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
Hi Leslie!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see you had a lot to say, it seems like you were very interested in what you had to say and really wanted to get what you learned across to the reader. There definitely needs to be a lot more research about the Outward Bound process and how it relates with adventure therapy and how AT is effective, if it is effective. The long term effects would be a really interesting topic to do more research on, i really hope people will study this in the near future. I wonder if there is already research about the long term effects or even short term effects? I was reading this while you were presenting in class, and I completely agree with you about the client have no other choice than to be present and involved in a wilderness therapy program. They are there in the wilderness with people and they can be wet by not setting up their tarp or they can do something about it and learn how to ask for help, set the tarp up themselves, learn the skills to set it up, or be wet. I would hope they would choose anything but the being wet option, unless they choose to be prideful and stubborn. Maybe at the beginning they may choose to be prideful but hopefully barriers will be dropped throughout the program, but definitely more difficult at the beginning.