"The joy and lifting of our spirit when our favorite song comes on. The anxiety of watching the final seconds of a close college basketball game-we are so elated, we cannot help high-fiving a stranger next to us when our team wins. The kindness and warmth of a person. Knowing instantly as you enter the room that your spouse is mad at you. We know these states when we experience them. Measuring them is another matter."
"But they quickly fell in love with the class: moving to music, learning from a charismatic instructor, and sharing the experience together. After 12 weeks, something remarkable happened. They were transformed. They became close friends, supported one another, and universally said the class had changed their lives. As scientists, we tried to capture this transformation using the best tools available to us. We administered validated questionnaires: quality-of-life scales, wellness scales, and self-efficacy measures."
Many human experiences are instantly recognizable yet difficult to define or quantify. Examples include joy when a favorite song plays, the anxiety of a close game's final seconds, the warmth of a person's kindness, and sensing a spouse's anger. A research study tested hula, a traditional Hawaiian dance, for individuals with Parkinson's disease. Participants were initially skeptical but embraced the class, bonding, moving to music, and learning from a charismatic instructor. After twelve weeks they reported transformation and close friendships. Validated self-report questionnaires were administered but failed to fully capture the depth of connection and meaning. Limited understanding of brain mechanisms constrains measurement of such subjective transformations.
Read at Psychology Today
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