Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Graham, Steven

Keywords

Emotional Suppression, Art Therapy, Clinical Psychology

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

Emotional suppression has been implicated as an important feature in the development and maintenance of various disorders including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The current study investigated emotional suppression symptoms, specifically anxiety and negative affect, and the possibility that performing tasks in the visual arts may lessen those symptoms. The current sample was 60 undergraduate students. Half of participants emotionally suppressed during a distressing film clip while the other half did not. Following the clip, half of participants performed an artistic task and half performed a filler task. Participants completed measures of mood, affect, and anxiety at baseline, after the film, and after the task. The current hypotheses were that emotionally suppressing would be more distressing than not suppressing during the film and that performing an artistic task would be more uplifting than performing the filler task. Both hypotheses were upheld by the results: emotional suppressors had significantly higher levels of anxiety and negative affect (and significantly lower levels of positive affect and mood) following the clip and artistic expressers had significantly higher levels of mood and positive affect following the task. The findings extended previous literature by providing evidence of the effective nature of artistic expression in counteracting emotional suppression. Implications for both patients and non-patients are discussed. Future research should use clinical samples and explore different types of therapy in place of art.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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