THE EFFECT OF PSYCHODRAMA ON THE MINDFULNESS LEVEL OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

The concept of mindfulness, which has its roots in eastern culture, is defined as an extrajudicial focus only on what is happening at the present time. Nowadays, various researches and practices are carried out to increase the mindfulness skills of individuals. Psychodrama, a psychotherapy method developed by J.L. Moreno, is an approach that explores and investigates human experiences through drama. What is essential during role play is how the problem is perceived here and now. Thus, different perspectives and new ways of dealing with the problem are recognized. It is thought that psychodrama can be an effective method to increase the mindfulness levels of individuals. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 16-session psychodrama group experience on mindfulness level of university students through quantitative and qualitative methods. The study group of the study consisted of 12 university students (10 girls, 2 boys) with an average age of 25. Quantitative data were collected with the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale and analyzed by Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test. Qualitative data were obtained from the evaluation reports written by the students and evaluated with content analysis. On the other hand, the sound recordings played as pre-test and post-test to the group members and the evaluation of the common drawing game was the psychodramatic findings of the research. Although the findings obtained from the quantitative data show that the mindfulness posttest mean scores of the group members increased compared to the pre-test scores, but this increase was not significant, the qualitative and psychodramatic findings showed that psychodrama group life was effective on emotions, relationships and awareness related to mindfulness. Keywords Psychodrama,mindfulness, university students, group therapy