I recently completed my undergraduate degree in English and Psychology. My final year research project for psychology saw me look at the effect of reading poetry in groups on the wellbeing of older adults. The reason for this is that in a hundred years' time, the proportion of 80 year olds in the world population is going to be the same as that of those between 0-14 years (UN, 2013). That's hundreds of millions of older people having to negotiate retirement, bereavement and changing circumstances. Loneliness is expected to be a big problem, especially for men. Depression and anxiety is a worry for policy makers too and governments are looking for cheap, easy and non-pharmaceutical interventions to avoid the ticking time bomb of an ageing population. The humanities have done a lot of work in this regard. Art as a therapy is very successful among older adults. Reading groups are growing in popularity, too. It is generally regarded that this sort of thing works. It makes intuitive sense. We all know that painting and reading are good for us. We don't necessarily know why, though. That's where psychology and its research methods comes in. You might well wonder why we need to know. Well, if you can understand what's really going on and tease out its nuances you can design an intervention that is more effective, works more quickly and can be tailored to fit individual needs. There is also the fact of life that a peer-reviewed evidence-based study will help project leaders attract funding.
I looked at poetry as a therapy. Billington (2013) conducted research among patients suffering from depression. The bulk of each session was the reading of classic literature. Each session, though, was rounded off with a poem. It was found that while the literature relaxed the participants, the poetry made them more reflective. I decided to try to develop this study by concentrating on poetry. I chose six different themes of poetry (love, family, nature, local, nonsense verse and ageing) and by recording, transcribing and applying a thematic analysis to the group discussion of the poems, I examined how each theme affected them differently.
I found, just as Billington did, that the more difficult, classic poetry was most effective. To understand why I looked at another area of psychological research known as 'flow'. This is where we are so involved in a task we become absorbed, lose our sense of self and of time passing. According to Csikszentmihalyi (1997) a flow state requires two things: instant feedback and a level of challenge that pushes but does not exceed our ability. Learning a musical instrument is perfect for inducing a flow state. I suggest that difficult poetry does the same thing: instant feedback is provided by words, phrases and meaning that we don't understand. And a carefully chosen poem will push our ability to interpret it to our limits. Certainly, participants would report how time flew during those sessions and they expressed how satisfied they felt after deciphering, together, a poem's meaning.
That satisfaction is important. Flow helps you to complete a task more effectively. That, in turn, leads to a higher sense of self-efficacy (Salanova, Bakker and Llorens, 2006). This increased feeling of self-competence extends beyond the task itself and influences how we feel about our ability to complete any task and leads to a reduction in anxiety and an increase in wellbeing (Bandura, 1994).
I also found that poetry on the theme of local settings lead participants to feel nostalgic but in a positive way. Iyer and Jetten (2011) offer an explanation of why this may be the case. In their study, they found that identity continuity moderated nostalgia and leads to positive outcomes. Identity continuity is characterised by an individual’s ability to link the past with the present. This can remain static over time, or, a more dynamic view is that identity’s basic structure remains the same but is adaptable to change (Atchley, 1989). Participants in the continuity condition showed higher levels of wellbeing, self-efficacy and an increased tendency to seek out new experiences. Moreover, they found that when links with the past were broken in participants, nostalgia lead to painful emotions, lower self-efficacy and a reluctance to engage with the current environment. This is significant for my study as the theme of local poetry not only evoked feelings of nostalgia it did so while strengthening links between the past and present.
You'd probably think that poetry on the theme of nature could only lead to wellbeing. However, those who study older adults have noticed that they speaking of ageing as a process that you have to follow. The emancipatory theory of ageing wants them to realise that the ageing process as we understand it is a cultural convention that you can choose to ignore. Far better would be to choose your own process. The trouble with nature poetry is that it encouraged the participants in my study to speak of the stages of life as if they were seasons. Worse still, they described themselves as being in the winter of their lives, a season they associated with decay and death. It wasn't all bad, though. At least this brought the topic to the ageing process and allowed for a discussion to take place where their assumptions about ageing could be challenged. For instance, the seasons are cyclical. Spring follows winter and participants can be encouraged to look at each new stage of their lives such as retirement as the passing of winter and the coming of spring. The language we use to describe such things really matters.
So as you can see, although we all know poetry can be very therapeutic, we might be able to understand why. Once we know that we can more carefully choose the poems we use to increase self-confidence, improve wellbeing and emancipate older adults to age in the way that makes them most happy instead of passively accepting the inevitable.
Research into this is multi-disciplinary. Psychology and its research methods has a role to play. For me, the humanities and psychology overlap far more than is admitted. In my dual honours degree, my English course helped my psychology grades and the reverse was true. My final year project in psychology brought both together. As I continue on my academic career in research, I hope to bring the two closer together.
References
Atchley, R. C. (1989). A continuity theory of normal aging. The gerontologist,29(2), 183190.
Bakker, A. B. (2005). Flow among music teachers and their students: The crossover of peak experiences. Journal of Vocational Behavior,66(1), 26–44.Bandura, A. (1994). Self‐efficacy. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Billington, J., Davis, P., & Farrington, G. (2013). Reading as participatory art: an alternative
mental health therapy. Journal of Arts & Communities, 5(1), 2540.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday
Life. Basic Books.
Iyer, A., & Jetten, J. (2011). What's left behind: Identity continuity moderates the effect of nostalgia on wellbeing and life choices. Journal of personality and social psychology, 101(1), 94.
Salanova, M., Bakker, A. B., & Llorens, S. (2006). Flow at Work: Evidence for an Upward 7(1), 1–22.
Spiral of Personal and Organizational Resources*. Journal of Happiness Studies,
United Nations. World Population Ageing 2013. New York, USA: Department of Economic
and Social Affairs, Population Division; 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment