The Psych Club wants to thank everyone who collaborated in the Winter Symposium. Such an amazing event could not have taken place without your support. If you are interested in watching some of the presentations, they are available on our LinkedIn page and UAGC Connect.

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University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC) Psych Club | Groups | LinkedIn

Editorial by: Michelle L. Rosser-Majors, Department Chair, Professor University of Arizona Global Campus

JOY, as a positive and distinctive emotion, has been suggested to support success in our lives (Johnson, 2019; Watkins et al., 2022). As each of you move through your academic, personal, and professional journeys, I encourage you to seek out things that bring you JOY! But what exactly is JOY? Just being happy, right? Well, not exactly.

Research suggests that JOY is an amazing, positive, distinct emotion that can be felt by a person instantaneously, over a long or short period of time, and in conjunction with other emotions, even those in opposition such as sadness (Johnson, 2019). In addition, JOY has been found to be at times, more than just an on-again, off-again emotion. Volf and Crisp (2015) suggest that JOY may also affect our personal realities, in essence, creating this emotion when others may look at the same situation and not understand how or why JOY could possibly be felt.

Based on this (and for all of you cognitive psychology junkies out there), JOY, if accepted as a perception-creating emotion, may be a construct that aligns to the ideology of constructivism suggesting that we each have the ability to construct our own realities by which we approach life, learning, and our goals (Rosser-Majors, 2017). So if JOY, as an emotion, is a perceived feeling about a situation, or an over-arching life perspective, how might this emotion be something that we more purposefully place into our psyche? How might it affect our approach to knowledge acquisition, goals, and success?

So why find your JOY?

Johnson (2019) suggested that JOY can be supportive of many things in our lives including our persistence in achieving a goal that may become more difficult over time, an increased enthusiasm to explore new things, increased energy, amplified belonging with others, and a physiologically more positive experience. I know for myself that all of these behaviors are appealing. In fact, these behaviors have suggested specific outcome potentials such as the following:

· Improved academic success

· Time-saving skill development

· Improved social life

· Increased focus and completion of tasks

· More time to spend doing what we love

Another important suggestion to consider is that JOY is considered to be distinct and can be a momentary feeling or something innately characteristic of a person’s personality (Johnson, 2019; Watkins et al., 2022). In addition, several articles suggest that it is tied to gratitude, an actionable behavior. In fact, this union is suggested to be cyclical in nature; gratitude increases joy and joy increases gratitude resulting in increased overall happiness (Johnson, 2019, Watkins et al., 2022)!

So why not choose JOY? It should be an easy option to choose, right? Well, not always. Numerous factors can physiologically and psychologically affect our ability to achieve and feel JOY. One such factor is anhedonia, a key aspect of depression, as well as anorexia nervosa and substance abuse disorders (to just name a few). It is theorized that anhedonia can seriously reduce the rates of positive emotions that one can feel (Newman, 2018). This is not something that should be looked upon as “hopeless” as depression is one of the most common mental health issues in our country (Unützer & Park, 2014). Rather, purposefully seeking out support is essential. Finding someone who can support you through counseling or other means should be considered, as research has also suggested that key components in our brains are affected by anhedonia: the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala, the striatum, and the insula (Watkins, et al., 2022). So yes, wellness can affect our ability to feel and experience JOY. If JOY has been difficult to feel or find, consider a self-inventory and be proactive in supporting self-wellness (Unützer & Park, 2014).

So circling back to the WHY?

In essence, JOY, whether situationally or purposefully felt, may be one of the most powerful emotions to support our overall human potential (Johnson, 2019) as it uplifts our perceptions of the world around us.

Next Steps

If you want to find more JOY in your life, there are ways to practice building this emotion into your personal identity. The following are but a few suggestions:

1. Choose to be positive

2. Be proactive in self-care

3. Find one thing to be thankful for daily

4. Remind yourself you are worth it

5. Look around and identify the good in your world

6. Practice daily

What Brings Me Joy?

The decision to write this editorial is based in part that I have recently been promoted to Department Chair here at UAGC and will no longer be directly serving this wonderful club: the UAGC Psych Club. I currently feel much JOY for the opportunity but at the same time, a bit sad, as so many of you bring joy to me each day as we connect and learn from one another in the club. You see, leading a team of enthusiastic and motivated individuals is something that truly helps a person to develop their own skills and to find joy in one’s chosen career. My life journey has been diverse professionally and looking back I am grateful for the multifaceted opportunities I have been given to grow in JOY throughout life, of which you have all been a part.

So today, with JOY in my heart, I will be handing off the baton to a new faculty member to join the UAGC Faculty Advisory Board (FAB), Dr. Tom Allen. (See his introduction below.) It is truly my honor to have served you, and my biggest hope for all of you is personal success in the journeys you have chosen, and if sharing with each of you the importance of JOY and how it can manifest positive outcomes and a positive future, then this is, and will be, my charge. Why? Because it sincerely brings me more JOY to share this with all of you!

In closing, JOY – it is a lifestyle, a proactive perception, a distinctive emotion, and often a choice through our behaviors of gratitude that can transform how we see the world and approach our goals each day. Although under-researched (Watkins et al., 2022), findings suggest it is a powerful construct for us all to consider. So today, and each day hereafter, I encourage you to find what brings you JOY through gratefulness for the positive things in your life. Find time to be thankful. Find time to be blessed. Find time to be all you can be.

References

Johnson, M.K. (2019). Joy: A review of the literature and suggestions for future directions. The Journal of Positive Psychology. 15(1). 5-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2019.1685581

Newman, T. (2018). Understanding anhedonia: What happens in the brain? Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320737

Rosser-Majors, M.L. (2017). Theories of learning: An exploration. Bridgepoint Education.

Unützer, J., & Park, M. (2012). Strategies to improve the management of depression in primary care. Primary care, 39(2), 415–431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pop.2012.03.010

Volf, M., & Crisp, J. E. (Eds.). (2015). Joy and human flourishing: Essays on theology, culture, and the good life. Fortress Press.

Watkins, P.C., Hutton, B., & Emmons, R.A. (2022). Joy and well-being. Center for the Advancement of Well-Being: George Mason University. https://wellbeing.gmu.edu/joy-and-well-being/

Hi Psych Club members! My name is Dr. Tom Allen and I am a core faculty and Assistant Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences. I am truly looking forward to supporting all of you and the club.

My research interests are in social groups and cultural identity. At the University of California, Davis, I studied the cognitive and emotional factors underlying unconscious racial bias. At the University of Arizona Global Campus, my research is now focused on the impact of cultural and political identities on preventative health behaviors. I am also interested in promoting “best research practices” in psychology such as preregistration, data sharing, and using large sample sizes.

I have taught at California community colleges, California State University, Sacramento, and Alliant University. As an educator, I place special emphasis on students developing their perspective-taking skills in different social contexts. I encourage my students to broaden their worldviews by taking on multiple perspectives, including those that may differ from their own. My hope is that with a broader perspective, students will actively engage with different cultures and groups they meet in their future careers.

Again, I look forward to engaging with all of you!

Editorial by: Dr. Dana Dillard, Faculty Advisory Board

Change. Sometimes even the mention of the word can trigger anxiety. Some people welcome change; others dread it. No matter the reaction to it, change is an inevitable process in being human. With a background in stress science, I like to look at change. My research has looked at how we can use change to manage our stress and at how change corresponds with stress disorders, but something that I think may be worthwhile to explore is the concept of resilience. Resilience has received a lot of popular media attention over the past few years, but what is resilience, and can we actually work to enhance it?

The focal point of any resilience theory lies in understanding the adversities that people face and how they overcome them to preserve physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing (van Breda, 2018). Resilience as a concept was a response to the pathogenic – or illness-focused – approach that was largely favored in psychology and medicine, which centered on vulnerability and risks. While the pathogenic approach provides insight into areas where intervention or prevention may be useful, it did not help explain those situations in which individuals who possessed vulnerability were able to survive, overcome, adapt, and even thrive in the face of adversity. With this view, we can use van Breda’s (2018) definition of resilience as “the multilevel processes that systems engage in to obtain better-than-expected outcomes in the face or wake of adversity” (p. 4).

One of the key strategies that has consistently been identified in helping individuals facing adversity is reliance upon social support. Indeed, Ang et al.’s (2022) meta-analysis of resilience interventions in higher education students demonstrated that the most effective interventions were those that enhanced social connections – either through directly training social competence or through a socially connected delivery method. Granted, this is only one study, and critical thinking demands that we find additional evidence, particularly evidence that contradicts it, but a takeaway is that during times of challenge and change, when what we face feels like it might be too much, we can lean on those we care about and who care about us, so that we may overcome, adapt, and thrive.

References

Ang, W. H. D., Lau, S. T., Cheng, L. J., Chew, H. S. J., Tan, J. H., Shorey, S., & Lau, Y. (2022). Effectiveness of resilience intervention for higher education students: A meta-analysis and metaregression. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000719

van Breda, A. D. (2018). A critical review of resilience theory and its relevance for social work. Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 54(1), 1-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.15270/54-1-611

By Kimberlee Bow, MA, LPC, R-DMT, CT, ACS, CFE/T, RSME/T, RYT500

When I set out to write this newsletter article, I had an entirely different idea in mind. I wanted to speak from the place of a third person author sharing more from an academic perspective about the creative arts. That is where it fell apart. My passion for creative art therapies, specifically dance/movement therapy, is not outside of myself. It is who I am, and it is home for me. I grew up dancing. Dancing was where I found happiness and hope. It was my chance to express myself. Even in performing, I found that I could learn new skills and challenge myself in different ways. As I grew older, even though dance fell by the wayside in favor of the hard sciences, specifically biology, it was always a piece of me. Biology, however, would serve its purpose because it allowed me to look at the body in relation to life and, later, to mental health. What I would later learn is how the body and mind are linked, not just anecdotally but with research supporting the connection (Cloitre et al., 2009; Pert, 1997; Siegel, 2009; Van der Kolk, 2015).

Learning about dance/movement therapy was like finding a way to bring all the pieces of myself together in service of others. It was a way to marry biology, movement, and psychology into one. That was my beginning understanding. As I have since grown in the field, I have a different embodied understanding. Though for the purposes of this piece, I will use a definition provided by the professional association that governs the field. The American Dance Therapy Association (n.d.) defines dance/movement therapy as the psychotherapeutic use of movement to promote emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration of the individual, for the purpose of improving health and well-being. One of the first questions that I always hear is if someone has to get up and dance. At first, I was shocked by this question and now I smile when I hear it. The answer is no. Movement shows up in our lives in so many ways and not just in a structured dance form which leads me to share what the American Dance Therapy Association (n.d.) shares as the premises of this modality.

• Movement is a language, our first language. Nonverbal and movement communication begins in utero and continues throughout the lifespan. Dance/movement therapists believe that nonverbal language is as important as verbal language and use both forms of communication in the therapeutic process.

• Mind, body, and spirit are interconnected.

• Movement can be functional, communicative, developmental, and expressive. Dance/movement therapists observe, assess, and intervene by looking at movement, through these lenses, as it emerges in the therapeutic relationship in the therapeutic session.

• Movement is both an assessment tool and a primary mode of intervention. (“Dance/Movement Therapy Relies” section)

In essence, movement is the lens that dance therapists use in conjunction with their chosen theoretical orientation. Movement speaks volumes! There is a lot of research about its effectiveness with numerous populations and mental health disorders (Bradt et al., 2015; Karkou & Meekums, 2017; Koch et al., 2014; Meekums, 2015; Ritter & Low, 1996).

In closing, I want to leave you with a story from my clinical work. I volunteered in the inpatient psych unit at the VA for many years. It was my Friday afternoon tradition, and I looked forward to it. I was fortunate enough to be able to lead groups with the veterans and get to know them, an experience I will forever treasure. One of the props that I would bring with me was a ball that had different movement words written on it like chopping, jumping, sliding, etc. One day I had an all women’s group on the unit and we started tossing that ball and when someone caught the ball where their thumb landed that was what type of movement we would all have to do with the group started by the person who caught the ball. Different movements elicit different emotions, thoughts, memories, and experiences. As we continued, the movements, emotions, and thoughts continued to get deeper as did the connection between all of us. To this day it is one of my favorite group experiences because not only did we all have the opportunity to connect on a different level, but we were able to work together to heal from a different perspective that involved accessing the wisdom of the body.

I am always happy to talk about dance/movement therapy with anyone who has questions!

References

American Dance Therapy Association. (n.d). What is dance/movement therapy?.

https://adta.memberclicks.net/what-is-dancemovement-therapy

Bradt, J., Shim, M., & Goodill, S. W. (2015). Dance/movement therapy for improving psychological and physical outcomes in cancer patients. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd007103.pub3

Cloitre, M., Stolbach, B. C., Herman, J. L., Kolk, B. V. D., Pynoos, R., Wang, J., & Petkova, E. (2009). A developmental approach to complex PTSD: Childhood and adult cumulative trauma as predictors of symptom complexity. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 22(5), 399-408.

Karkou, V., & Meekums, B. (2017). Dance movement therapy for dementia. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD011022.pub2

Koch, S., Kunz, T., Lykou, S., & Cruz, R. (2014). Effects of dance movement therapy and dance on health-related psychological outcomes: A meta-analysis. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 41(1), 46-64.

Meekums, B., Karkou, V., & Nelson, E. A. (2015). Dance movement therapy for depression. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd009895.pub2

Pert, C. B. (1997). Molecules of emotion: Why you feel the way you feel. Simon and Schuster.

Ritter, M., & Low, K. G. (1996). Effects of dance/movement therapy: A meta-analysis. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 23(3), 249-260.

Siegel, D. J. (2009). Mindful awareness, mindsight, and neural integration. The Humanistic Psychologist, 37(2), 137.

Van der Kolk, B. A. (2015). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin Books.

Editorial by: Cynthia Dolin, Student Alumni Advisory Board (SAAB)

The stress of accidental injuries or becoming ill can lead to overwhelming anxiety and depression. Therapists like Boris Levinson (1984) tell us in his book, “Human/Companion Animal Therapy” that therapists are finding that using animals to address their patients’ stress improves their outcomes. Dr. Boris Levinson gained notoriety for his documentation of pet therapy to aid in the treatment of children. His findings claimed that pet therapy improved the children’s communication and helped build report between the patient and the doctor.

Levinson’s (1984) study shows how pets help reduce anxiety, depression, and blood pressure in patients of all ages. Dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, fish, guinea pigs, horses, and other animals can aid with therapy in schools, children’s hospitals, long-term care facilities, and hospice centers. Pet therapy creates a human-pet bond that is essential to healing. Pets can provide occupational therapy, physical therapy, and visitation meet-and-greets. A visitation meet-and-greet involves bringing pets to different facilities and allowing interaction between patients and the pets. Petting, playing with, walking, and talking to these animals are beneficial to patient treatment outcomes. Facility pets live in the facility to provide comfort to the patients.

In a similar study “The State of Animal-Assisted Interventions: Addressing the Contemporary Issues That Will Shape the Future,” Fine et al. (2019) discuss the history of animal welfare guidelines and the influence that evidence-based research has on changing public policies. Pet therapy has been around since the 1700’s when it was common for dogs to be used to help with psychiatric patients, but it wasn’t until 1919 when the use of pets were documented, in 1960 it was named ‘pet therapy’, and by the 1970’s therapists were introducing these animals into hospitals and other medical care facilities. Pet therapy is beneficial in a healthcare setting. It is an effective method of helping patients cope with injuries and illnesses, and has been known to decrease blood pressure, stress levels, anxiety, fatigue, pain, fear, and loneliness.

References

Fine, A. H., Beck, A. M., & Ng, Z. (2019). The state of animal-assisted interventions: Addressing the contemporary issues that will shape the future. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(20), 3997. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203997

Levinson, B.M. (1984). Human/companion animal therapy. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy 14, 131–144. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00946311

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Q1 Editor: Vickmarie Murray