Spirituality: The Fourth Domain

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FreedomThree domains are commonly accepted in the learning process: cognitive (thinking), affective (feelings and emotions), and psychomotor (physical skills). These domains interact with each other forming the perception of ourselves and our capacities to achieve our goals, directly affecting our behavior in relationship with environmental stimuli. The interrelationship also includes influential interaction between the environment and the domains. These interactions create a battle between what we think, how we feel, and what we are physically capable of, how we perceive and interpret our environment, how we perceive ourselves, and how we behave and react in response. I am entertaining the idea that spirituality is being neglected as a domain in itself and diluted within the cognitive and the affective domain. What if spirituality is, as the other three domains are, a domain in itself? How much or our lives is influenced by spirituality? What if spirituality is neither logic or emotions? What if neglecting spirituality as a domain in itself is like driving a car with three wheels when it should have four?

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Spirituality has been linked to every culture since the beginning of time. Many civilizations based their existence on their spiritual practices. Daily living, politics, laws, art, and architecture are some examples. In modern and contemporary society, even though many claim an absolute separation from spiritual principles, it is possible to observe an awakening of spirituality. It is important to understand and differentiate spirituality from ritualistic practices. On one way or another, the influence of spirituality is as strong as the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains in developing a perception of the self and our capabilities, and how we respond to our environment. Therefore, I propose an inclusion of the spiritual domain as an active component of the interactions between the self and the environment, and an influencer in the learning process.

The plan for my paper is to develop a relationship between the elements comprising this idea. I want to define the characteristics of each one of the domains and how, while different from each other, they are interdependent. It is my intention to differentiate between abstract functions and those that are tangible and measurable. This differentiation includes separating environmental stimuli and how they are perceived. Moreover, I want to use these definitions and relationships to develop understanding how these elements, by themselves and in combination, influence behavior and specifically our attitude and aptitudes towards learning. Understanding will lead to practical and theoretical considerations to develop awareness of our own processes, as well as strategies for modification and balancing of the influences of the domains. It is my expectation that through the exploration of this idea of spirituality as the fourth domain can shed insights in addressing people and their learning processes with a holistic approach.

Intersubjective Artistic Matrix

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For a while now I’ve been thinking about writing on a subject that for many artists may result in defensive argumentation, as I’ve seen in the past during some conversations and online discussions. However, it is a subject that deserves attention not to establish a definite interpretation of benefits or causes for rejection, but to understand the teaching and therapeutic benefits of engaging in this practice. In past posts, I explored the subject (read: How to Explain Your Art). During the summer I began reading the book Art Therapy and the Neuroscience of Relationships, Creativity, and Resiliency: Skills and Practices by Noah Hass-Cohen and Joanna Clyde Findlay, and they introduced to me the term “Intersubjective Artistic Matrix” (IAM). IAM defines the artist’s capacity to retain and explain the procedures utilized during the creation of a piece of art as if connecting subconscious and conscious processes.

In cognitive theory, knowledge is expressed in procedural fluency and conceptual understanding. How do we differentiate these two? There are many things we do without giving much thought. Certain procedures, with practice and repetition, become something like second nature to us. We know how to do it, so we just do it. At times, we find ourselves trying to explain what we are doing and fall short in putting into words all the elements and mental processes we often not pay attention to. Here is where conceptual understanding comes in. Conceptual understanding aligns connections and relationships between bits of information to create an explanation. Think of these two as practice and theory. There seems to be a debate about which of the two has more “knowledge value”. What if both are equally valuable? What if the context in which they are needed determines their value? What if both together are more valuable than each one of them separately? These are questions to be considered before rejecting one or the other. The more perspectives 

We can expend time analyzing contexts where procedural fluency is required more than conceptual understanding, and the also the other way around. We might find contexts in which both are equally necessary. Nevertheless, the intention of looking at IAM is to seek understanding of when and how it becomes beneficial in the context of teaching and therapy. As an educator, and in my experience in the sculpting and painting parties, as well as in the classroom and private lessons, I find extremely important to have both. It could be counterproductive in a learning setting to do something for others to learn and not being able to explain the mental processes, and the procedures that interact in doing so. The opposite is also true. It is difficult to gain trust from the people we are trying to teach if we can explain all the nuances of a procedure but being incapable of doing it. Yes, there are some exceptions where it might not be necessary to prove we can do it, or situations in which we don’t have to explain what we are doing. Again, it all depends on the situation.

In therapy, and more specifically art therapy (I am not an art therapist although I had experience similar approaches within my classes) the benefits of this IAM is for the individual using art as a form of therapy. We can always try to interpret someone’s work based on our own understanding, knowledge, and biases. However, what if we could uncover the emotions and experiences from which the creation finds its inspiration and significance right from the source? What if the individual could find a way to open up to hidden emotions and experiences once expressed visually, through music, through writing, or other forms of art? Some might argue that art can speak by itself, but I can testify of how many interpretations of my art coming from other people have nothing to do with what I was thinking or feeling at the time of creation. Maybe we could give ourselves a chance to discover ourselves in our art, and allow others to do the same. Maybe someone else can find emotional and intellectual benefit in connecting process and concept if they are granted the chance to do so. 

Brain Function of Artists

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How do I make sense of the things I see? How can I bring an invisible idea into something visible? What about those who turn sounds in their heads into music? How can someone come up with poetry, lyrics for a song, a story, or a dialogue? How can my fingers understand how to shape the clay in a visually logical way according to the design in my brain? How do I make philosophical sense of what I am looking at and articulate the silent language my art is communicating? How can people turn math into art and art into math?

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I’ve been reading here and there about the right-brain/left-brain functions. Some say it is a myth. Some say it is not. I was discussing it with my personal physician as well (my wife), who found several articles for me to read. I have no intention to write a research article with fancy references and style (as somebody said I don’t know how to interpret the literature or cite it although I wrote a dissertation) because this blog is not for that. When someone pays me to develop another research study then you would see the whole dissertation format in action. For now I am just expressing my thoughts on these subjects. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see what studies say about the brain function of artists. I don’t argue with these studies unless I make my own study or if they make artists look bad.

According to some the artist’s brain is different in structure and naturally wired to display higher fine motor skills and visual imagery but training and an encouraging environment play an important role as I wrote in The Discipline in The Discipline. It is necessary to cultivate a talent through practice and discipline. This is the combination of nature and nurture. However, while certain areas of the brain are more dominant both sides of the brain are used simultaneously. This is not exclusively for artists since it is said that engaging in creative activities helps improve brain function in multiple areas which I stretch with passion when it comes to cognitive psychology because not only the physical brain changes, the nonphysical brain changes too. To define ‘nonphysical brain’ that is what I call the non-measurable cognitive functions like perception, affect, beliefs, and intuition. Not to mention how engaging in creative activities help relief stress and to connect back to ourselves and it can change lives. it is no secret that art in its many forms also help develop well-rounded individuals.

Define Your Destination

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If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.

Lewis Carroll
(Alice in Wonderland)

Instructional system design begins with an analysis and this is a principle we can apply to more than just designing effective learning solutions. You can use these questions to define a plan of action to achieve your goals. It is futile to attempt solving a problem if we don’t know what the problem is. A good prescription comes as a result of a good diagnosis. We can’t suggest a solution without understanding the need first.Defined problems are easier to solve than undefined ones. The analysis phase is like detective work. We ask questions:

  • Where are you now?
  • Where do you want to go?
  • What do you want to accomplish?
  • Why? What is motivating you to go there?
  • How do you get there?

The answers to these questions are going to help draw a roadmap. Imagine that you are using a GPS device. Identify your current situation. Define your destination. In order to determine the best route to take you need those two pieces of information. Certainly with no destination we can arrive anywhere. Leaving a trail of breadcrumbs in case you get lost is not effective. Just ‘ok’ is not enough. There are many more questions we can ask here depending on the situation in order to form a plan of action.

In the analysis we can’t forget about affective factors that are motivating the change. The attitude towards change can define the willingness to change and how much effort would be directed towards reaching the destination. Knowing where you are going is not enough. The affective domain includes values, beliefs, feelings and emotions. This is important to build a bridge between the current and the optimal desired situation because the affective domain gives ‘color’ to behavior by setting the mindset of the process.

The last question would be answer by synthesizing the answers from the previous questions. Once you have a map, the current and the desired destination, and the motivational factors, a plan of action can be designed. Through the process of designing the plan it is important to return to these questions and the answers and determine if necessary alternative routes as time and the plan progresses. Knowing where you want to go is a step to get there. You just have to start walking towards the vision you already have.

Assumptions, Interpretations, and Attributions

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I heard a story many years ago. Two men working for a show company were sent to a tribe in the middle of nowhere to scout the territory and inform the company of any possibility of success selling shoes there. The first man makes his observations and informs the company of his conclusions:

– Business here is going to be a complete waste of time and effort. No one is wearing shoes.

The second man also reports back to the company:

– Business here is going to be great and worth the efforts. No one is wearing shoes.

Similarly this happens in every situation in life. One situation, two individuals, different views. It happens in the art world too. Two individuals can look at the same piece of art and have two completely different views of it. Interestingly, every view is subjective.

Photo Sep 06, 2 31 35 PMWe have the capacity to decode the symbolic information we receive and develop our own views to explain what we see, feel, and understand. We give meaning to the world around us through the filter of our experiences and knowledge. Socially, in the meaning making process we examine multiple views, balance them with our own and form our conclusions. These conclusions are explained and could be categorized in assumptions, interpretations, and attributions.

Assumptions are taking for granted a conclusion without proof or facts based on personal biases. It is very natural to us to fall prey of assumptions. That is not a problem. The problem is when no proof or facts allow us to consider other options. We form our view and that becomes the only truth. Interpretations, on the other hand, consider facts balancing these with experience and knowledge, assigns meaning, but remains open to consider other views that eventually help grow and develop a broader picture. Attributions go a step further.

According to Bernard Weiner’s Attribution Theory, broadly used in cognitive psychology, we assign meaning to meaning. In other words, we explain why we reached our assumption or interpretation of an event, behavior, a piece of art, and other forms of symbolic information. We assign internal or internal causes to our conclusions. Interestingly, we switch between internal and external attributions when it come to us and others. If we are successful or received favorable feedback we apply internal attributes and tell ourselves: “I worked very hard on this”. When we fail or we don’t like the feedback we receive we tell ourselves we apply external attributes to justify the results: “I don’t care what you have to say. You don’t know what I had to go through to achieve this”.

Photo Sep 06, 2 34 39 PMThe scene quickly switches when it comes to judging the behaviors or events involving others. When people act in a specific way we attribute that behavior to internal factors concerning personality or character traits like coping skills (or lack thereof), or attitude issues. Rarely we consider external attributes to be the cause for other’s behaviors like a difficult situation they might be going through.

Once again, these views are subjective. All opinions are subjective. Every perspective is as individual as the person who has it. However, we must be very careful how we share these views with others not only for their sake but for our own. Our words can hurt people. We don’t know what they are going through. We should lift people up instead of trying to tear them apart. We must remember that when we apply assumptions, interpretations, and attributions to others we do so based on our own views, biases, experience, and knowledge. When we talk to others or about others, we might be revealing more about ourselves than what we are trying to reveal about them.

For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Matthew 7:2