Graefe ps1

Evaluation of three training variants for the Art of Living
C. Graefe & B. Schmitz,
University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany
Does choosing your Art of Living
Strategies make a difference?
M. Sc. Psych. Corinna Gräfe11.07.2014 1

Overview
 Initiation
 Art of Living Concept
 Training Concept
 Results
 Discussion
11.07.2014 M. Sc. Psych. Corinna Gräfe 2

Initiation
German high school students suffer under
 Pressure to perform
 Headaches and back pain
 Finding their way for the future
(DAK & Leuphana Universität, 2011; Milde-Busch et al., 2010; Robert Koch-Institut
& Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung, 2008)
Enhancing Art of Living works directly and indirectly against these
problems

Art of Living Concept
 Based on philosophical considerations of Schmid (2004)
 How should we live?
 Is concentrating on inner attitude in contrast to moral fiber
 Definition
 Reflective, engaged, self-determined way of live
 Self-care

Art of Living Concept
 17 sub concepts (Schmitz & Schmidt, 2014)
autonomous way of life meaning self-efficacy
balance openness self-knowledge
bodily self care optimization self-actualization
compatibility of
different life domains
pleasure serenity
coping positive attitude towards
life
social contacts
choice of environment reflection

Training Concept
Main questions
 Can Art of Living be enhanced by a short training?
 Does the way of delivering the training have an effect?
 Pre-post comparison
 Linear trends from the analysis of a 14 day period diary?

Training Concept
 Four hour training
 Follows the concept of Perels, van de Loo and Schmitz (2007)
 Introduction
 Art of Living Questionnaire
 Opening Exercise
 Building Block
 Middle Activity
 Art of Living Diary
 Knowledge and Skill
 Application Activity

Art of Living Questionnaire
 Pre-Posttest
 High reliability (Cronbach‘s α .87)
 135 questions cover 17 subconcepts
 Item categories 1-6 from ‚strongly disagree‘ to ‚strongly agree‘
 Average of 30 minutes fill in time

Opening Exercise
Can you draw a frog?

Frog
Draw a 2
Draw this squiggle around it
Look now your motive
is sitting on a waterlilly leaf

Building Block/Middle Activity
Building Block
 17 sub categories are introduced
Middle Activity
 Own, already used strategies are identified and related to the subscales

Art of Living Diary
 High reliability (Cronbach’s α .89)
 Serves not only as an instrument but also as a reflection strategy
 22 questions
 One item per subconcept
 Four questions about the well-being
 Open question about the reason for the next day strategy use
 Six-level answering scale
 Average of six minutes fill in time

Knowledge and Skill
Training groups
 Group 0: control group
 Group 1: free choice of five strategies in all Art of Living Areas
 Group 2: five predetermined strategies by the research group
 Group 3: free choice of five strategies for areas with low manifestation

Application Activity
 Possible problems that could evolve while getting to know different
strategies are identified
 Solutions for these problems are elaborated

Results
Sample
 164 students from grade nine to eleven
 58,5 % girls
 Mean age 15,83

Results

Results
 The data shows that having the choice makes a difference!
 A guided choice or at least some well selected strategies by the trainers
lead to more well-being and higher Art of Living Results
 Having too much choice doesn’t change a thing or makes you feel worse
 Students tended to choose strategies on subscales they already had high
values

Discussion
Prospects
 Revision of the questionnaire
 Longer training duration: Second session

Thank you for your Attention!
Any Questions?

Appendix

Art of Living Questionnaire

Art of Living Diary

Graefe ps1

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