Question

Dr. Cuddy suggest that our body posture affect the way that other perceive us, the way that we perceive ourselves, and some of our physiological measures (such as cortisol and testosterone levels). What does she mean? Explain and use proper terminology.

Dr. Cuddy is a social psychologist, and thus, use an experimental manipulation to test her theory. What is the method that she use? What are her findings? What are her conclusions?

What is your opinion/reflection in regard to the subject/idea of this talk?

Find 2 individuals in our forum which answers are most similar to yoursorare most different than yours, and reply to their threads, explaining why you chose their threads.

Answer 1

• Amy Cuddy is a professor at Harvard Business School. Back in 2010, she became interested in male and female body language from watching students in one of her classes. She said, for the most part, the men held power poses.
• These students would take up a lot of physical room in the class. They would raise their hands and answer questions.
• Ms. Cuddy said the female students, for the most part, did the exact opposite. They sat with their legs together and made their bodies as small as possible. They seemed unsure when they raised their hands to answer questions.
• Ms. Cuddy knew much about body language as a social scientist. Body language is what the look of our physical self communicates to others. But Professor Cuddy started to wonder what our individual body language says to our individual selves.
• Both humans and animals express power through their bodies. They tumble in on themselves when they feel unsure, making themselves smaller by hunching over, crossing their arms over their chest and avoiding big movements. When they feel on top of the world, they sprawl out.
• So, she set up an experiment with colleague Dana Carney, then a social psychologist at Columbia University. The two women wanted to know if a person’s body language affected the brain’s chemistry.
• They asked 42 men and women to randomly hold high- or low-power poses. The researchers did not tell any of the participants in the experiment what they were testing.
• The researchers found that two minutes of high-power posing lowered the stress hormone cortisol and increased levels of testosterone. Also, all the subjects in the high-power pose group said they felt powerful and in control after the pose. They also took more risks during the experiment.
• Lower-power posing did the opposite – it raised cortisol levels and lowered testosterone levels. These low-power posers also took fewer risks during the course of the experiment.
• Too much cortisol interferes with learning and memory. High cortisol levels also increase the risk of depression and mental health problems. Testosterone, on the other hand, is the hormone linked to assertiveness and confidence.
• She has said that this research can have real life-changing effects on people who feel powerless people who are healing from an illness, facing a job loss, or dealing with abuse or bullying.
• She adds that anyone needing higher confidence levels from athletes and performers to people heading into a job interview could benefit from power posing.
• Ms. Cuddy says she also wants to help people who have what some psychologists call the “imposter syndrome.” The “imposter syndrome” is the feeling that you do not deserve to be where you are and that you will soon be discovered to be a fake.
• Amy Cuddy urges people to share the information on power posing with anyone who may need to feel more powerful. It is simple, free and might be life-changing and basically just fake the confidence until one gets successful in reaching their goals.
• Faking a power posture can help an individual boost their confidence and face the world by changing the brain chemistry,since it could lower the stress hormones and make the person own themselves and become what they always wanted to become without any qualms.
• It all depends upon how one perceives oneself and how one wants others to perceive them as.Faking the power posture can make a person face people and ultimately become that confident person they always to become and wanted others to see them as. And since it affects the hormones,it makes the person more assertive and powerful and ready to take on the world.
• Due to time limit,remaining questions can be asked as another question,they will be answered,thankyou for your cooperation.