New Developments in Research Project


The past couple of weeks have seen make some pretty good progress in regards to my research project. I've been focusing largely around the treatment of GAD paying particular attention to relaxation therapy. I actually found it quite difficult to find anything beyond empirical data in scholarly articles to really aid in my research. However I did find a source or two that went into a fair bit of detail for relaxation techniques:

“1. Take a deep breath and slowly let the air out
2. Think “relax” quietly each time you breathe out
3. Scan your body for any signs of tension and relax as much as possible in the situation
4. Stay in the relaxed state for 30–60 seconds” (Ost, 2002, p.100)

This quick relaxation technique alongside a lot of other muscle relaxation techniques was key in giving me some ideas as to how I can begin forming my artifact. 

Another source that I found gave data on research surrounding imagery and sounds:

Fig 1

 

 Image retrieved from
: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-5884.2011.00486.x/full

This data from Masakura and Ichikawa (2011) analyzed the difference between several types of imagery and sounds and its effect on people. The final results found the people were at a much more restive state after observing natural imagery with relaxing music.

These two key pieces of research have really begun to inform what exactly I should have in my artifact to explore creating an easily accessible, calming environment for someone to immerse themselves in.

Sources:

Y. Masakura, M. Ichikawa. 2011. Effects of Denotative Congruancy on Audio-Visual Impressions. Fig 1 Retrieved from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-5884.2011.00486.x/full

L. Ost.  2002. Encyclopedia of Psychotherapy. Applied Tension. Retreived from: http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/34566807/Encyclopedia_of_Psychotherapy.pdf


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