Just Adjust Posture
The simple act of adjusting your posture works as an instant shift of focus. You may not notice the difference in how you feel, but research indicates a shift in affect (emotion/feeling) after adjusting posture.
Initial studies were not how posture affects affect, though, but how the body reacts to emotional and feeling states. Darwin studied the physical expression of affect, practically everything from screaming infants causing the contraction of muscles around the eyes, to the bodily expressions of grief, suffering, joy, love, meditation, determination, shyness, shame, and devotion. He covered just about every way the body displays feelings and emotion. This was documented in his 1872 book, “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.” That publication began an era concerned with how affect affects the person.
It took another hundred years before researchers turned this paradigm around and began studying the affect posture has on feeling and behavior. In 1982, the first study on the affect of posture on motivation, emotion, and behavior appeared in the journal “Motivation and Emotion.” The study (actually four studies) examined the affects of stooped relative to upright physical posture on depressed mood and helplessness. It asked the question, is a slumped-over relative to an upright physical posture a nonverbal depreciating of oneself?
They found no significant difference in self-reporting of self-confidence between the slumped and the upright posture groups. But that does not mean that posture does not affect feeling. It means the subjects were unaware of the affect that posing had on them.
When each subject was given a series of puzzles to solve, some of which were actually unsolvable, there was much lower persistence in working on the insolvable puzzles in the stooped-posture group. And after this puzzle-solving session, subjects who were in the slumped-posture group rated themselves as having significantly stronger feelings of helplessness and external control. This group also reported being more stressed. Posing had a definite effect on affect or feeling.
Amy Cuddy’s study published in September 2010 in “Psychological Science” looked at power poses. Humans and other animals express power through open, expansive postures, and they express powerlessness through closed contractive postures. This study asked if these power postures cause a person to become more powerful. It asked if power postures cause neuroendocrine and behavioral changes in male and female participants.
Power Posing
Wouldn’t it be great if you could increase testosterone levels, become more dominant, and decrease cortisol levels and become less stressed simply by adjusting your posture? By power posing? The results of a study with 26 females and 16 males seemed to show you can. Subjects were randomly assigned to the high-power pose or low-power pose group.
The goal of the research was to test whether high-power poses produce power in terms of not only feeling powerful but with the elevation of the dominance hormone testosterone and the lowering of the stress hormone cortisol.
Cuddy found high-power poses caused a significant increase in testosterone. Low-power poses caused a significant increase in cortisol.
Amy Cuddy’s Rebuttal to Her Sensationalized Shoddy Research Study
Where do I Stand on the Existence of “Power Poses”?
1. I do not have any faith in the embodied effects of “power poses.” I do not think the effect is real.
2. I do not study the embodied effects of power poses.
3. I discourage others from studying power poses.
4. I do not teach power poses in my classes anymore.
5. I do not talk about power poses in the media and haven’t for over 5 years (well before skepticism set in)
6. I have on my website and my downloadable CV my skepticism about the effect and links to both the failed replication by Ranehill et al. and to Simmons & Simonsohn’s p-curve paper suggesting no effect. And this document.
Click to access pdf_My%20position%20on%20power%20poses.pdf
In the spring of 2017, The New York Times reported, “she quietly left her tenure-track job at Harvard,[5] where she lectured in the psychology department.”
Embodied Cognition Studies
Embodied cognition studies show that postural states influence emotional responding.
Body posture reflects emotional states, and this study investigates the effect of posture sitting in a slouched or upright position on recall of either negative (hopeless, helpless, powerless, or defeated) memories or positive (empowered or optimistic) memories. Two hundred and sixteen college students sat in either a slouched or an erect position while recalling negative memories and then in a second step, recalling positive memories. They then sat in the opposite body position while recalling negative and then positive memories. Eighty-six percent of the students reported that it was easier to recall/access negative memories in the collapsed position than in the erect position (p < .01), and 87% of the students reported that it was easier to recall/access positive images in the erect position than in the collapsed position (p < .01). Participants who reported being most depressed over the previous two years reported significantly more recall of negative memories in both the slouched position (p = .01) and erect position (p < .05). For those who were most depressed, there were no differences in recalling positive memories. We recommend that therapists teach clients posture awareness and to sit more upright in the office and at home as a strategy to increase positive affect and decrease depression.
Erik Peper, I-Mei Lin, Richard Harvey, and Jacob Perez
https://doi.org/10.5298/1081-5937-45.2.01
Adopting an upright seated posture in the face of stress can maintain self-esteem, reduce negative mood, and increase positive mood compared to a slumped posture. Furthermore, sitting upright increases rate of speech and reduces self-focus. Sitting upright may be a simple behavioral strategy to help build resilience to stress. The research is consistent with embodied cognition theories that muscular and autonomic states influence emotional responding.
Attention Therapies
Posture is a big part of my Attention Therapy. The simplest way to adjust posture is to imagine you are two inches taller. Then stretch out the two inches upwards from your lower back. The way I find effective is to model someone with great posture who is taller than me.
Attention Therapies target affect or emotions. They include Attention Training, Open Focus, Metacognitive Therapy, Insight Meditation, and Ki Breathing Meditation. They can supplement or supplant Cognitive Behavior Therapy, but I would include Attention Therapies as a part of any therapy.
The quickest, most effective input is to adjust posture. Think that you are two inches taller and stretch upwards from the lower spine. An effective way of doing this is to model someone taller with great posture. It is also the quickest, most efficient way to look better. Try it in front of a mirror.
Self-help books that help:
Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus
The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body
