatred, violence, cognition, automatic thoughts. INTRODUCTION Although most people are disgusted by the exercise of violence, there are certain circumstances in which any of us Hatred is a strong, negative feeling against the object of could do it. But it is hard to imagine how you can reach the the hatred. The hater sees the object of their hatred as bad, level of cruelty shown by the graffiti in Andoain, besides the immoral, dangerous, or all of this together (Staub, 2003).
    [Show full text]
  • Lesson 3: the Spectrum of Hatred and the Wall of Compassion by Josephine Cripps, Teacher, Summit K-12 School, Seattle 2008
    1 www.wsherc.org Lesson 3: The Spectrum of Hatred and the Wall of Compassion by Josephine Cripps, Teacher, Summit K-12 School, Seattle 2008 Goal: Students will recognize some of the forms of hatred. They will grasp the way hatred, if unchecked, can lead to genocide. And they will explore hatred’s adversary, compassion. Activity: The teacher selects groups of 3-4. She distributes a large sheet of construction paper and a glue stick to each group. She also gives a large envelope to each group. In the envelope are 10 strips of paper. On each strip, one of the following words is typed: 1. Stereotyping 2. Prejudice 3. Discrimination 4. Name-calling 5. Ganging-Up 6. Anti-semitism 7. Bigotry 8. Scapegoating 9. Racism 10. Genocide 2 The teacher offers instructions: Today we are looking closely at some words we have all heard. Your group’s task is to discuss these words and their definitions. Discuss examples you’ve seen, in your own lives, of these words “in action.” Once you have defined the terms, work together to arrange the words vertically, in a spectrum of hatred. For the bottom of the spectrum, choose the word that strikes you as the root, or source, of hatred. Then, arrange the words upward until at the top of the spectrum, you place the word that indicates the most extreme form of hatred. Remember, there is no right or wrong answer as you build your spectrum. Our goal here is for all of us to explore how hatred starts, how it grows, and how it ends.
    [Show full text]