Explaining the Relationship Between Human Experience in the Environment as an Embodied Subject and Raising Emotional Awareness

Volume 21, Issue 133
July 2024
Pages 21-32

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Faculty of Arts and Architecture, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran.

2 Ph.D. Candidate in Architecture, School of Architecture, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract
Problem statement: One of the main components of mental health is emotion. Emotions are constructed concepts that the human brain creates by giving meaning to its perceptions of the body and the surrounding environment in the process of simulating and predicting them. The way the environment is experienced affects the emotions of the person experiencing it. Environmental information is obtained through perceptual processes. Perception can be approached in two ways: by paying attention to the environment and trying to explore it, or by being present in the environment without paying attention. If a human being actively experiences the environment as an embodied subject, this experience leads to an increase in their awareness. This article aims to investigate how an embodied subject can be active in the environment in a way that leads to an increase in the emotional awareness of the person experiencing it. With the increase in emotional awareness of the individual, a new emotion is added to their emotional granularity, and in this process, the individual’s mental health also increases.
Research objective: This article aims to fill a theoretical gap in the field of the relationship between environment and emotions, with an emphasis on increasing mental health. The research question is: How does the way a human being experiences the environment as an embodied subject relate to their emotional awareness and the increase in their mental health?
Research method: This article, with a qualitative research strategy and an interpretative approach, attempts to determine the effect of the embodied experience of the environment on the emotional awareness of the person experiencing it by explaining concepts such as emotion, emotional awareness, and embodiment in architecture and their relationship to each other.
Conclusion: If, during the experience of the environment, something new happens and creates distinction and attracts the attention of the person experiencing it, and in other words, an error in the prediction process occurs in the perception process, and if this new experience contains emotional meanings, it leads to the creation of a new emotion in the brain of the person experiencing it and its addition to their emotional granularity, which increases their emotional awareness and subsequently their mental health.

Keywords

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