Content uploaded by Paul Conway
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Paul Conway on Apr 23, 2020
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
The extraordinary in the ordinary: Skychology - an interpretative phenomenological analysis of looking up at the sky
Preprints and early-stage research may not have been peer reviewed yet.
Abstract and Figures
What do people experience when they look up at the sky? What role, if any, does the sky play in the experience of wellbeing?
Against a backdrop of unprecedented global urbanisation, and the erosion of interactions with nature, the answers to these questions matter.
This study - a significant first response to these questions - explores the phenomenological experience of looking up at the sky, a crucial first step towards the distal goal of Skychology - to understand and operationalise interactions with the sky to enhance wellbeing, and positively impact lives all over the world.
Figures - uploaded by Paul Conway
Author content
All figure content in this area was uploaded by Paul Conway
Content may be subject to copyright.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
In this article, the authors elaborate on 2 ideas advanced in Schneider’s (2017) innovative article on the resurgence of awe in psychology. Taking a cue from his claim to recover a “slow simmer form” of awe (i.e., deeper, destabilizing, challenging, and ambiguous) using mixed-methods, the authors highlight the need to reframe the concept of awe as closer to an experience than to an emotion. This implies focusing not only on a mixed-methodology to study awe but also on a new way of inducing it. Specifically, if awe is considered as an experience, an experiential approach would be required to induce it. The authors provided examples of recent studies that relied on Virtual Reality (VR) as an effective experiential approach to elicit the “slow simmer form” of awe in the lab. A controlled induction of awe through VR can lead to more intense awe, thus drawing near the desired “slow simmer form.” Schneider’s claim can provide the theoretical underpinning to support this new conceptualization of awe as an experience as well as its experimental investigation.
Nature-based interventions for mental health are beginning to become more common in the UK. The evidence for their usefulness is building. Taking the ‘A Dose of Nature’ project in the south-west as an example, factors for making such interventions a success are described.
The current study investigates whether mindfulness increases feelings of social connection and tests possible mechanisms of action and consequences of any gains observed. We hypothesized that, relative to an active control condition, participants randomized to a mindfulness meditation course would experience gains in feeling socially connected. Further, we expected these gains would be mediated by boosts in decentering and reductions in negative emotions and that, as a result of greater social connection, participants would report greater positive emotions. Ninety-four community member adults were randomly assigned to a 6-week Mindfulness Meditation course (n = 51) or a 6-week active control course (“Health Promotion”; n = 43). Participants were assessed for social connection, decentering, and emotions at pre- and post-training. A higher-order latent change model found support for elements of the model that were unrelated to the experimental condition. An exploratory higher-order latent change model found that gains in trait mindfulness, rather than condition, supported the hypothesized model. These findings suggest that gains in trait mindfulness predict greater social connection through boosts in decentering and that gains in social connection predict greater positive emotions.
As people live more urbanised lifestyles there is potential to lose daily contact with nature, diminishing access to the wide range of associated health benefits of interacting with nature. Experiences of nature vary widely across populations, but this variation is poorly understood. We surveyed 1023 residents of an urban population in the UK to measure four distinctly different nature interactions: indirect (viewing nature through a window at work and at home), incidental (spending time outside at work), intentional (time spent in private gardens) and intentional (time spent in public parks). Scaled-up to the whole study population, accumulation curves of the total number of hours per week that people were exposed to each type of nature interaction showed that 75% of nature interactions were experienced by half the population. Moreover, 75% of the interactions of a type where people were actually present in nature were experienced by just 32% of the population. The average hours each individual experienced nature per week varied across interactions: indirect (46.0±27.3 SD), incidental (6.4±12.7 SD), intentional-gardens (2.5±2.9 SD) and intentional-parks (2.3±2.7 SD). Experiencing nature regularly appears to be the exception rather than the norm, with a person’s connection to nature being positively associated with incidental and intentional experiences. This novel study provides baseline information regarding how an urban population experiences different types of nature. Deconstructing nature experience will pave the way for developing recommendations for targeted health outcomes.
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between noctcaelador (psychological attachment to the night sky) and curiosity. A measure of noctcaelador and three curiosity scales (perceptual curiosity , epistemic curiosity, and curiosity as a feeling of deprivation) were administered to 233 university students. Correlations indicated that all three curiosity scales were significantly, positively related to noctcaelador. Regression analyses indicated that the only curiosity scale to uniquely predict noctcaelador was perceptual curiosity. Curiosity as a possible mechanism for the development of noctcaelador was posited. Limitations of the current study and suggestions for future research were offered.
The sense of awe, also defined as a perception of vastness that cannot be assimilated but can be accommodated; or as the experience of humility and wonder--adventure--toward living, has become a “hot” topic in psychology. This article considers the basis for this trend, some promising avenues of research, and several challenges to the mainstream--quantitative--perspective on awe. It is concluded that while mainstream perspectives on awe appear to have beneficial effects on an impressive array of human behaviors, the relative neglect of historically rooted, in depth, qualitative approaches to awe pose notable perils. Among these perils are the comparative reductionism of the findings on awe to overt and measurable reactions; the neglect of longer term, life-changing experiences of awe, and the neglect of the broader social implications of awe-based transformation.
Night-sky watching attitudes were explored using a small sample (N = 45) of college students. Responses to questions regarding students' interest in, enjoyment of, mood improvement related to, and thoughts related to watching the night-sky were evaluated. Generally, positive attitudes towards watching the night-sky were reported. One general factor, interpreted as an emotional attachment to the night-sky (noctcaelador), was identified accounting for a large percentage of variance in night-sky watching attitudes. Directions for future research are offered.
Undergraduate students (N = 150) participated in a study developing a 10-item scale (the Noctcaelador Inventory; NI) to measure noctcaelador: adoration and attachment to the night-sky. The NI demonstrated good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, normality, and preliminary validity. The scale significantly correlated with self-reported night-sky viewing behaviors and was not significantly correlated with social desirability. It was concluded that this scale suitably measures individual differences in noctcaelador.
Mental wellbeing is influenced by self-regulation processes. However, little is known on the efficacy of change techniques based on self-regulation to promote mental wellbeing. The aim of this meta-analysis is to identify effective self-regulation techniques (SRTs) in primary and secondary prevention interventions on mental wellbeing in adolescents.
Forty interventions were included in the analyses. Techniques were coded into 9 categories of SRTs. Meta-analyses were conducted to identify the effectiveness of SRTs, examining three different outcomes: internalising behaviour, externalising behaviour and self-esteem.
Primary interventions had a small-to-medium (g ̅=0.16–0.29) on self-esteem and internalising behaviour. Secondary interventions had a medium-to-large short-term effect (average g ̅=0.56) on internalising behaviour and self-esteem. In secondary interventions, interventions including asking for social support (g ̅=1.55, 95% CI=1.11-1.98) had a great effect on internalising behaviour. Interventions including monitoring & evaluation had a greater effect on self-esteem (g ̅=0.39, 95% CI=0.21-0.57). For primary interventions, there was not a single SRT that was associated with a greater intervention effect on internalising behaviour or self-esteem. No effects were found for externalising behaviours.
Self-regulation interventions are moderately effective at improving mental wellbeing among adolescents. Secondary interventions promoting ‘asking for social support’ and promoting ‘monitoring and evaluation’ were associated with improved outcomes. More research is needed to identify other SRTs or combinations of SRTs that could improve understanding or optimize mental wellbeing interventions.