Informatics Publishing Limited

Anindita Majumdar ¹, Jayanti Basu ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Applied Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, IN

Abstract

The nature of ego functions of the professionals in Kolkata, who have chosen performing (music, dance, & acting) and visual (painting & photography) art as their career, in comparison to a control group of non-artist professionals has been investigated in the present manuscript with the purpose of understanding the effect of such statistical functions on creative personalities. The sample constituted of 150 artist professionals and 150 non-artist professionals from Kolkata within age range of 20 to 40 years, including respondents of both the genders. The control group was matched with the study group in terms of relevant demographic variables. The tool used to obtain the findings was Ego Function Assessment (EFA) Scale, as modified by Bellak (1989). The EFA scale assessed twelve separate ego functions viz., Reality Testing, Judgment, Sense of Reality, Drive Control, Object Relation, Thought Process, Adaptive Regression, Defense Functioning, Stimulus Barrier Autonomous Functioning, Synthetic-Integrative Functioning and Mastery Competence. Descriptive and multivariate tests were used for statistical analysts of data. The data analysts revealed significant differences between the two groups, and between the genders in terms of ego functions. The creative's had poorer ego functions on many respects, but had higher adaptive regression. However, their differing perspective of emotions (as indicated by higher adaptive regression) may account for their specialty. Suggestions for mental health management of creative persons require awareness on the part of the mental health workers in this regard.

Keywords

Performing Art and Artists, Visual Art and Artists, Creativity, Ego Functions.

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Debangana Bhattacharya ¹, Rita Karmakar ¹, Anindita Majumdar ²

Affiliations
1 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences, Amity University, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN
2 School of Liberal Arts & Humanities, Woxsen University, Digwal, Telangana, IN

Abstract

Dance as an art form when applied therapeutically gives several physical and mental health benefits. The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of dance on adults’ mental health that is associated with some form of dance. Hence, the aim of the present study is, i) To learn the Self-esteem (SE), Physical Aggression (PA), Verbal Aggression (VA), Anger (A), Hostility (H) and the level of Resilience (R) among the adult dancer, ii) To find out the level of association between Self-esteem, Aggression, and Resilience among the participants, and, iii) To find out a significant predictor of Self-esteem. This study is based on a non-probability sampling design technique with a total of 107 dancers. This study incorporated both qualitative and quantitative analysis methods. The scales used are Rosenberg’s Self-esteem Scale by Rosenberg (1965); the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ) (1992); and The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-25) by Kathryn et al. (2003) and also in-depth semi-structured interviews were taken from 12 participants to fulfill the aim of the study. This study reveals (Table 1) high self-esteem, high physical aggression, hostility, and high resilience power in adult dancers. The study also reveals a significant positive correlation between self-esteem and resilience, physical aggression and anger and a negative significant correlation between resilience and anger, self-esteem and hostility, resilience and verbal aggression, self-esteem and verbal aggression. Physical aggression and Resilience is found to be a significant predictor of self-esteem dancers.

Keywords

aggression orientation, dance, dance movement therapy, self-esteem, resilience, well-being.

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