Colouring and drawing : the effects of art making on physiological and psychological stress

Previous studies found a positive effect of art making on mental health. However, its effect on physiological stress is limited and hence not well understood, and the targeted populations were mostly restricted to WEIRD samples. The current extends previous studies by examining the effect of art mak...

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Main Author: Chua, Keriann Zi Qing
Other Authors: Gianluca Esposito
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2019
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Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/77838
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-778382019-12-10T14:17:34Z Colouring and drawing : the effects of art making on physiological and psychological stress Chua, Keriann Zi Qing Gianluca Esposito School of Social Sciences DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology Previous studies found a positive effect of art making on mental health. However, its effect on physiological stress is limited and hence not well understood, and the targeted populations were mostly restricted to WEIRD samples. The current extends previous studies by examining the effect of art making (i.e. drawing and colouring) on both psychological and physiological stress among undergraduate students in Singapore. We expected (1) participants’ psychological and physiological stress to decrease after art making, and (2) participants who coloured to experience an even greater decrease in physiological stress compared to participants who drew. By using a within-subjects design, participants completed both colouring and drawing tasks in sequentially randomized order. We measured participants’ psychological stress levels before and after art making. To measure physiological stress, salivary-alpha amylase (sAA) samples were taken at baseline and after each art task, and heart rate variability (HRV) was measured via an electrocardiogram (ECG) throughout the experiment. Results showed that a brief period of artistic activity, regardless of type (i.e. colouring or drawing) significantly reduced participants’ psychological and physiological stress levels. This suggest a therapeutic effect of art making on stress, expanding our current understanding in the potential use of art as a medium to cope with stress among Singapore university students beyond the conventionally studied WEIRD populations. Limitations and future directions of this study were also discussed. Bachelor of Arts in Psychology 2019-06-07T02:06:00Z 2019-06-07T02:06:00Z 2019 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/77838 en 48 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology
spellingShingle DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology
Chua, Keriann Zi Qing
Colouring and drawing : the effects of art making on physiological and psychological stress
description Previous studies found a positive effect of art making on mental health. However, its effect on physiological stress is limited and hence not well understood, and the targeted populations were mostly restricted to WEIRD samples. The current extends previous studies by examining the effect of art making (i.e. drawing and colouring) on both psychological and physiological stress among undergraduate students in Singapore. We expected (1) participants’ psychological and physiological stress to decrease after art making, and (2) participants who coloured to experience an even greater decrease in physiological stress compared to participants who drew. By using a within-subjects design, participants completed both colouring and drawing tasks in sequentially randomized order. We measured participants’ psychological stress levels before and after art making. To measure physiological stress, salivary-alpha amylase (sAA) samples were taken at baseline and after each art task, and heart rate variability (HRV) was measured via an electrocardiogram (ECG) throughout the experiment. Results showed that a brief period of artistic activity, regardless of type (i.e. colouring or drawing) significantly reduced participants’ psychological and physiological stress levels. This suggest a therapeutic effect of art making on stress, expanding our current understanding in the potential use of art as a medium to cope with stress among Singapore university students beyond the conventionally studied WEIRD populations. Limitations and future directions of this study were also discussed.
author2 Gianluca Esposito
author_facet Gianluca Esposito
Chua, Keriann Zi Qing
format Final Year Project
author Chua, Keriann Zi Qing
author_sort Chua, Keriann Zi Qing
title Colouring and drawing : the effects of art making on physiological and psychological stress
title_short Colouring and drawing : the effects of art making on physiological and psychological stress
title_full Colouring and drawing : the effects of art making on physiological and psychological stress
title_fullStr Colouring and drawing : the effects of art making on physiological and psychological stress
title_full_unstemmed Colouring and drawing : the effects of art making on physiological and psychological stress
title_sort colouring and drawing : the effects of art making on physiological and psychological stress
publishDate 2019
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/77838
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