Emotional Constancy (with Grief as a Case Study) A Cognitive Science Speaker Series Presentation
Speaker: Grace Helton, Ph.D.
Title: Emotional Constancy (with Grief as a Case Study)
Short Bio: Grace Helton is Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Rochester. She previously taught at UCLA and Princeton and was affiliated with the Cognitive Science Program while at Princeton. She has written on topics in social epistemology, philosophy of perception, and philosophy of film. She is currently writing a book on the ways in which grief, PTSD, and awe can help us track what really matters.
Abstract: Grief after bereavement is sometimes thought to be a life-altering experience, of the kind one never truly recovers from. But recent results suggest that people who are bereaved typically grieve for relatively short periods, with as many as half returning to baseline within several months. In this talk, I look at a broad range of evidence, from neuroscience results to bereavement narratives, to consider how grief changes over time. Focusing on the emotion of sadness in particular, I propose that for typical subjects, the capacity for sadness in light of a bereavement does not end but remains intact indefinitely. This is so even though this sadness is typically triggered more rarely over time and, when triggered, is weaker in felt intensity. At the same time, when triggered, this sadness continues to ‘say’ that the loved one’s absence is profoundly bad, not merely moderately or mildly bad. This is an example of what I dub an emotional constancy effect, wherein two emotions of different felt intensities can nevertheless ‘say’ the same thing.
ASL-English interpreters have been requested. Light refreshments will be provided.
Event Snapshot
When and Where
Who
Open to the Public
Interpreter Requested?
Yes