Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemHappily sensitive: A mixed method exploration of wellbeing in highly sensitive individuals( 2021)Although manifesting in different ways across and within cultures, the subjective experience of wellbeing and happiness is a cherished goal for many individuals, communities, and societies around the world. Research, philosophies, discussions, and writings across a range of disciplines has provided definitions, measures, and various understandings of wellbeing. Yet there remains much to learn about the varied ways that wellbeing is experienced, cultivated, and hindered for various populations. As a subjective construct, individuals experience wellbeing in different ways, and wellbeing can be influenced by a range of variables, including personality, genetics, and culture. Culture explicitly and implicitly creates and reinforces social norms and expectations, which impact upon how individuals make sense of and experience their place within that culture. In Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) cultures, social norms around wellbeing tend to emphasize social outgoingness and high-arousal positive emotions, with introversion and negative emotion looked down upon or even pathologized. However, the influence of these cultural norms on wellbeing generally remains unacknowledged in much of the theoretical and research literature. Importantly, this extravert-centric conception of wellbeing does not fit many individuals who live within WEIRD societies. There is a need to better understand how wellbeing is created and experienced by the large number of people for whom wellbeing manifests in alternative ways. This thesis specifically focuses on one such population group: individuals who score high on the personality trait of sensory processing sensitivity (SPS). It consists of three factors: ease of excitation (EOE), aesthetic sensitivity (AES), and low sensory threshold (LST). Estimates suggest that about 25% of general populations score high on sensitivity, suggesting that there may be adaptive aspects of the trait. This thesis investigated sensory processing sensitivity using a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology. The quantitative component examined how SPS relates to a range of wellbeing and illbeing domains, through an online questionnaire completed by 430 individuals. I examined correlations amongst overall SPS and its factors, the Big Five personality factors (extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and agreeableness), and multiple dimensions of subjective wellbeing (e.g., positive and negative emotions, relationships, meaning); compared wellbeing profiles for low and high SPS groups, explored differential associations for the three SPS factors; and tested intersections amongst the Big Five, SPS, and wellbeing. SPS was negatively correlated with all wellbeing domains, but after controlling for neuroticism and depressive symptoms, associations reversed, resulting in positive correlations between SPS and wellbeing, suggesting that previously observed illbeing correlates may be due to neuroticism and psychological distress, rather than SPS itself. The qualitative component investigated how sensitive individuals experience and cultivate wellbeing within a WEIRD society. Twelve adults participated in semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that highly sensitive individuals perceive wellbeing arising from harmony across multiple dimensions. Interviewees emphasized the value of low-intensity positive emotion, self-awareness, self-acceptance, positive social relationships balanced by times of solitude, connecting with nature, contemplative practices, emotional self-regulation, practicing self-compassion, having a sense of meaning, and hope/optimism. Barriers of wellbeing included physical health issues and challenges with saying no to others. This thesis presents the first extensive empirical investigation of subjective wellbeing in a high-SPS population group. Overall, findings from this thesis suggest that associations between SPS and wellbeing depend upon how wellbeing is operationalized and the SPS factor under consideration. Furthermore, this thesis provides a nuanced picture of personality and wellbeing relationships, presenting key insights into how sensitive individuals live well, within the context of friction between their natural personality and the social, cultural, and historic context in which they live.
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ItemContained art experiences for young people, staff and an a/r/tographer in Nicaragua: implications for art education and wellbeing( 2017)Contained Art Experiences (CAE) was developed as an art practice in response to my work with Si a La Vida (SALV), a small Non-Governmental Organisation that supports young people and families who have experienced trauma through poverty, violence and neglect in Nicaragua, Central America. Within this cultural setting, I explored CAE as a new quality art practice with the aim of enriching participants’ capacities of awareness of self and other, to assist them in strengthening relationships that contribute to resilience and wellbeing and in responding more positively to their cultural reality. CAE was developed through my prior experience, blending three constructs: attachment theory and attuned relationships; art making and wellbeing; and culture, art practice and recovery from trauma. CAE invited participants to consider and express their experiences and feelings through their art making within an environment where they were valued and where they sensed the presence of an attuned relationship. My exploration of CAE was a qualitative investigation, guided by a/r/tography and case study methodologies that interacted together to create and inform a trans-methodological frame for the study. This frame allowed me to gather data through observations, artefacts and interviews resulting from the participation of 40 young people and two staff in CAE over a five-week period at SALV. Data gathered from reflection and artefacts during my time in Nicaragua recognised my participation in CAE as a/r/tographer. I analysed the data through a process of sifting and sorting that allowed a deeper and refined analysis, and brought a greater clarity to the emerging themes of participation, expression and new thinking. Weaving text and the creative work, The Altar, I responded to these themes. The Altar is an installation consisting of four elements set in a scene of a Catholic altar, with my choice of materials, techniques, and subjects informed by my interaction with the cultural context of Nicaragua. This text/creative response identified that participation in CAE allowed individual expression of experiences and feelings, and contributed to changed thinking and behaviour in young people, staff and a/r/tographer. Further, CAE contributed to their sense of value and the development of pro-social behaviours for young people. CAE informed teacher professional practice and their relationship with students, and provided a reflective practice for me, as a/r/tographer, that informed my relationship with participants and contributed to the process of implementing CAE. This is a small-scale study, however, I suggest that participation in CAE has implications for art and wellbeing as a new addition to quality art practices in a broader setting in education. CAE may provide a model of teacher professional learning and teacher reflective practice, and offer a relationship-centred student wellbeing approach that may support students who have experienced trauma.