Papers by Krishanu Kumar Das
Last year (2020), in the month of January, I conducted an experiment on emotional adaptational pr... more Last year (2020), in the month of January, I conducted an experiment on emotional adaptational processes upon the paramedical students (both boys and girls) of HLG Hospital. Only I conducted the pilot study. But I did not get much expected result to favour the theory of emotion. The reason is there were some flaws in the design of the experiment. And also, certain unavoidable aspect was difficult to settle in the short span of experiment. Whatever it is, I was stuck by the COVID-19, as hospital's institutional section was closed, and I had to stop the experiment. The method of the study was that each subject in a lonely room (away from other emotional disturbances) would be given a booklet that showed a series of empathy-stimulating pictures/photos. With each image (later I had plan to upgrade it to videos), the subject would have to mark their either empathetic feelings or pleasurable feelings on a Likert-scale of '0' to '100'. The booklets were of two types. One is composed of pictures graded from minimal empathy stimulating to highest empathy-stimulating image. And another had same pictures in reverse. The principle was when the subjects were going through upgrading path, they would mark higher the minimal empathy-stimulating images as they have been gradually adapted compared to the other group who are being exposed to the highest empathy-stimulating images at the beginning. And when the subjects are going through the downgrading path, they would mark higher the highest empathy-stimulating images at the beginning of the experiment, but would mark much lower compared to the other group to the minimal empathy-stimulating images, or even may mark them for pleasurable sensations. So, if we compare marks of each image, there would be significant difference in rating done by the two groups, and this difference will close to the middle image in both orders.
International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience, 2017
Background: This study endeavours to define and analyze one of the most important faculty of huma... more Background: This study endeavours to define and analyze one of the most important faculty of human mind 'emotion'. The 'emotion' is a specific sensation or feeling in the mind that provides directional drive to the other faculties of the mind -memory, intelligence, and physical activities -for their actions to be performed to pursue a specific goal. It should be astutely differentiated from 'mood', as 'mood' is the 'energy level' of the mind at a given particular moment. As a power house of the mind, the centers for 'mood' not only stimulate the activities of the faculty of emotion, but activities of other mental faculties -'memory', 'intelligence', and 'physical activities' also. Emotion can be logically represented on 'Pleasure and Pain' or 'Positive and Negative' scale. That means every emotion has both these two ends. That is true for the emotion like, 'anger', 'fear' also. The concept of primary and secondary emotions does not exist. Every emotion has been developed as a trait in the process of 'biological evolution', and they all have survival roles. Thus all emotions are physiologically distinct, different, and could be both qualitatively and quantitatively determined.
MEME: IS REPLICATED ON A SURVIVAL INTEREST ? Our mind does not want to take up anything if that m... more MEME: IS REPLICATED ON A SURVIVAL INTEREST ? Our mind does not want to take up anything if that mind is totally disinterested about it from its any of the quarters of conscious, subconscious, or unconscious sections. And the mind, as all of the other parts of the body, is tuned such that it scarcely gets interested in anything that has nothing to do with the survival of the species. This is true from the evolutionary perspective. 'Meme' is described as an unit of cultural beliefs, ideas, habits that can be transferred or replicated from one individual into another individual. The term 'meme' was coined by Richard Dawkins, in his book 'Selfish Gene' [1]. 'Meme', an unit of cultural properties, is similar to 'Gene' which is an unit of hereditary properties. There is a dictum when two people from two different backgrounds or cultures meet together, there happens cultural exchange between them, or between their minds. In real world whenever two people meet, there is some mutual interest. So in practical life, this is almost true. But in real sense, the law is not supposed to be true. If mind does not get interested in the material being transferred from another mind in respect of any of its quarters - that is conscious, subconscious, and unconscious; the mind will try to resist the transfer. Yet some cultural exchange occurs in almost all cases. The reason behind it is most possibly the emotion 'curiosity'. Even if, the transfer is devoid of other interest, the emotion 'curiosity' or 'desire to know the unknown' is attached with some survival interest which has been elaborated elsewhere in my works [2]. And this could be the reason for some inevitable cultural exchange in these cases. But more introspection and studies are required. References : 1. Dawkins R (1976). The Selfish Gene. Oxford University press. 2. Das K K (2017). "A Theoretical Approach to Define and Analyze Emotions". International Journal of Emergency Mental Health; 19(4): 374, 1-14.
Telepathy: A Science or Pseudoscience ? Telepathy means transmission of information from one pers... more Telepathy: A Science or Pseudoscience ? Telepathy means transmission of information from one person to another without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was coined by Frederick W. H. Myers, a founder of the society for psychical research, in 1882 [1]. Over the decades, the researches on telepathy failed to produce any convincing and replicable evidence that could prove that telepathy exists, and often been considered by the scientific community as to be the pseudoscience. Here, we are predicting from some common observations that though telepathy, in the sense of thought transmission, may not be existing, emotional transmission could be a possible phenomenon. These common observations are : (1) In a room full of happy persons, a person will also feel happy to some extent, although in normal situation there is no reason for him to be happy to that extent. Festive occasions for that carry feelings of happiness to everyone in that community. In opposite, in a room full of gloomy persons, a normal individual will feel distressed to some extent. Or in a room full of angry persons, a normal person will feel distressed on anger emotional scale. (2) Suppose in a room someone is present and another person very angrily entered in that room from behind silently. Without having any sensational perception (through vision, audition, physical contact etc.) the existing person will feel a sensation of another's anger. (3) In a crowded place, we feel dizzy, because of variant emotional expressions by others. In a secluded place, or when we are in our own room, we feel a more relaxed mental state. All of the above mentioned common observations predict the fact that there is possibility that emotions could be transmitted by some measure without any sensational perception (vision, audition, touch etc.) and without any human made sensory channels from one person to another at a considerable distance. If it could be so, the question comes what could be this unknown measure? There are [...]
What is the nature of consciousness and how it is related to subconscious mind? What drives our c... more What is the nature of consciousness and how it is related to subconscious mind? What drives our conscious and subconscious mind? Is your mind yours? If I tell you to read the telephone directory from cover to cover without missing a single word – probably you will get some idea behind what consciousness is. If we deeply think our consciousness is equivalent to molecular tendency. It is equivalent to sodium's affinity to react with water to make a stable compound. There is no need to import divine attribute upon consciousness. But can we say ‘sodium is conscious’? – not in the way by which we feel our very subjective consciousness. Then why our consciousness evolved? It evolved to guide an array of complex molecular reactions that accidentally trapped into a cycle within our earth’s microcosm. Consciousness is a part of this cycle, though not always essential in this cycle. Any organism that can feel, we can say it is conscious, though it may not experience conscious intellectual...
Social Sciences, 2020
This article has given efforts to analyze and interpret one of the most famous psychological expe... more This article has given efforts to analyze and interpret one of the most famous psychological experiments, conducted by Stanley Milgram, in the light of understanding of nature and characteristics of emotions. Milgram's famous experiment is actually a series of experiments that started in the summer of 1961, at the Linsly-Chittenden hall of Yale University. This quintessential series of experiments revealed a very significant, yet shocking and unwelcome nature of the human psych. But there is no experimental proof that can explain the true reasons lying behind the results of this experiment. It has been inferred by different authors differently in the course of time. Milgram himself explained this as a fact of obedience in the lattice of the hierarchical social structure. Is it the singular factor? In this project, we will try to interpret it from another angle -that is basic nature and properties of individual emotions and their adaptive processes. We will see not only the matter of obedience, but a variety of factors -namely, magnitude of different emotions, previous adaptational states on different emotional scales, gradual adaptational processes, pressure of conformity to social and cultural norms, obligations coming from individual moral built, and finally genetical compositions of individual persons -all created a bidirectional force having its components acting in opposite directions. And the net product or sum of this bidirectional force ultimately expressed in a person's action and behaviour that was observed in Milgram's experiments.
International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience, 2018
Therapeutic reprocessing of association of memories (TRAM) is a treatment approach for phobia and... more Therapeutic reprocessing of association of memories (TRAM) is a treatment approach for phobia and other emotional disorders based upon proposed 'Emotion Model' by Das. This article describes the theoretical guidelines of TRAM for the effective treatment of phobia. Currently 'desensitization' and 'flooding' are in vogue treatment modalities for the treatment of phobia. Therapeutic reprocessing of association of memories can add a new dimension for the treatment of 'phobia'. Though the treatment strategy of TRAM has been described here basing on 'phobia', TRAM could be extended to further areas of psychotherapeutic treatment, treating other emotional imbalances also. The strategy of TRAM is founded on two fundamental theoriestheories of associative learning and the new emotion model. The design of this study aims at rational analysis and logical way of approaches for the treatment of phobia and other emotional difficulties. This treatment modality is simple, more patient compatible and cost-effective, but involves application of some innovative interventions on the part of the therapists.
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 2018
This study endeavours to define evolutionary perspectives of emotions and mood on biological evol... more This study endeavours to define evolutionary perspectives of emotions and mood on biological evolutionary platform. Emotions and Mood are two separate entities of the mental apparatus. 'Mood' is the energy level of the mind at a given particular moment, whereas 'emotion' is a specific sensation or feeling in the mind that provides directional drive to the other faculties of the mind -memory, intelligence, and physical activities -for their actions to be performed to pursue a specific goal. Present study supports that every emotion has been developed individually in the course of biological evolution, and they all have been evolved to maintain the survival needs. According to 'Emotion Model' posited by Das, each emotion is distinct and different with a specific survival role and physiologically can be qualitatively and quantitatively determined on different emotion scales. So there is no such existence of as such primary and secondary emotions. Furthermore, each emotion has some certain expressing habits, which both are suited for adapting with the emotion provoking situations and are used for inter-communication purposes. This study also clarifies how evolution of emotions has been an important tool in sociobiology maintaining the bridge between Darwin's evolution theory and Hamilton's inclusive fitness theory, and has become responsible for entire social evolution.
International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications (IJSRP), 2021
In 1870, Ludimar Hermann reported an optical illusion that has been popularized thereafter after ... more In 1870, Ludimar Hermann reported an optical illusion that has been popularized thereafter after his name. In this Hermann Grid illusion, we see either white grid upon the background of complete black or black grid on the background of complete white. If we watch the grid, we see blobs of darkness or blobs of white smudges appearing at the intersections of the white or black grid respectively that are more prominent at peripheral view. A number of approaches to explain this illusion have been ventured in course of time. In this article, we will take the endeavor to explain it from the angle of familiarity with the previous associated memories of grid views. To summarize our view, we can say that we see Hermann grid illusion because of the impossibility of the Hermann grid in reality.
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Papers by Krishanu Kumar Das