Metaphor: Facilitators of change [blog 7]

Examine psychological support for using metaphor in language to facilitate change. 



"Concepts that emerge from people's consistent and repeated use of metaphors end up constituting how and what they live by in the most fundamental ways" (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012).

     Reading through this chapter about practicing adventure therapy and the importance and significance of the use of metaphors through therapy really opened my eyes to the complexity of human interactions and language. As I was reading about metaphors and what they are I came across this blog that defined them as "something that describes the use of a body of knowledge about on concept to understand or comment on a second concept. Metaphors are especially powerful when used to help understand a concept that is unfamiliar or unapproachable." It is sometimes hard define what a metaphor is without using a metaphor to illustrate it.
    Using metaphors is a powerful practice because metaphors provide shortcuts to concepts "sometimes a single word can call to a mind a broad and complicated topic. some concepts, ideas, and phenomena are unanalyzable or un-qualifiable in our experience - what is the meaning if life? - and can only be approached through metaphor."(http://philosophe.com/design/metaphors/). To connect this to therapy and how it relates, it would be helpful to be able to come up with a metaphor for a certain therapeutic experience that a client had in relation to a prior life experience and bring them together with the use of a metaphor. This would allow the client to see the connection and hopefully the metaphor would act as the facilitator of change.
     I came across an article from the Journal of Counseling and Development that titled: Applying the notion of metaphor types to enhance counseling protocols. This article began with yet another way of defining a metaphor: "the phenomenon whereby we talk, and potentially, think about something in terms of something else." The article went on to say something really big about metaphors and how they are so useful when it comes to therapy. Apart from helping the client to recall important therapeutic moments, building a relationship between the client and the therapist, and allowing the client to openly discuss and talk about their painful memories or struggles indirectly, "the primary value of a metaphor lies in its potential to reveal and alter client's maladjustive conceptualizations with regard to key target domains such as life, love, and family." (Tay, 2012). I would think that if these metaphors are able to change how clients feel and think about different parts of their lives and their experiences they would be able to then change their behavior in those areas of their lives. These metaphors become a powerful tool for altering experiences in ways that promote adaptation and positive self-regard.



Citations

Gass, M. A., Gillis, H.L., Russell, K. C. (2012). Adventure therapy: Theory, research, and practice. New York, Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Philosophe. Metaphors & schemas in design. Retrieved from: http://philosophe.com/design/metaphors/

Tay, D. (2012). Applying the notion of metaphor types to enhance counseling protocols. Journal of Counseling & Development, 90(2), 142-149.

Nature [blog 6]

Pick one of therapeutic benefits of nature and link them to research in one or more of the following areas: Abnormal, Behavioral Neuroscience, Cognitive, Developmental, Learning, and Social

     As I was reading Chapter 5, it was very easy for me to make connections from the reading to my personal life. I also started to wonder how nature and adventure therapy relates to neuroscience and what is happening in our brain when we are exposed to and experience the outdoors and also how it changes the way we feel. I came across an article that talks about how spending time in nature makes people feel more alive, this was found through a series of studies published in the June 2010 issue of the Journal of Psychology. Richard Ryan, lead author and a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester said, "Nature is fuel for the soul" (Spending time in nature makes people feel more alive, study shows). According to the article there have been numerous experimental psychology studies that have linked exposure to nature with increased energy and heightened sense of well-being. Even more closely related to Adventure Therapy, the studies show that people report feeling more alive and healthy after going on a wilderness excursion. 

     Here is an excerpt from the article that explains something we were looking at in class... 

What is novel about this research, write the authors, is that it carefully tests whether this increased vitality associated with the outdoors is simply the feel-good spillover from physical activity and people-mixing often present in these situations. To tease out the effects of nature alone, the authors conducted five separate experiments, involving 537 college students in actual and imagined contexts. In one experiment, participants were led on a 15-minute walk through indoor hallways or along a tree-lined river path. In another, the undergraduates viewed photographic scenes of buildings or landscapes. A third experiment required students to imagine themselves in a variety of situations both active and sedentary, inside and out, and with and without others.

Two final experiments tracked participants' moods and energy levels throughout the day using diary entries. Over either four days or two weeks, students recorded their exercise, social interactions, time spent outside, and exposure to natural environments, including plants and windows.

Across all methodologies, individuals consistently felt more energetic when they spent time in natural settings or imagined themselves in such situations. The findings were particularly robust, notes Ryan; being outside in nature for just 20 minutes in a day was enough to significantly boost vitality levels. Interestingly, in the last study, the presence of nature had an independent energizing effect above that of being outdoors. In other words, conclude the authors, being outdoors was vitalizing in large part because of the presence of nature (Spending time in nature makes people feel more alive, study shows).

     To relate this to a few parts of the reading from Chapter 5, I want to include a quote from the text. This comes from the beginning of the chapter and says, "Going to the mountains is going home...mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as the fountains of life" (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012). Even through my own experience I find that the more separated I feel from nature the more likely I am to feel stressed or anxious. It is interesting and amazing how calming nature can be. As I said in class it is helpful to take yourself out of the situations you are so used to being in and put yourself outside. It gives you a certain clarity and different perspective when thinking about your life. "Nature elicits deep-seated and automatic responses by individuals in the absence of extensive information processing. Restoration derives from the reduction of stimulus and arousal due to nature's calming effect, which elicits positively toned emotional states and blocks out negatively toned feelings" (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012).

What kind of ways can experiences in nature lead to changes thoughts or behaviors? Do you think people who rarely choose to spend time outside would still feel rewarded by spending time in nature? 

Leslie Weaver

Citations

Gass, M. A., Gillis, H.L., Russell, K. C. (2012). Adventure therapy: Theory, research, and practice. New York, Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

University of Rochester (2010, June 4). Spending time in nature makes people feel more alive, study shows. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 19, 2013. from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100603172219.htm

Social Psychology & Adventure Therapy [blog 5]

Pick one of the outcome areas of AT research and link them to research in one or more of the following areas: Abnormal, Behavioral Neuroscience, Cognitive, Developmental, Learning, and Social.

The outcome that I was most interested in from the areas of AT research was Adventure Therapy and Self-Concept. In the book it talks about how much adolescents are continuously comparing and contrasting their behavior with that of their peers to develop their sense of self, based on the feedback they receive. When they are in groups of adolescents that are all working together for a single goal, there can sometimes be the problem of forming an negative self concept. Sometimes these groups can work in a different, negative way, instead of boosting self esteem and allow the individuals to build a positive self concept.

In a study of Self Concepts of Adolescents done by Khirade, self concept was defined as "one's attitude towards self" (Khirade, 2012). It was stated that proper guidance at this crucial phase of life, adolescence, is very important to the formation of this self concept or attitude towards oneself. Just as this study found that it is important to have guidance at this time in life, the research from AT also says..."Adolescents in crisis are often poor judges, which can lead to developing problems with the law, dropping out of school, becoming increasingly aggressive, and increased substance abuse. Because of these and other related factors, much of the research in AT has focused on the degree to which AT programs enhance the participant's self-concept" (Gass, Gillis, and Russel 2012).

Because we know that our self concept comes from the way we interact with others, they way we believe others view us, and the way we view ourselves, we are very easily convinced to believe certain things about ourselves, especially when we are not yet comfortable with who we are. This is definitely relevant in AT with groups of adolescents that are getting away from negative situations and trying to better themselves, the interactions that take place within that group can be very influential.

Jumping back to what the book says,"early studies on self-concept noted that AT programs significantly enhance the self-concept of adolescents by presenting challenges that are developmentally appropriate, in that they are concrete, attainable, and increase in difficulty and challenge as the intervention progresses" (Gass, Gillis, and Russel 2012). Do you see the benefits of presenting challenges to adolescents in order to enhance their self-concept?

According to the research done in AT about these Outward Bound wilderness challenge programs,  self-concept can be changed and the "greatest effects of the adventure programs in the area of self-concept domains were for independence, confidence, self-efficacy, and self understandings, and they were further enhanced during follow-up periods" (Gass, Gillis, and Russel 2012).






Citations

Gass, M. A., Gillis, H.L., Russell, K. C. (2012). Adventure therapy: Theory, research, and practice. New York, Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Khirade, S.K. (2012). A Study of Self Concepts of the Adolescents. Indian Streams Research Journal, 2(8), 1-6.

Outward Bound Process [blog 4]

How might The Outward Bound Process be used in psychology other than treatment?

There are many ways that people could use The Outward Bound process in psychology other than just for treatment of patients in adventure therapy settings. Here is a website that talks about what Outward Bound is. This website says the idea behind Outward Bound “is that people can grow through challenge.”

The first way I thought that the Outward Bound process could be used is in research. Since the Outward Bound process is not as conventional as say, traditional ways of looking at therapy, there could be more time spent investing in the research that lead to the models that these programs are working after. It would be interesting to learn about the long-term effects of Outward Bound processes that have been used in adventure therapy and how they have influenced the clients’ life shortly following the time of treatment and then years down the road. By researching the long-term effects of these types of programs we would be able to change them in a way to better fit each new client that would be looking to processes of the same category.

            As I was reading chapter 4 it became clear to me why Adventure Therapy and Outward Bound processes would seem like a great option (especially for substance abusers). Because when you think about it, whether or not a person wants to be there, with programs like that (vs. more traditional or cognitive behavioral therapies) the client has no other choice than to be present and involved, in a sort of way that cannot be found in the traditional indoor, client/therapist setting. Through more research on the Outward Bound process, researchers may gain a better understanding of how effective the Outward Bound process is. “Thinking, feeling, & behaving as if there is something to be gained from participating.” (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012). All of these different emotions and behaviors lead into a change in the participants’ beliefs, as they believe they can have control & influence their own life direction. All of which could benefit from more research on the process.

            If we look at the model that is found in the book on page 71, we see that the model “illustrates how the Outward Bound process functions, as characteristic problem-solving tasks are set in a prescribed physical and social environment, which impel the participant to mastery of these tasks and which, in turn, serve to reorganize the meaning and direction of his life experience.” (Walsh and Golins, 1967, p.16).

            To make the connection between the Outward Bound process, research, and neuroscience it would be interesting to study the effects of the model of the Outward Bound process on cognitive processes and the way the brain reacts to and is activated by certain types of activities specific to the Outward Bound process. In the Outward Bound process Model, one of the key characteristics of it is the “contrasting/novel physical environment.” This helps people involved “to generalize about old or to see old with new perspectives and options available in it” (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012). This could definitely be a topic of research in connection with the change in cognitive processes. If the focus was then moved to social psychology, it would be interesting to investigate the differences in interactions between groups of people and which socioeconomic groups they come from. There is a lot to be learned about the way in which a persons experience could be different depending on how many people or which people they are interacting with during the programs. According to a study done by Kalisch, it was found through prior research that when a person has a solo experience, as a small part of the overall program, the quality of their experience is enhanced (Kalisch, 2011). 

            

           

           

Citations

Gass, M. A., Gillis, H.L., Russell, K. C. (2012). Adventure therapy: Theory, research, and practice. New York, Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Kalisch, K. (2011). The Outward Bound Solo: A Study of Participants' Perceptions. Journal Of Experiential Education, 34(1), 1. doi:10.5193/JEE34.1.1

Outward Bound Professional. Retrieved from: http://www.obusa.org/index.cfm/do/pro.about