Transdisciplinary solutions to methodological and ethical problems in performing arts psychology.

In the first part of this article, I argue that transdisciplinary research can help address both the WEIRD problem of homogenous samples and the categorical problem of overgeneralized practice conceptions in performing arts psychology. Like other areas of performance science, performing arts psychology engages with practices and practice-based knowledge that are studied differently by subject-specific disciplines. I propose a transdisciplinary research model that facilitates greater overlap and transfer between the scientific, subject-specific, and practice-based forms of research and knowledge that surround a practice. The potential benefits of such a model are more inclusive samples, diversified methods, grounded research questions, and widely applicable results. The problems mentioned above are also ethical. Psychological definitions of performance that derive from overgeneralized conceptions and overreliance on homogenous samples are transferred to diverse peoples, practices, and contexts as general knowledge. This fails to apply principles of equity and relational ethics, which in turn reveals some limitations of established ethics procedures. In the second section of this article, I therefore revisit my argument for transdisciplinary research, now with a focus on the triad of research ethics that is brought into a transdisciplinary project through the different priorities of scientific, subject-specific, and practice-based research domains; namely, procedural ethics, relational ethics, and principles of equity. Transdisciplinary researchers are not only negotiating across methodological paradigms that determine research validity, they are also negotiating across ethical values. Combining the two sections of the article, I argue that the challenge of negotiation can be flipped into a solution to the WEIRD and practice conception problems in performing arts psychology. I argue that whereas critical calls for radical departures were needed to identify these problems, solutions are available in bridges between different ethical and methodological approaches.

Dance Intervention Affects Social Connections and Body Appreciation Among Older Adults in the Long Term Despite COVID-19 Social Isolation: A Mixed Methods Pilot Study.

The ability of dance to address social isolation is argued, but there is a lack of both evidence of such an effect and interventions designed for the purpose. An interdisciplinary research team at University of Calgary partnered with Kaeja d'Dance to pilot test the effects of an intervention designed to facilitate embodied social connections among older adults. Within a mixed methods study design, pre and post behavioral tests and qualitative surveys about experiences of the body and connecting were administered to thirteen participants along with test instruments of loneliness and body appreciation. In the short-term, no significant changes were found on quantitative tests. Exploratory analysis revealed intervention improvements on individual body appreciation questions only. This indication of change was strongly supported by converging qualitative data and identified as relating to: increased connection through task-based collaboration, increased awareness of interpersonal boundaries, and a shift to experiencing the body as responsive. These indications of increased relational capacity were deemed likely to cause further impact in the long term. Examining this possibility and the subsequently arisen factor of COVID-19 risks and restrictions, test instruments were administered again to 10 participants 4 and 5 months after the intervention. A significant increase in loneliness was found. Despite this negative impact of COVID-19 isolation, several positive intervention changes remained detectable and some continued to increase over time. Seventy percent of the participants, who made new social contacts during the intervention and later sought continued contact, improved significantly across all body appreciation measures over the full study. The qualitative data from the last two time-points revealed both consistent values and new, negative changes. While these preliminary findings speak to the durability of intervention changes, they also identify areas of urgent priority to help older adults restore embodied relational capacity that has declined during COVID-19. Within the limitations of a small-sample pilot study, converging mixed methods results support the hypothesis that dance interventions designed for the purpose can positively affect the social inclusion of older adults. Although we recommend further study, these promising results also indicate that dance interventions can help older adults recover from pandemic isolation.

The Demands of Performance Generating Systems on Executive Functions: Effects and Mediating Processes.

Performance generating systems (PGS) are rule- and task-based approaches to improvisation on stage in theater, dance, and music. These systems require performers to draw on predefined source materials (texts, scores, memories) while working on complex tasks within limiting rules. An interdisciplinary research team at a large Western Canadian University hypothesized that learning to sustain this praxis over the duration of a performance places high demands on executive functions; demands that may improve the performers' executive abilities. These performers need to continuously shift attention while remaining responsive to embodied and environmental stimuli in the present, they are required to inhibit automated responses and impulses using the rules of the system, and they strive toward addressing multitasking challenges with fluidity and flexibility. This study set out to test the mentioned hypothesis deductively and identify mediating processes inductively, using mixed empirical methods. In a small sample experiment with a control group (28 participants; 15 in intervention group, 13 in control group), standardized quantitative tests of executive functions (D-KEFS) were administered before and after an 8-week intervention. Participant-reported qualitative observations from the praxis were also collected throughout the intervention for grounded analysis. Within the limitations of small sample data, we found both statistically significant and trending effects on inhibition, problem-solving initiation, fluidity, and cognitive flexibility. Examining the mediating process, we found that participants experienced significant challenges sustaining the practice halfway through the intervention. The participant-reported solutions to these challenges, which emerged as the strongest behavioral patterns when coding the qualitative data to saturation, were strategies of problem-solving and of re-directing attention. These strategies support and advance our understanding of the effects measured in the standardized tests. In terms of application, our results identify characteristics of PGS that could potentially maintain and strengthen executive functions over and above less demanding performing arts interventions. The results also deliver new insight into how PGS works, which may contribute to the development and teaching of this artistic practice.