Qinyi Yang
Emotion Regulation Workshop: Caring for the Mental Health of New Home-based Urban Young Office Workers
Summary
The outbreak of the COVID-19 has shifted the working style with a dramatic upsurge in teleworking, exposing many traditional office workers to remote work for the first time. With an increase in cases suffering from work-related stress, depression and anxiety, the mental well-being of teleworkers has become a popular topic of discussion. In this research, the author argues that concerns should not only be paid to related psychopathologies caused by teleworking, but also to more subtle psychological changes caused by routine forms of emotional upset.
Taking Emotional Insensitivity as an entry point, the author explores the main drivers behind negative psychological changes, finding that the main pain points for new home-based urban young office workers are social isolation and emotion dysregulation. In addressing these, the author designs an emotion regulation workshop as a part of a series of services aimed at building a more emotionally supportive community. This research demonstrates how the workshop empowers the audience with the ability to regulate their emotions better, the use of the clay to recognise, express and understand one’s emotions, and the contribution of the puppet to foster communication across geographic spaces. It also fills the gap of research on the puppet’s application to adults.
Additional info
Building upon the behaviour model (Fogg, 2007), experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984) and hook model (Eyal & Hoover, 2014), the author designs an emotion regulation workshop, which can be seen as the chance to empower the audience with the ability to use more functional strategies (e.g. cognitive reappraisal) to regulate their emotions. By providing basic knowledge on emotions, getting involved in interactive activities to express emotions, practising providing emotional support to others, as well as introducing pivotal skills of emotion regulation, the experience during the workshop can be taken as the source of learning and development.
About
Qinyi Yang is a researcher and designer with a background in industrial design and interactive design. She holds a BE in industrial design at Beijing Institute of Technology and is currently studying for an MRes degree in Design at Royal College of Art. Her past work looked at the multi-sensory interactive design, narrative game design and emotional visualisation installation design. Currently, she is investigating how design skills can be used to help regulate people’s negative emotions. For her MRes thesis, she explores the possibility of maintaining social connection and improving emotion regulation skills for new home-based office workers by running emotion-centred workshops. This work also examined the contribution of puppets to foster communication between adults across geographic spaces.
Introduction
The sudden shift of working style in the lockdown has harmed the mental health of employees. As research revealed, those who had never worked from home before would have greater difficulties concentrating on work or enjoying normal activities (Felstead & Reuschke, 2020), and would experience burnout more frequently if have to work remotely all the time (Gallup, 2020).
Despite realizing the importance of maintaining the mental health of teleworkers, researchers tend to care more about specific psychopathologies (e.g. depression, anxiety), but not more subtle psychological changes caused by some routine forms of emotional upset. One symptom that has been neglected is Emotional Insensitivity (EI), which refers to one's numbness and indifference towards the surroundings (Roberts, 2019). Mainly led by stress, the city living context, remote working style and social media use tend to be the main causes of urban teleworkers suffering from EI. Especially for those new to teleworking, the loss of social connection is reported as the main concern (Maruyama & Tietze, 2012) and considered as the main disadvantage of remote work (Huws, 1984). Together with one’s inability to regulate negative emotions caused by the sudden change, social isolation and emotion dysregulation are the two main pain points of new home-based urban young office workers.
In such a context, this research aims to explore:
- How design skills can be used to help the audience better regulate their emotions.
- How to help the audience maintain social contact.
- How to build an emotionally supportive community to create a more mental-friendly work and living context for the audience.
Methodology
Behaviour change model
Colourful Clay as a Tool to Visualise Emotions
The workshop used clay as a tool for the participants to visualise their emotions. As a kind of material that can be shaped quickly without limitation on professional skills, clay enabled participants to share emotions more safely and comfortably. It helped express emotions that would be otherwise hidden, and the colours worked to express complex emotions better. Visualising emotions with clay provided a chance for participants to recognise their emotions more objectively, and the whole session contributed to making one realise personal emotions are understandable to others, which plays an important role in enabling participants to regulate emotions better. The clay also helped create a more open and relaxing atmosphere of the workshop, as playing with it was taken as stress-relieving.
Works made by the control group
Works made by the experimental group (1)
Works made by the experimental group (2)
- Participant 1: “The clay worked in expressing the chosen emotion when I was trying to keep some information private.”
- Participant 2: "Yellow is the bright and spirited part of me, while blue is the depression and sadness.”
- Participant 3: “Some of the interpretations of my work mentioned emotions I hadn't originally intended to express, but they were reasonable somehow. I think the clay helped me recognise some of the emotions that were expressed subconsciously.”
- Participant 4: “I had a lot of figurative objects in my work that everyone may have their own interpretation, but they were still able to understand my emotions from the colours and shapes. That was amazing! Empathy can even be evoked in such an abstract way, how could it not be evoked in a more direct way, like language?”
- Participant 5: “It was more relaxing playing with the clay while talking.”
- Participant 6: “It made me more focused and more open in sharing my ideas. I was more honest in what I say when I look into the clay rather than someone else's eyes.”
Puppet as a Tool to Foster Communication
Another tool used in the workshop is DIY talking puppets. The puppet was evaluated as a useful tool to ensure the psychological safety of participants. Talking troubles through another character made it easier to share emotions that would otherwise be repressed. It provided a chance for participants to treat their troubles more objectively. By having some episodes (e.g. the puppet’s hair dropping off), the trouble sharing & support giving session became less serious than that of the control group, which subsequently fostered more relaxing communication.
Puppets made by the experimental group
- Participant 1: “The puppet did make me feel somewhat 'safe', as playing another character gave me an excuse to narrate in another person's voice...People commented on each other’s puppets, saying ‘It’s cute.’, ‘That’s so funny.’…and episodes happened, like the puppet’s hair dropping off and mouth becoming crooked. I think they all made the atmosphere of the workshop better. Maybe laughing itself is a way to solve your troubles.”
- Participant 3: “It was quite an interesting experience. It felt like seeing your problems from a spectator's view.”
- Participant 4: “It helped me express emotions that would otherwise be hidden…When I started talking through a puppet, I was no longer me. I was fully engaged in playing another character, trying to put some of my thoughts through another person…But if it was me, myself, not the puppet talking about these issues, I would probably think about it more rationally, and then I would think about what I should say and what I shouldn't say.”
Effects of the Workshop
The workshops were not quite helpful in solving their troubles. The relationships between participants (i.e. friends) made it harder to talk about some topics deeply, and similar backgrounds also made the suggestions less helpful.
However, the workshops were generally supportive, and the experimental group felt more emotionally supported. Participants mentioned that sharing troubles (especially with someone close to them) helps a lot, and getting suggestions could also make one feel better.
Furthermore, there was a positive impact on changing emotion regulation strategies. The proportion of participants using suppression strategies dropped from 20% to 10%, and all the participants of the experimental group used reappraisal strategies to deal with stress after attending the workshop.
