Schmidt, Hannah (2023) The Effects of Focusing and the Felt Sense on a Meaning-in-Life Intervention. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Depression and anxiety today still have high incidence rates and especially graduate students are very vulnerable to these mental disorders (Evans et al., 2018). More interventions are needed to help decrease the incidences of depression and anxiety more efficiently. Meaning in life was theorized to be a transdiagnostic factor that was inversely related to depression and anxiety (Brown et al., 2008; Steger, 2012). Previous interventional studies trying to increase meaning also were successful in decreasing psychopathological symptoms (Manco & Hamby, 2021). Therefore, the current study tried to build on the previous correlation findings with an experimental design. We predicted that 1) the meaning intervention would increase meaning, 2) the meaning intervention would reduce depressive and anxiety symptoms, and 3) the relationship of H1 would be partially mediated by focusing. In this study, 135 participants were randomly assigned to either the meaning intervention condition, which focused on reflecting on meaningful goals and values or the control condition, which trained participants in executive functioning. Participants received digitized interventional conditions at baseline and every second day for two weeks (a total of six exercises) as home exercises. Finally, the meaning intervention did not significantly affect meaning in life perceptions, depression or anxiety ratings from baseline to follow-up. Additionally, focusing or listening to the felt sense was not a significant mediator on the meaning intervention creating change in meaning. Reasons for the nonsignificant findings could be the shorter and impersonal administration of the meaning intervention. Keywords: Meaning in Life, Meaning Intervention, Focusing Attitude, Felt Sense, Experiencing, Bottom-up Processing
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Ostafin, B.D. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Clinical Psychology (CP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 29 Aug 2023 11:52 |
| Last Modified: | 29 Aug 2023 11:52 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/2821 |
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