Experience mapping in qualitative interviewing in health and well-being research
Chair(s): Viola Sallay (Department of Personality, Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Szeged, Hungary)
Discussant(s): Márta Csabai (Károli Gáspár University, Budapest)
Qualitative research on health and well-being has seen a significant increase in the use of procedures involving visuality and participant activity in recent decades. These creative procedures allow participants to move beyond a verbal mindset and access dimensions of their experiences that would otherwise not be articulated.
The experience mapping method focuses on the processes of environmental-emotional self-regulation and the regulation of relationships in places by evoking places of particular emotional significance. These questioning methods promote deeper reflection on lived experiences, increase participants' opportunities for self-expression and sharing, support the balancing of power relations in the interview situation, and, in addition to generating new knowledge, help to validate the data on which we build our findings.
Three studies are presented from the Qualitative Research Lab of the University of Szeged, which share the common feature of using a qualitative methodology based on experience mapping to explore processes leading to mental health. Simon-Zámbori et al. investigate the experiences of parents of atypically developing children at home; Biró et al. explore place-related experiences of people with chronic illness and their partners. Finally, Gyöngyösi et al. report on how physicians create the conditions for their well-being at their workplace.
Presentations of the Symposium
Self-regulation and coping processes in the family home of parents raising children with atypical development
Petra Simon-Zámbori1, Zsófia Bana2, Tamás Martos3, Viola Sallay3
1Doctoral School of Education, University of Szeged, Hungary, 22Department of Clinical Psychology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary, 3Department of Personality, Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Szeged, Hungary
Aims and objectives: Raising a child with atypical development may have a profound impact on family members’ mental health and family dynamics. The main aim of our research is to explore self-regulation and coping processes in the family home of parents raising children with atypical development.
Methods: Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with twelve parental couples (N = 24) raising children with atypical development (e.g. Down syndrome, Stickler syndrome, lissencephaly). The Emotional Map of the Home experience mapping method was used to explore intra-family processes from a systemic and environmental psychological perspective, and the interviews were analysed using the Grounded Theory (GT) method.
Results: The analysis of the interviews highlighted individual, couple and family self-regulation and coping processes. Parents described changes that occurred with the birth of the atypically developing child, such as the redefinition of family roles and the rearrangement of the use of space in the family home.
Conclusions: Interviews with parents raising children with atypical development could provide valuable insights into the risk and protective factors of these families. These findings may contribute to a deeper understanding of how mental health in these families can be supported by prevention or intervention programmes tailored to their needs.
Relationships, places and experiences that lead to mental health in chronic illness
Dorottya Biró1, Zsolt Szatmári1, Tamás Martos2, Viola Sallay2
1Clinical Medical Sciences Doctoral School, Faculty of Medicine, University of Szeged, Department of Personality, Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Szeged, Hungary, 2Department of Personality, Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Szeged, Hungary
Background and objectives: Our qualitative, exploratory research investigates the personal health trajectories of people with IBD and COPD and their partners in the context of self-regulation, relationship regulation, and mental well-being. We aim to understand the processes that facilitate or hinder coping with everyday stress and to explore the role of the physical environment, peer support, and progressive symptoms of the disease in emotion regulation and health goal attainment.
Methods: In the research interviews, we used the method of experience mapping, i.e., emotionally important experiences were mapped in the context of the places that were significant for the individuals in shaping their well-being. The stories associated with the places and experiences marked on the map were then explored in relation to the health goals.
Results: By analysing the interview transcripts using Grounded Theory methodology, we explored patterns of place-related self-regulatory experiences, including protective and risk factors experienced in the home and outside the home, and the role of relational experiences in the processes in their mental well-being.
Conclusions: By exploring these behaviours and experiences, we provide information for healthcare professionals to contribute to more effective practical care that is tailored to the person and their environment.
"This is my place, no one can take it from me" - Environmental - emotional self-regulation processes in the workplace - a study regarding physicians
Orsolya Gyöngyösi1, Tamás Martos2, Viola Sallay2
1Clinical Medical Sciences Doctoral School, Faculty of Medicine, University of Szeged, Department of Personality, Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Szeged, Hungary, 2Department of Personality, Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Szeged, Hungary
Background and aims: In our research, we looked for the representation of the socio-physical environment of the workplace in terms of protective and risk factors for physicians’ mental health during their daily work. Our research question was how physicians create their mental wellbeing and optimal conditions in the socio-physical environment of the workplace, as well as factors and processes that help or complicate this.
Methods: We used the qualitative methodology: Experience Map of the Workplace. We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with physicians, N=28 (12 male, 16 female). We asked the interviewee to draw a layout of their workplace, and asked questions about the following (to be marked on the layout): safety, uncertainty, success/development, tension, loneliness, and togetherness. Thereafter, we asked that the experiences be detailed and explored. The method of analysis was Grounded Theory Methodology.
Findings: As a result, we uncovered different and contradictory variations of workplace self-regulation processes, for example: "Cooperation without words" or "Loss of control: external and internal hell".
Conclusion: Whereas previous research has examined the process of emotion regulation in physicians, these general descriptions contain no reference to the person's mental health in the context of their socio-physical environment. This gives our study novelty.
