The impact of Arts on Prescription on individual health and wellbeing: A systematic review with meta-analysis (2024)
Journal Article

Introduction: The evidence-base for the impact of participating in the arts for different aspects of health and wellbeing is growing. Arts on Prescription has gained increasing recognition as a method for fostering connections among individuals and c... Read More about The impact of Arts on Prescription on individual health and wellbeing: A systematic review with meta-analysis.

Critical perspectives on art on prescription (2023)
Journal Article

The positive outcomes of engaging in the arts are increasingly reported in the research literature, supporting the use of the arts to enhance individual and community health and wellbeing. However, little attention is given to the less positive aspec... Read More about Critical perspectives on art on prescription.

“It’s not therapy; I’m not a therapist”: Exploring the perspectives of Arts Health Practitioners on how arts on referral can improve psychosocial outcomes in adults with health conditions (2021)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Introduction
The rationale for this research was to explore the perspectives of art for health practitioners about how art interventions can improve psychosocial outcomes for adults with physical health conditions. Existing literature tends to foc... Read More about “It’s not therapy; I’m not a therapist”: Exploring the perspectives of Arts Health Practitioners on how arts on referral can improve psychosocial outcomes in adults with health conditions.

An evaluation of the impact of an arts intervention on the wellbeing of women who have experienced sexual violence (2021)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Introduction
The study evaluated the impact of a four-session creative workshop on well-being and mood among women who had experienced sexual violence, run through Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support (SARSAS; https://www.sarsas.org.uk/).... Read More about An evaluation of the impact of an arts intervention on the wellbeing of women who have experienced sexual violence.

A mixed-methods evaluation of the longitudinal impact of arts on prescription (2021)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Introduction
Art on prescription is one pathway in social prescribing schemes that involves referral by health workers to visual arts programmes, for individuals experiencing social isolation and low to moderate levels of stress, anxiety and depres... Read More about A mixed-methods evaluation of the longitudinal impact of arts on prescription.

“Nobody can fail at it, everybody succeeds”: Perceived processes of change following attendance at an arts on prescription programme (2021)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Introduction
As the delivery of social prescribing schemes is increasing nationally (NHS England, 2019; Fixsen & Polley, 2019), evaluation of their impact and efficacy is pressing: quantitative, qualitative and econometric (Public Health England, 20... Read More about “Nobody can fail at it, everybody succeeds”: Perceived processes of change following attendance at an arts on prescription programme.

Wellbeing vox pop (2021)
Digital Artefact

Wellbeing vox pop brings together a range of Artists and UWE Bristol academics drawn from different disciplines who were invited to respond to the subject of wellbeing during the start of 2021. Contributions include: Jessie Edwards-Thomas, Raquel Mes... Read More about Wellbeing vox pop.

Does latent inhibition underpin creativity, positive schizotypy and anomalous cognition? (2020)
Journal Article

This paper presents two experiments in which an experimental paradigm developed to examine the efficacy of filtering mechanisms of attention, Latent Inhibition (LI), was adapted to include a psi component. LI assesses the processing of irrelevant sti... Read More about Does latent inhibition underpin creativity, positive schizotypy and anomalous cognition?.

Art on prescription: Practice and evidence (2020)
Other

The following chapter constitutes an overview of the literature on art on prescription, where people are referred to a programme of art workshops (visual arts), by health care professionals, with the aim of improving psychosocial health and wellbeing... Read More about Art on prescription: Practice and evidence.

Tracking momentary experience in the evaluation of arts-on-prescription services: Using mood changes during art workshops to predict global wellbeing change (2020)
Journal Article

Aims: To measure the immediate impact of participating in arts-on-prescription workshops on multiple dimensions of mood and to evaluate whether improvement in mood is a mechanism for change, predicting improvements in global wellbeing before and afte... Read More about Tracking momentary experience in the evaluation of arts-on-prescription services: Using mood changes during art workshops to predict global wellbeing change.

Schizotypy (2020)
Book Chapter

Schizotypy is a set of traits analogous with the symptoms of schizophrenia. This article explores their putative role in the creative process, arguing that any relationship with creativity is complex and potentially bidirectional, where positive symp... Read More about Schizotypy.

Challenges and joys of using the experience sampling method to examine the impact of the arts on wellbeing (2020)
Book Chapter

This case study describes how the experience sampling method can be used to explore the impact of everyday behaviours on health and wellbeing, focusing on the correlates of participatory art in everyday life. The experience sampling method repeatedly... Read More about Challenges and joys of using the experience sampling method to examine the impact of the arts on wellbeing.

Cognitive and affective benefits of coloring: Two randomized controlled crossover studies (2019)
Journal Article

This research sought to replicate and extend work suggesting that coloring can reduce anxiety, asking whether coloring can improve cognitive performance. In two experiments undergraduates (N = 47; N = 52) colored and participated in a control conditi... Read More about Cognitive and affective benefits of coloring: Two randomized controlled crossover studies.

Postcards from researchers (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

A workshop, drawing on guerrilla kindness craftivism, to share inspiration and research ideas gained from the BPS creative methods seminar.

Can colouring improve the mood and concentration of older adults? Developing a research study (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Colouring has been advocated as a wellbeing activity for older adults (e.g., Alzheimer’s Society, 2018) and colouring books and activity packs specific to this population abound (e.g., Active Minds, 2018). Despite this, no research has examined the e... Read More about Can colouring improve the mood and concentration of older adults? Developing a research study.

Museums: Changing lives through art (2019)
Report

Evaluation of a partnership project May 2016 to April 2019

The arts and wellbeing: A burgeoning research area (2019)
Other

A blog post on the UWE's Psychological Sciences Research Group about our research on the arts and health, and the growing evidence base for the health benefits of engaging with the arts.

Does ‘altered consciousness’ mediate the relationship between art-making and wellbeing? An experience sampling study (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Objectives: Previous research suggests that creativity, in the arts in particular, is associated with altered states of consciousness (ASCs) (Holt, 2007). To further understanding of the phenomenology of this, the current study used the experience sa... Read More about Does ‘altered consciousness’ mediate the relationship between art-making and wellbeing? An experience sampling study.

The expression of schizotypy in the daily lives of artists (2018)
Journal Article

A considerable amount of research suggests that positive schizotypy (cognitive and perceptual aberrations, such as pseudohallucinations) is associated with creativity in the arts. In order to better understand how positive schizotypy might be express... Read More about The expression of schizotypy in the daily lives of artists.

The therapeutic use of art-making amongst positive schizotypes: An experience sampling study (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

A considerable amount of research has tested the relationship between creativity and schizotypy, collectively suggesting that positive schizotypy (cognitive and perceptual aberrations, such as pseudo-hallucinations and déjà vu) is associated with cre... Read More about The therapeutic use of art-making amongst positive schizotypes: An experience sampling study.