Buchenau, Annkathrin (2024) Aesthetic Experiences as Mirrors of the Self: A Pilot Study. Bachelor thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Aesthetic experiences (AE) are a vital part of the human experience. Due to their complexity and personal nature, investigating the cognitive factors that make every-day AE so meaningful to people is notoriously challenging. Based on neuroaesthetic research that has demonstrated the link between AE and self-referential processes, this pilot study sets out to investigate personal every-day AE and how they shape and consolidate personal self-concepts. 61 participants were assessed on their engagement in self-reflection and the clarity of their self-concepts. They then recorded their naturally occurring aesthetic encounters and rated their subjective impact across the span of four weeks. Participants were given the opportunity to share the meaningfulness of their experiences in written think-aloud protocols. Through the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods it could be shown that highly meaningful AE are more often interpreted with relation to self-concepts than less meaningful AE. Tentative exploratory results show that the tendency to engage in self-reflection could be related to the frequency of aesthetic encounters. In addition, self-concept clarity could be linked to both the frequency and meaningful interpretation of AE. This study shed a light on the cognitive impact that AE can have and provides a basis for future research of the dialectical integration and discovery of self-concepts through aesthetic encounters.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
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| Supervisor name: | Schino, G. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | None [Bachelor Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 01 Mar 2024 09:39 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Mar 2024 09:39 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3177 |
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