<p> In order to help child victims of bullying, a greater understanding of the psychological empowerment process was needed, especially what type of activities support the development of empowerment and how empowerment is related to mental health. Artistic expression, an activity described as therapeutic, had received little attention in regards to its role in empowerment. Thus, this exploratory case study explored the role of artistic expression in psychological empowerment with child bullying victims specifically using the Nomological Network of Psychological Empowerment model by Zimmerman (1995). The research questions of this study were: (1) in what ways can individuals experience a sense of psychological empowerment from the artistic process; (2) how can the artistic process relate to the three components of the NNPE model; and (3) how are artistic expression, psychological empowerment, and psychological healing related. The archived data of four children involved in a 14- week art therapy program in 2007 in an elementary school in Ontario, Canada was explored. For this case study various data sources, such as pre and post surveys, were examined to uncover any experiences of psychological empowerment. Qualitative content analysis, with a directed approach revealed that artistic expression in art therapy provided experiences of psychological empowerment in a myriad of ways and psychological empowerment was experienced as a cyclical process for participants. Additionally, artistic expression, psychological empowerment, and psychological healing were experienced as an interactional process. Thus, art therapy should be considered as an intervention method for children experiencing bullying. Additionally, researchers should investigate empowerment as a cyclical process and conduct longitudinal studies to determine the empowerment process over time.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3723000 |
| Date | 30 October 2015 |
| Creators | Laffier, Jennifer |
| Publisher | Northcentral University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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