How to feel connected to yourself, others and the world
Theme: Principles of human flourishing
Type of research: quantitative empirical
Description:
Human beings have a powerful need for connectedness. A sense of felt connection with self, other people and the world around us has a profound effect on our well-being. Disconnected individuals may feel lost and alone, both on an intrapersonal and interpersonal level; that is, these individuals may experience a pervasive sense of disconnection, both from the internal self as well from the external world. Alienation or disconnection have been suggested to underlie many mental illnesses such as eating disorders, borderline personality disorders, PTSD and so on.
Part of this research project will focus on validating a newly developed multidimensional scale for connectedness. This will provide insight into the factors that promote healthy human psychological development. To test whether this multidimensional scale had clinical utility, it can be related to clinical symptoms. It would also be interesting to examine environmental and personal factors that influence levels of connectedness. You can come up with your own research question for this project, so there is plenty of room for creativity.
Do you want to read more?
- Townsend, K. C., & McWhirter, B. T. (2005). Connectedness: A review of the literature with implications for counseling, assessment, and research. Journal of Counseling & Development, 83, 191-201.
- Watts, R., Kettner, H., Geerts, D., Gandy, S., Kartner, L., Mertens, L., ... & Roseman, L. (2022).
- The Watts Connectedness Scale: a new scale for measuring a sense of connectedness to self, others, and world. Psychopharmacology, 239, 3461-3483.