| dc.description.abstract | Literature review:
Background: Positive psychological interventions such as photography are increasingly being used to enhance wellbeing within clinical and non-clinical populations. Photography has been shown to have some therapeutic benefits for adults experiencing mental illness. At the time of writing however, no systematic review has explored its efficacy within non-clinical populations.
Method: A systematic search of PubMed, PsycINFO, EBSCOhost, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar were conducted. The studies were chosen based on a set of pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The aims of the review were to critically appraise the quality of the evidence base on the use of photography as a wellbeing enhancing intervention, and to evaluate whether it does increase wellbeing in non-clinical populations.
Results: There is a paucity of high quality published studies on the use of photography to increase wellbeing. Nonetheless, the current review found that photography-based interventions can increase hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing both momentarily and on a longer term basis. A subtype of photography – mindful photography was also found to have some therapeutic potential. However, more high quality studies with robust and thorough conceptualisation of what mindful photography entails are needed, along with the use of a control group.
Conclusions: Photography based interventions can be of benefit to individuals who wish to increase their sense of wellbeing. Limitations of the review, clinical implications and directions for future research are also discussed.
Keywords: Photography, wellbeing, therapeutic intervention, positive psychological interventions.
Empirical paper:
Background: There remains an increasing trend in mental health disorders worldwide despite a plethora of interventions claiming to ameliorate it. Proactive interventions which seek to enhance psychological wellbeing therefore are needed. The current study compared the wellbeing enhancing potential of mindful photography in nature to guided meditation in nature in a non-clinical population.
Methods: This study employed a sequential, explanatory, mixed methods study design. One hundred and fifty-three participants were recruited for a non-inferiority randomised control trial to establish whether mindful photography is non-inferior to guided meditation at increasing mindfulness and measures of psychological wellbeing. Seven participants were also interviewed about their experiences of the mindful photography intervention. A critical realist approach to thematic analysis was used to analyse the interviews.
Results: Mindful photography was found to be superior to guided meditation at increasing global wellbeing. Non-inferiority was met for measures of mindfulness, nature connectedness and positive affect, and it was deemed to be a more acceptable intervention. An inferiority of mindful photography to guided meditation however could not be rejected in terms of its capacity to reduce negative correlates of psychological wellbeing. The Qualitative data also highlighted the wellbeing impact of mindful photography and revealed key elements that form part of the process.
Conclusions: Findings from the study show that mindful photography is an intervention that can be utilised to enhance wellbeing. Further research however is needed to better understand the factors that mediate the observed effects.
Keywords: photography, wellbeing, mindfulness, nature, non-inferiority trial. | en_GB |
