Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 367-372
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.50 367
A
PPLICATION OF
A
RT
A
PPRECIATION
P
ROCESS IN
M
ENTAL
H
EALTH
E
DUCATION OF
C
OLLEGE
S
TUDENTS
Haiyan Zhang
1*, Yu Gu
2, Haojun Zu
3, Yao Wang
4Abstract
More and more Chinese colleges have opened courses on mental health, aiming to ensure that their students are well-developed both in mind and body. In view of the existing problems with college mental health courses, this paper aims to verify whether the national psychological drama can improve the mental health of college students. Firstly, the authors analyzed the process and mechanism of national psychological drama, and discussed the influence mechanism of national psychological drama on mental health. Next, a number of subjects were selected to watch a famous national psychological drama, and their mental health conditions were evaluated against the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). The results show that the national psychological drama, as an art appreciation process, has a positive influence on the mental health of college students, and makes up for the defects of traditional and modern psychological dramas in mental health education. The research findings opened up a new path for mental health education in colleges.
Key words: Art Appreciation, Mental Health, National Psychological Drama.
Received: 19-03-19 | Accepted: 07-08-19
INTRODUCTION
Adolescents are at a golden stage of their life-long development, and they are eager to have a
more comprehensive and detailed
understanding of their personality
characteristics (Jakesch & Leder, 2009).
However, their physical and mental
development is still at an immature stage, they are impulsive and emotional, and full of curiosity about new things (Berghman & Eijck, 2009). In addition, the pressure in real life is too much, so the teenagers are highly susceptible to the influence of certain events, which often makes them unable to conduct rational analysis, such as indulging in online games, constellation fortune, etc. (Van Tilburg & Igou, 2014). When they are in doubt or have problems, they desperately need
Institute of International Comparative Education. Education Department, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China. Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Hebei 066000, China.
E-Mail: [email protected]
strong support to meet their spiritual needs (Van Eijck, 2012). If we can’t give them comfort and help in time, they may gradually hide their thoughts and alienate the outside world (Bullot & Reber, 2013; Petrillo, Capone, Caso et al., 2015). By establishing good interpersonal relationships and enhancing the two-way communication between parents and children, we can alleviate their pressure.
Developmental psychology research shows that adolescence is a critical period of psychological maturity for the teenagers, in this stage, they are susceptible to the influence of external things (Spijker, Graaf, Bijl et al., 2004). Teenagers are highly malleable, and they are prone to a series of psychological problems such as anxiety and inferiority due to their poor adjustment (Bijl & Ravelli, 2000). If we can’t give positive guidance for the intervention of the mental health problems of the youth group in this period, they will generate serious psychological problems (Saxena, Thornicroft, G., Knapp et al., 2007; Buffel, Van de Velde, & Bracke, 2014).
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From the cultural perspective, the national
psychological drama is formed by the
development and perfection of individual
psychology combined with local culture
(Kruijshaar, Hoeymans, Bijl et al., 2003). It combines classical psychological theories and research methods with the basic theories and
techniques of traditional drama and
psychological drama (Barton & Pretty, 2010) to create a new stage performance form. As a derivative of psychological drama, the national psychological drama contains the functional principle of psychological drama. The national psychological drama inherits the most important thought of the psychological drama, that is, the behavior always precedes the theory (Karam, Itani, Fayyad et al., 2016). Moreover, as one of the schools of music therapy (Staten, Gregory-Mercado, Ranger-Moore et al., 2004), it also reflects the projection principle of music image and the functional principle of improvisational music creation.
In view of the problems existing in the school mental health classrooms, this paper designs thematic programs to verify whether the national psychological drama can improve students' mental health status. Through the
practical application of the national
psychological drama teaching method in the mental health classroom, this paper aims to lay a foundation for the effective implementation of the school mental health classrooms. The research results show that, as a process of artistic appreciation, the national psychological drama is a useful exploration of the application of traditional psychological drama and common drama in different contexts and social
backgrounds. It not only expands the
psychological treatment function of traditional psychological drama and the artistic aesthetic function of drama, but also makes the mental health education more active and artistic, which has opened up a new path for school mental health education.
PROCESS AND MECHANISM OF NATIONAL PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA
Operation process
Generally speaking, the creation, instruction and performance of national psychological
drama is the process of mental health education activities. The director on the stage guides people to turn their daily-life problems into opportunities for growth and development (Simovska, 2007), and instructs people to make use of their inner self to express and create new life forms, creatively express their own lives, thereby helping everyone to become the creator of the life. Specifically, the national psychological drama mainly includes six parts: create, direct, rehearse, perform, share, and review, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1
.
Work flow of national psychology
drama
Mechanism of the influence of national psychological drama on mental health
The national psychological drama is
developed on the basis of culture, psychology, psychological drama, and the basic theory of drama. Specifically, the theory of spontaneity and creativity in drama provides a theoretical support for the national psychological drama.
On this basis, the national psychological drama has gradually formed its own stage performance forms, which generally integrate
psychological training, interpersonal
communication, drama scenarios, language guidance, music and dance, etc. The structural
diagram of the relationship between
psychological quality and national psychological drama reveals the mechanism of the influence of national psychological drama on mental health, as shown in Figure 2.
APPLICATION OF ART APPRECIATION PROCESS IN MENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION OF COLLEGE STUDENTS 369
Figure 2
.
Structural diagram of the relationship between national psychological drama and
mental health
Unique plot Interpersonal
interaction
Language Guidance
Music, Dance
mental training Dramatic scenes
2. Personality factors
3. Applicability factors 1. Cognitive
factors
Moving Awakening Psychological
catharsis
Sublimation incentive
Aesthetic Experience
Experience Reflection Role Creation
Table 1.
Experimental processing design table
Group Pre-test Field intervention Post-test Experimental group Measurement of subjects' general mental health level Participate Same with pre-test
Control group Measurement of subjects' general mental health level Non-participation Same with pre-test
EMPIRICAL EXPLORATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF NATIONAL PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA ON MENTAL HEALTH
This study takes the national psychological drama "XXXX" as an experimental material to verify how to intervene in college students' mental health education. First of all, it adopts artistic forms to make students accept the aesthetic psychological health education, which greatly enhances the initiative participation of college students. Secondly, the interpersonal interaction in the game enables students to release and integrate their emotions. Thirdly, the unique plots enable college students to enter the roles smoothly, and ulteriorly give vent to their negative emotions.
Subjects
When musical psychological drama is taken as a treatment method, the core question is usually issued by the counselor (a single person or a group of people) and the therapist and the team are asked for help. The music teacher carries out activities as a director and selects students from the same school as the leading or the supporting roles of the national psychology
drama. There is no uniform standard for the designed activities. In this study, we designed the content of activities with 5 activities per week (each lasting 1 hour). The experimental processing design table is shown in Table 1.
Since the SCL-90 can measure most factors in the mental health level, we use it to evaluate the overall mental health level of college students. The scale was used to measure the subjects’ mental health level and characteristics, including anxiety, depression, somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, hostility, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, phobia, psychosis, paranoia and others, all 10 factors. The SCL-90 scores of the experimental group and the control group before and after the art appreciation process are shown in Table 2.
The results showed that there was no significant difference in the mean and total scores of SCL-90 between the experimental group and the control group before and after participating in the psychological drama. The mental health status of the two groups was basically the same, indicating that the experimental group and the control group had the same mental health level and were comparable.
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Table 2.
Comparison of SCL-90 scores between the experimental group and the control group
before and after the art appreciation process
Time Psychological symptoms Experimental group Control group T M SD M SD
Pre-experiment
Somatization 0.729 0.521 0.924 0.563 -0.723 Obsessive-compulsive symptoms 1.483 0.452 1.369 0.548 -1.248 Interpersonal sensitivity 1.382 0.460 1.377 0.540 -1.259 Depression 1.151 0.528 1.128 0.454 -1.026
Anxiety 1.541 0.596 1.717 0.466 -1.421
Hostility 0.952 0.543 1.258 0.475 -0.894
Phobia 0.737 0.571 0.701 0.479 -1.235
Paranoia 1.095 0.422 1.240 0.432 -0.831
Psychosis 1.021 0.589 0.920 0.530 -1.181
Other 0.836 0.594 0.933 0.529 -1.188
Sum 85.175 43.599 94.568 46.798 -1.252
After-experiment
Somatization 0.540 0.424 0.756 0.535 1.750 Obsessive-compulsive symptoms 1.272 0.695 1.462 0.700 1.080 Interpersonal sensitivity 0.990 0.537 1.369 0.729 2.236
Depression 0.922 0.468 1.294 0.719 2.225
Anxiety 0.817 0.455 1.918 0.645 1.920
Hostility 0.746 0.651 1.055 0.613 1.831
Phobia 0.527 0.438 0.530 0.555 1.141
Paranoia 0.974 0.559 1.166 0.621 1.250
Psychosis 0.803 0.377 1.075 0.663 1.816
Other 0.830 0.625 1.139 0.632 1.899
Sum 69.372 39.057 95.054 48.098 2.213
At the same time, the SCL-90 score of the experimental group changed a lot, indicating that the mental health level of the experimental group has improved to some extent.
Analysis and discussion
Through the investigation of the performance forms of national psychological drama, we tried to understand the college students' perception of the performance form, the degree of response content of the performance form, and the characteristics of the performance form, which are closely related to the final effect of the performance.
Further, this study designed the following survey contents: “1. Do you accept the performance form of national psychological drama as a way of mental health education?”; “2. Which form of mental health education do you like to accept (multiple choice)”; “3. What do you think is the most appreciated feature of the national psychological drama? (Multiple choice); "4. What do you think is the most distinctive feature of the national psychological drama? (Multiple choice)."
The results of above questions are shown in Figure 3-Figure 6.
Figure 3
.
College students' recognition of
the
performance
form
of
national
APPLICATION OF ART APPRECIATION PROCESS IN MENTAL HEALTH EDUCATION OF COLLEGE STUDENTS 371
Figure 4
.
Acceptance of various mental
health education methods
Figure 5
.
The most appreciated feature of
national psychological drama
As can be seen from the above figure, the national psychological drama is a popular performance form, the artistry, life-orientation and mental health education activities are its obvious characteristics, which is consistent with our theory and concept.
In addition, because the national
psychological drama "XXX" reflects the process of the socialization of individuals, we have compiled a related open question: "What aspects do you think this drama has the most impact on your life?" XXX is a national psychological drama, identify its effect and influence on the audience, and conclude it using
the semantic analysis method, the results are shown in Figure 7.
Figure 6
.
The most distinctive feature of the
national psychological drama
Figure 7
.
Influence of national psychological
drama on all aspects of life
From Figure 7, we can draw the following conclusions:
(1) National psychological drama
characterized by artistry and life-orientation is a kind of health education activities, it can become a form that is accepted by the public;
(2) National psychological drama has a positive influence on college students' self-awareness, interpersonal communication and life attitude to different extents.
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
Psychology Artistry Living
Activism of Mental Health Education Reading Books and Newspapers Surf the Internet
Psychology Artistry Living Activation 0%
5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
Theme Plot Manifestation Stage Design Other 0%
5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
Interpersonal communication Self-awareness
Attitudes towards life Life style
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CONCLUSIONS
Through theoretical exploration and
empirical research, the following conclusions are drawn.
(1) The national psychological drama has opened up a new path for the school mental health education, which has a positive influence on the mental health of college students;
(2) Empirical analysis shows that the national psychological drama has a positive influence on the mental health of college students;
(3) The national psychological drama is a useful and important supplement to the
deficiency of traditional and modern
psychological dramas in the function of mental health education. This art appreciation process will become another effective psychological behavior in school mental health education.
Acknowledgement
Project approval number: 14YJA880019. Project fund number: 14YJA880019
Project name: Theoretical and practical research on career education skill strategy. Types of section: Ministry of education humanities and social sciences research project /planning fund project.
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