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Niamh Dennehy 

BSc [Hons] Applied Psychology

I am an Applied Psychology student who specialised in the Technology and Design path. I am particularly interested in UX design, Positive Psychology and Somatic therapies. I am a qualified holistic massage therapist, which lead me to become interested in the mind body connection. My final year research project focused on the effect of relaxation type (Emotional Freedom Technique vs The Three Minute Breathing Space) on creativity and self efficacy.

Emotional Freedom Technique- Learn the Tapping Sequence. EFT is a stress reduction technique where people use their fingers to gently tap on acupressure points on the head and torso. It has its roots in Traditional Chinese medicine. EFT uses exposure (thinking about the problem) and acceptance in conjunction with acupressure. Learn the acupressure points with this video.
Emotional Freedom Technique for College Stress. This is an instructional video which uses EFT to reduce College related stress. In EFT, people first identify a concern. They then say the concern aloud in a self-accepting phrase, for example “Even though I have this problem I deeply and completely accept myself”. A “Reminder Phrase.”(a word to stay focused on the problem) is said aloud as the tapping sequence is followed.
The three minute breathing space by Jon Kabat Zin is a brief mindfulness meditation.
Project Overview

The purpose of this study was to investigate the difference between the relaxation types of Emotional Freedom Technique (tapping on acupressure points) and the three minute breathing space (brief mindfulness) on creativity and self-efficacy. The three minute breathing space was the control, with EFT being the main focus.
I made EFT instruction videos and used a youtube clip of the three minute breathing space.
I had two groups of participants. One group learned EFT and the other learned the three minute breathing space. Both groups had male and female participants.
After one brief exposure to the relaxation type, I tested participants self-efficacy scores and creativity scores. The purpose was to see if brief EFT influences self-efficacy and creativity. I also wanted to see if males and females differed in their scores.


Project Description

Title: An Experimental Study on Relaxation Type and Gender on Self-Efficacy and Creativity.
EFT has been shown to be effective in reducing stress, anxiety and depression, all of which are negatively correlated with self-efficacy. This study aimed to test if brief EFT could influence self-efficacy.
There is evidence that relaxation techniques such as mindfulness have the potential to influence creativity. This study wanted to see if brief EFT could influence creativity.
This study aimed to investigate the effects of relaxation technique (EFT versus the three minute breathing space) on self-efficacy and creativity. A 2x2 experimental design was employed. The independent variables investigated were relaxation type and gender. The dependent variables investigated were self-efficacy and creativity. Data of forty-eight participants, with an age range of twenty to forty-eight and a standard deviation of 5.2 were recruited online through snowball sampling of students from various colleges and courses across Ireland. The sample consisted of twenty-one males and twenty-seven females. Creativity was measured with the Alternative Uses Task and Self-Efficacy was measured with the General Self-Efficacy Scale. That data collected was statistically analysed with SPSS software.


Project Findings

Results suggested that there was no significant difference between relaxation types (EFT versus The three minute breathing space) on self-efficacy or creativity. Males and Females did not differ in their creativity or self-efficacy scores.
The findings may be applied in future studies to build on existing EFT literature. And to illuminate insights into the effect of relaxation type on self-efficacy and creativity.
It is important that this was a short intervention and a small sample. Long term interventions may have different outcomes.
No statistically significant results were found. This suggests that brief relaxation type does not have a statistically significant effect on creativity or self-efficacy. There does not appear to be a significant difference between males and females on creativity or self-efficacy. A Pearsons correlation showed that there was no linear relationship between self-efficacy and creativity.

Applied Psychology
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