Sarah P. Deaver

Establishing a Research Agenda for Art Therapy: A Delphi Study

Abstract Art therapy in the United States is a young profession that would benefit from an identified research agenda to marshal resources more effectively to address gaps in the knowledge base. This article describes a Delphi study of U.S. art therapy researchers who were surveyed on research priorities for the profession. The research panelists were asked to identify the most important areas of investigation, research questions, methods, and populations or conditions that should be studied. The survey results presented may be used to construct a research agenda for the field so that priorities can be addressed in a more unified, strategic way.

Assessing Attachment with the Bird's Nest Drawing: A Review of the Research

The Birds Nest Drawing (Kaiser, 1996) is an art-based assessment that was developed to assess attachment security. In the past 10 years, several studies have further tested this art therapy directive with various populations. This paper briefly reviews attachment theory, delineates the significant findings from five of the studies, and provides information from four others. Implications for clinical use of the Birds Nest Drawing and need for future research are discussed.

Comparison of Brain Activity During Drawing and Clay Sculpting: A Preliminary qEEG Study

Abstract A preliminary experimental study examined brain wave frequency patterns of female participants (N = 14) engaged in two different art making conditions: clay sculpting and drawing. After controlling for nonspecific effects of movement, quantitative electroencephalographic (qEEG) recordings were made of the bilateral medial frontal cortex and bilateral medial parietal cortex of each participant. Results showed that both clay sculpting and drawing increased gamma power in the right medial parietal lobe compared to general movement, and unlike drawing, clay sculpting decreased right medial frontal gamma power and elevated theta power. The findings support neuroscience literature that implicates the importance of the right medial parietal lobe in art making, and the activation of memory processes, meditative and emotional states, and spatial–temporal processing that occur. Implications for art therapy are discussed.

Art-Based Learning Strategies in Art Therapy Graduate Education

Abstract This mixed methods research study examined the use of art-based teaching methods in masters level art therapy graduate education in North America. A survey of program directors yielded information regarding in which courses and how frequently art-based methods (individual in-class art making, dyad or group art making, student art projects as course assignments, visual journaling, and student art making as a thesis focus) were employed. Qualitative data from in-depth interviews of program directors and recent graduates were analyzed with respect to the function, benefits, and deficits of art-based learning strategies. Such strategies were found to be valued for their integrative function, as a means of personal growth and development, as documentation of experience, and for the transfer of learning to clinical work. Participants also described privacy concerns and ambivalence regarding the evaluation of student artwork.

Art Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy for Combat-Related PTSD: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract This randomized controlled trial was designed to determine if art therapy in conjunction with Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) was more effective for reducing symptoms of combat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than CPT alone. Veterans (N = 11) were randomized to receive either individual CPT, or individual CPT in conjunction with individual art therapy. PTSD Checklist–Military Version and Beck Depression Inventory–II scores improved with treatment in both groups with no significant difference in improvement between the experimental and control groups. Art therapy in conjunction with CPT was found to improve trauma processing and veterans considered it to be an important part of their treatment as it provided healthy distancing, enhanced trauma recall, and increased access to emotions.

Research Ethics: Institutional Review Board Oversight of Art Therapy Research

Abstract By having their research proposals reviewed and approved by Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), art therapists meet important ethical principles regarding responsibility to research participants. This article provides an overview of the history of human subjects protections in the United States; underlying ethical principles and their application in research practice; and a discussion of concerns nonmedical, post-positivist art therapy researchers need to consider in the IRB approval process. Aspects of ethical human subjects research of particular importance to art therapy researchers, such as working with vulnerable populations of research subjects and the use of art in research reports, are discussed. Recommendations to help further art therapy research through IRB oversight are offered.

Standardized Patients in Art Therapy Education: A Phenomenological Study.

Abstract Simulation is used widely in medical and health professions educational programs. Standardized patients (SPs) are individuals who are trained to simulate specific symptoms or conditions as part of a structured learning experience with students. In this qualitative, phenomenological study the researcher interviewed 8 first-year graduate art therapy students regarding their training with SPs in preparation for actual client interactions in their internships. Students indicated that their training was realistic, increased confidence, reduced anxiety, and provided effective feedback. Future curricular enhancements may include using a broader range of SPs and illnesses portrayed, additional types of simulated facilities, group encounters, and interdisciplinary training. Engaging students in robust simulated experiences can strengthen the educational process in a safe, meaningful, and comparatively low stress environment.

Art Therapy With Women With Infertility: A Mixed-Methods Multiple Case Study

Abstract This multiple case study investigated the impact of art therapy treatment on depressive symptoms in women diagnosed with infertility. A mixed-methods study design was implemented in which 13 participants each engaged in 6 individual art therapy sessions. The Beck Depression Inventory–II (BDI–II) was administered before and after the 6 sessions, and each participant engaged in a postintervention interview about her experience in art therapy. The pretest and posttest data from the BDI–II were compared and the qualitative interviews were analyzed to gain further insight into the full experience. Following the intervention, the levels of depression among the participants decreased significantly. Themes that emerged from the qualitative data described in depth participants’ experiences with infertility and with art therapy.

Remembering Ron Hays

Editors Note Ron Hays, one of the most colorful art therapists in the profession, an exemplary art therapy educator, and an artist, passed away on July 18, 2017. In this tribute a former student and renowned art therapist and educator herself shares memories of her first teacher in the field.

A Review of "The Aesthetic Brain: How We Evolved to Desire Beauty and Enjoy Art"

Anjan Chatterjee, MD, Professor and Chair of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience there, will be the keynote speaker at the American Art Therapy Association’s conference in Baltimore in July, 2016. He has far-ranging scientific interests, including cognitive neuroscience and aesthetics, which are combined in the field of neuroaesthetics. Neuroaesthetics concerns itself with conceptualizing theories regarding the nature of beauty and art, and the human response to beauty and art, through the context of science. One underlying premise of neuroaesthetics is that through using imaging techniques that activate parts of our brains when we view art, we may gain understanding of the cognitive processes involved (Austen, 2013). Chatterjee’s book The Aesthetic Brain is centered on two ideas: “All human behavior . . . has a neural counterpart [and] evolutionary forces have sculpted our brains and behavior” (p. xi). Thus he sees neuroaesthetics within evolutionary psychology, which espouses that human psychological traits evolve if they serve a survival function. He posits that because beauty and pleasure and art have existed for millennia, these aspects of humankind must also serve a survival function. Chatterjee asserts that through the book, “neuroscience will tell us the ‘how’ of aesthetics and that evolutionary psychology will tell us the ‘why’ of aesthetics” (p. xii). In exploring whether we have an art instinct or whether our brains contain evolved functions associated specifically with aesthetics, Chatterjee examines three broad areas in depth: beauty, pleasure, and art, with a section of the book devoted to each of these topics. Each section is comprised of chapters that describe numerous relevant scientific studies and contain Chatterjee’s thoughts and musings on a range of topics. In the first section, the author explores our attraction to beauty in people, landscapes, and the elegance of numbers. He strives to explain our love for symmetry in faces and bodies, various cultural variations in the definition of beauty, the association between beauty and goodness, and the effect of evolution on our ideas of what is beautiful. He concludes that beauty is a “mongrel. . . a collection of different properties that engage different parts of the brain. . . and evolved within us for different reasons” (p. 68). We pursue beauty because it gives us pleasure; thus, the next section of the book addresses pleasure, specifically pleasure derived from sex, food, and money, and how pleasure is associated with our neural rewards system. Tying together the insights in the first two parts of the book, the final section explores how art, which may seem to have no concrete purpose, actually is intrinsic to our humanness. Chatterjee considers the functions of art, art as biologically necessary, and art as representative of culture, and threads these notions throughout the rest of the book. One chapter provides the history of scientific inquiry into aesthetics, from 1860 to the present, including studies seeking understanding of the neural effects of several different conditions: looking at realistic versus abstract art, expectations about art versus viewing it, and the effect of amount of aesthetic education upon viewing pictures of buildings and pictures of faces. When exploring the ancient roots of art and contrasting them to contemporary conceptual art, Chatterjee admits the inability of neuroscience to undertake explanations of evolving historical and cultural meanings of art. He concludes that we do not have an art instinct, but wonders, if that is so, why we are surrounded by art everywhere in our culture, from children’s drawings displayed on their parents’ refrigerators, to culturally revered art hung on the walls of museums, to contemporary art that may be divorced from the concept of beauty. He wonders if art is an adaptation or a “spandrel,” which as defined in evolutionary psychology is a coincidental result or byproduct of some other natural selection process (Buss, Haselton, Shackelford, Bleske, & Wakefield, 1998). Chatterjee proposes that art can be seen as an evolutionary adaptation that depends on cultural circumstances: