Project Description:

In the past few decades, there has been a rise in how interacting with arts, culture, and beauty in everyday life can be beneficial. This has been recently mapped by the World Health Organization, which has identified over 3000 examples of how such activities can improve well-being and health and prevent ill-being and illness. In this project, we will evaluate the impact of the trait or skill of appreciation of beauty. We have designed an intervention using the arts to teach individuals how to notice, appreciate, and integrate beauty into their lives. We hypothesize that this will help regulate emotion, provide meaning in life, and reduce overstimulation and perceived stress. We are especially interested in seeing if highly sensitive individuals can benefit more from this intervention. High sensitivity is the lay term for the trait Sensory Processing Sensitivity, which comprises a heightened depth of processing, empathy, awareness of subtleties, and ease of excitation. Those who are highly sensitive are more at risk for burnout, anxiety, and other related issues, yet they are especially able to appreciate the beauty around them. Those who are highly sensitive and highly aesthetically sensitive to beauty tend to have higher well-being compared to those who do not have high aesthetic sensitivity. Thus, we will test if this trait may moderate intervention effectiveness and could be a possible target for further interventions and supportive measures. We will conduct a randomized controlled trial in which participants will be allocated to either the intervention or a matched control group. The intervention includes visiting museums in Amsterdam, practicing photography, and journalling about beauty.

What can you learn: We offer an internship that will allow you to collect and analyze data and contribute to a write-up for scientific publication. Tasks could include helping with data collection, contacting participants, and setting up and conducting interviews. You will be able to gain insight into running a clinical trial and how to analyze data from it and you can do a thesis on this project with regular supervision. You will have the chance to gain experience interacting with participants and learn about the fields of arts and health, positive psychology, and environmental sensitivity.

What we are looking for: You are conscientious and motivated, interested in the topic, and have good communication skills. Excellent English is necessary as the study is conducted in English. Dutch language skills are an asset. You will be responsible for carefully handling information about participants.

Internship duration: We seek someone to start in 2024. The project will end in 2025, and the duration of the internship is up for discussion. 

Contact: Please email with a short paragraph about your interest in the project and your relevant past experience, and send a CV. 

Hosting departments: Department of Cognitive Neuroscience

Principal Investigators: Prof Corina Greven

Daily Supervisor: MacKenzie Trupp (Visiting PhD Student from ART*IS lab (https://artis-h2020.eu/who-we-are/university-of-vienna/) University of Vienna), https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://scholar.google.com/citations%3Fuser%3DQJludTIAAAAJ%26hl%3Den&ved=2ahUKEwiZ2o6FmfSGAxUy-QIHHYZxAYsQFnoECBgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw09XMWyLdIuoybZ1aoyAF7S

Related Literature:

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-11144-001?doi=1

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563223001152

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10806200/

https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/329834

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30639671/

Inaugural speech on sensitivity: https://youtu.be/eAjokwpdS6E

Short Intro to Arts and Well-being: https://youtu.be/Ka8TslpEETI?si=eV8ri7G0a7biN4fo