Gabriella Maria Gilli - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Gabriella Maria Gilli

RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA, May 1, 2022

The psychology of art has had an enormous development since the middle of the last century; howev... more The psychology of art has had an enormous development since the middle of the last century; however, no much work has been done in association with religious and sacred art. This paper aims to provide a brief history of the use of images in the three great monotheistic religions, i.e., Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All three religions have been influenced by the commandment (Exodus 20:4), which prohibits idolatry. Nevertheless, when it comes to the use of images with religious content, the commandment is interpreted differently by the three. If in Judaism and Islam the use of images is not particularly widespread and is bound to precise conditions, in Christianity a strong relationship with the visual arts has developed, at least until the Reformation. After this split, the use of images was only encouraged by the Catholic Church even though, with the Enlightenment, religious and sacred art suffered a decline even in Catholic culture. It was not until the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that the Catholic Church returned to support and encourage art in the religious context. It will then be necessary to distinguish between religious art and sacred art because they serve different functions. Precisely because it is a field in which deepening is possible, it could be very interesting for the psychology of art to study the perception of religious and sacred images, for example investigating constructs associated with the perception of vitality and aesthetic judgment.

Environmental issues are at the centre of the political and cultural debate, representing one of ... more Environmental issues are at the centre of the political and cultural debate, representing one of the greatest challenges of our century. Sustainability and pro-environmental conducts are rec-ognized as increasingly urgent to address the decay of ecosystems. To support the acquisition of attitudes that give greater consideration to environmental issues, feeling connected to nature has been acknowledged in psychology as a particularly relevant individual component. One of the most widely used scales in Anglo-Saxon context to analyse this feeling is the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) measuring human’s affective and experiential connection to nature. To in-vestigate the psychometric properties of this scale in the Italian context, a study including 284 Italian adults (45,9% female; 54.1% males; Mean age = 34.63; SD = 13.422; age-range = 18-65 years) was carried out to provide evidence for the internal consistency of the CNS as well as its con-vergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed that CNS in Italian has a single-factor structure as reported in the original version by [1]. Further-more, as expected, positive correlations were observed between the CNS and pro-environmental attitudes and negative correlations with civic moral disengagement. Finally, as assumed, the CNS positively correlated with mental well-being. A broad vision of this study concerns the idea that if people are more connected to nature, they will be less inclined to harm it.

Ricerche di psicologia, Feb 1, 2023

Frontiers in Psychology

The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures to face it have placed children and their caregivers in fr... more The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures to face it have placed children and their caregivers in front of many challenges that could represent sources of stress. This work aims to explore the point of view of children through drawing, as a spontaneous means of expression, relating it to parents’ perceptions of children’s difficulties, strengths, and mentalization skills. The sample consists of 18 children (mean age = 8.22, SD = 1.79). Parents were asked to complete: a socio-demographic questionnaire with information on the impact of COVID-19 on the family, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and the Everyday Mindreading Scale. Children were asked to draw three moments: “Before” the pandemic, “During” the lockdown, and “After,” when the COVID-19 will be passed. The drawings were coded by constructing a content and expressive analysis grid, adapting coding systems found in the literature. Data were collected at the beginning of the summer of 2020, just after the first lockdown...

RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA

La ricerca si occupa dello sviluppo dell'abilita' di distinguere tra errori e bugie in ba... more La ricerca si occupa dello sviluppo dell'abilita' di distinguere tra errori e bugie in bambini dai 3 ai 5 anni. Si e' assistito di recente auna ripresa degli studi sull'argomento nell'ambito del paradigma di ricerca sulle teorie della mente, che non ha tuttavia sostanzialmente disconfermato l'ipotesi piagetiana del realismo lessicale, che inficierebbe una piu' matura abilita' di ragionamento morale. Nel presente lavoro, si ipotizza che, qualora le prove vertano su contenuti pertinenti gli interessi del bambino e vengano rispettate le massime conversazionali nella formulazione delle domande, e' possibile evidenziare una comprensione della menzogna come affermazione intenzionalmente ingannevole, e pertanto distinta dagli errori, a eta' piu' precoci di quanto previsto dall'ipotesi del realismo lessicale. Partecipano alla ricerca 276 soggetti equamente ripartiti tra i sessi e nei tre livelli di eta'. I risultati avvalorano l'ipotesi di partenza

Food Quality and Preference, 2016

Highlights This study investigates the effect of an emotional context on food desirability Happin... more Highlights This study investigates the effect of an emotional context on food desirability Happiness, anger and a neutral facial expression denoted the emotional context Happiness exerted a positive effect comparable to a no-(emotional) context condition Anger, selected as a food-unrelated emotion, showed a negative effect on desirability Also the neutral expression evoked negative influential effects on desirability

Behavioral sciences, Dec 13, 2022

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

Archivio di psicologia, neurologia e psichiatria, 1998

Frontiers in Psychology, 2020

Increasing evidence suggests that non-pharmacological therapies impact on neuropsychiatric sympto... more Increasing evidence suggests that non-pharmacological therapies impact on neuropsychiatric symptoms and quality of life in people with Alzheimer's disease. Among these, art-based interventions seem particularly suitable for elders' rehabilitation as they act both on cognitive functions and quality of life. However, their benefits are not yet appropriately explored. The main aim of this quasi-experimental study was to test the feasibility and the likely efficacy of a novel multi-dimensional visual art intervention for people with Alzheimer's disease (PWAD), named Art, Colors, and Emotions treatment (ACE-t). A group of PWAD (N = 10) was recruited from the Memory Clinic of Don Gnocchi Foundation to take part in the ACE-t. A historical control group that followed a usual care program (N = 10) was used for comparison. We considered both feasibility output (adherence and acceptability) and efficacy outcome measures (neuropsychological and neurobehavioral scales). We observed a good adherence to and acceptability of the ACE-t. The following significant intervention-related changes were also observed in ACE-t with respect to usual care: improvement in general cognition, as assessed with the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive, amelioration in language, and in executive functions, and reduction in Neuropsychiatric Inventory Scale score. In conclusion, ACE-t could be considered as a suitable intervention for the rehabilitation of PWAD, with positive effects on the cognitive and the behavioral status. ACE is a promising new art-based intervention that merits further research, including confirmatory trials of our preliminary results.

JAMA Network Open, 2020

IMPORTANCE At the beginning of a public health crisis, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVI... more IMPORTANCE At the beginning of a public health crisis, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, it is important to collect information about people's knowledge, worries, and behaviors to examine their influence on quality of life and to understand individual characteristics associated with these reactions. Such information could help to guide health authorities in providing informed interventions and clear communications. OBJECTIVES To document the initial knowledge about COVID-19 and recommended health behaviors; to assess worries (ie, one's perception of the influence of the worries of others on oneself), social appraisal, and preventive behaviors, comparing respondents from areas under different movement restrictions during the first week after the outbreak; and to understand how worries, perceived risk, and preventive behaviors were associated with quality of life and individual characteristics among Italian adults. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This convenience sample, nonprobablistic survey study recruited adult participants with a snowballing sampling method in any Italian region during the first

PsyCh Journal, 2019

Preferring life to death is deeply rooted in our biology. With the present study, we explored two... more Preferring life to death is deeply rooted in our biology. With the present study, we explored two questions: (1) Can this inclination be transposed to aesthetics, so that a living being is valued as more beautiful than a non-living being? and (2) Are there any differences in the visual exploration of portrayals of a living compared to a dead human? In particular, are there any specific facial features representing the vitality status of a living or dead subject? By answering both questions, young adults' eye gazing was analyzed while they observed, aesthetically judged, and judged the vitality status of faces extracted from paintings representing a sleeping or dead subject. The aesthetic preference for the stimuli as a function of vitality (living, dead) was assessed both during the eye-tracking study and during a follow-up priming behavioral experiment. The analysis of the responses given during the aesthetic judgment task in the eyetracking study revealed preference for the sleeping compared to the dead subjects, supporting proclivity to attribute greater aesthetic value to living beings. This evidence was substantially confirmed by the follow-up priming behavioral study, which further showed a significant effect of explicit vitality labeling on the aesthetic evaluation of the portrayals of sleeping subjects. As far as the visual exploration of the stimuli is concerned, the main eye-tracking results revealed great attention to the eye region of both sleeping and dead subjects, which was particularly enhanced for the sleeping compared to the dead subjects. For the latter stimuli, focused attention was also found to the mouth region. These results are discussed in light of different theoretical proposals, including the "embodied" theory of aesthetic perception based on the existence of mirror systems.

Psicologia clinica dello sviluppo, 2001

... Università degli Studi di Urbino) Gabriella Gilli (Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università Cat... more ... Università degli Studi di Urbino) Gabriella Gilli (Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano) Sabrina Rosini (CRTI ... quez, Baranes, 1993), e dei modelli di attacca-mento (Main, 1991; Byng-Hall, 1995; Doane e Diamond, 1994; Fonagy, Steele, Moran ...

PLoS ONE, 2012

The aim of this study was to investigate, using eye-tracking technique, the influence of bottom-u... more The aim of this study was to investigate, using eye-tracking technique, the influence of bottom-up and top-down processes on visual behavior while subjects, naïve to art criticism, were presented with representational paintings. Forty-two subjects viewed color and black and white paintings (Color) categorized as dynamic or static (Dynamism) (bottom-up processes). Half of the images represented natural environments and half human subjects (Content); all stimuli were displayed under aesthetic and movement judgment conditions (Task) (top-down processes). Results on gazing behavior showed that content-related top-down processes prevailed over low-level visually-driven bottom-up processes when a human subject is represented in the painting. On the contrary, bottom-up processes, mediated by low-level visual features, particularly affected gazing behavior when looking at nature-content images. We discuss our results proposing a reconsideration of the definition of content-related top-down processes in accordance with the concept of embodied simulation in art perception.

Mirrors and Reflections, 2018

... Corresponding address: Paolo Bertrando, MD, PhD, piazza S. Agostino 22, 20123, Milano, Italy.... more ... Corresponding address: Paolo Bertrando, MD, PhD, piazza S. Agostino 22, 20123, Milano, Italy. Tel. 00390243511443. E-mail: gilbert56@ libero. it. ... (Papero, 1988: 72) Therefore, no direct techniques are employed in Bowenian supervi-sion. ...

Journal of Family Therapy, 2008

The mind/body dualism, although scarcely relevant in clinical practice, remains unsolved theoreti... more The mind/body dualism, although scarcely relevant in clinical practice, remains unsolved theoretically. The pragmatic wisdom of the founders of family therapy, which implied that bodies and minds in therapy were one, has been easily forgotten. Such a situation had practical results, leading to naive solutions, both on the materialistic and idealistic sides, represented by biological psychiatry on the one side, and by most postmodern therapies on the other. This article proposes to consider the role of emotions in therapeutic dialogue to solve this dilemma within the field of systemic therapy. Labour is blossoming or dancing where The body is not bruised to please the soul (William Butler Yeats, 1927) The old compromises between 'supernatural' religion and 'materialist' science are artefacts of a false division and by-products of the meeting between unsophisticated theology and equally unsophisticated science.