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    Conceptualising mind, body, spirit interconnections : perspectives of Māori and non-Māori healers : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Health Psychology
    (Massey University, 2008) Mark, Glenis Tabetha
    This study into the nature of the mind, body, and spirit aimed to enhance psychological understandings of the holistic nature of human beings. There is a focus in mainstream psychology on the biomedical model, which has a limited view of people, of health and illness. The biopsychosocial and biopsychosocialspiritual models of health and illness, and the Whare Tapa Wha and Te Wheke Māori cultural models encompass holism but there is little literature or research specifically on MBS interconnections. Due to the difficulty of studying the mind, body, spirit according to scientific assumptions and methods, the interconnections between these three elements were explored through spiritual healers' understandings of spiritual healing practices. There were twelve participants, six indigenous Māori and six non-indigenous spiritual healers who participated in semi-structured interviews. The data was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis techniques. Three specific questions about mind, body, and spirit interconnections conceptualisations were studied. The first research question focused on how spiritual healers conceptualise mind, body, spirit interconnections. The second research question considered how mind, body, spirit interconnections are understood by spiritual healers practices of spiritual healing. The last research question examined how a Māori cultural worldview influences spiritual healers' understandings of interconnections between the mind, body, and spirit. The diversity of mind, body, spirit interconnections broadened and expanded on the sparse definitions in the literature by showing the use of the mind, body, spirit as both separate and combined elements. There were illustrations of the theoretical and practical use of mind, body, spirit interconnections in healing and in life. Cultural perspectives influenced and impacted on views of the mind, body, spirit with the addition of whānau and whenua to the mind, body, spirit concept that was considered culturally appropriate. The results provided a much broader picture than traditional models of health and illness, and showed further definitions and understandings of MBS interconnections. It is concluded that it is important that Māori cultural meanings of health and illness are included in the New Zealand health system.
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    Finding the drastic : exploring forms of attention in piano performance : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Musical Arts in Performance at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2014) Binnie, Michele
    While Carolyn Abbate’s essay “Music – Drastic or Gnostic” sets provocative parameters for considering performance, she also makes a bold stand on the mutual exclusivity of the knowing or gnostic mind and active or drastic body in performance. Abbate suggests that when one is involved in the real-time experience of music (i.e. performance) there is no room for thought because conceptual awareness interrupts the real-time experience. Thus, drastic precludes gnostic. Yet many performers speak about the need to negotiate a balance between mind and body in performance. This implies that an imbalance can occur in either direction, that over-thinking the execution is not conducive to flow but that the ultimate experience of the music ‘playing itself’ may also incur an undesirable sense of not being in conscious control. This paper aims to explore the limits of a gnostic approach and the parameters for a drastic performance. My own experience has demonstrated the ways in which too much conscious control - or rather, too much conscious attention on certain tactile aspects of playing - can end up hampering the physical execution. Indeed, Science Daily has summarised recent research in the Journal of Neuroscience that confirms scientifically that over-thinking can be detrimental to performance. Implicit memory (unconscious and expressed by means other than words) and explicit memory (which is conscious and can be described in words) each operate from different parts of the brain; and the implication is that physical performance in most cases requires the deployment of implicit as well as explicit memory. For a pianist, in other words, on the one hand the ‘action’ must become instinctive at some point because one’s attention cannot focus simultaneously on the fingers prior to every sound and on the sound itself. On the other hand, it is also not desirable simply to deliver the action to some level of drastic, or pure ‘doing’ (as the ancient meaning of the word suggests), even to a meta-drastic point where the music ‘plays itself’. Thus it would seem that Abate’s stipulation gnostic or drastic requires further reflection. Through my critical analysis of this discussion, I would like finally to be able to redress the balance between a gnostic and drastic approach in my own performance. Resituating the mind-body balance itself requires a shift in consciousness: a shift that effectively distracts me from overt tactile awareness and places my foreground attention to sound. This shift, ironically, requires an immense conscious effort: in other words, my shift towards the drastic is launched by the gnostic. Through documenting the process of my own journey from gnostic/explicit performance to drastic/implicit performance, I will propose that a specific balanced blend is ideal: that is, I need to move from a cognitive or conscious process that focuses on physical aspects of performance, in order to bring an unfettered consciousness of sound to the foreground attention. If I can suppress my conscious attention to the kinetics of playing the piano and this very suppression permits a focus on sound itself, will that be a shutting down of one kind of excessive cognitive effort and signal a release of the drastic, or simply resituate the gnostic? For myself, finding my way to trusting a drastic approach and yet balance it with a gnostic input is imperative if I am to find music making a pleasure.
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    Constructing the self : conversations and cardiovascular reactivity : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1996) Lyons, Antonia Catherine
    This thesis develops a theory suggesting that the cardiovascular reactivity exhibited during language use is explicable in terms of self-construction processes. Social constructionist ideas regarding the constructive nature of language were drawn on to outline the ways in which individuals obtain and maintain a sense of self in conversations and other episodes of language use. Three factors regarding conversations were identified as central to self-construction processes, namely the context in which the conversation occurs, the content of the language used, and the resources the individual brings to any particular talking episode. This conceptual scheme was then used to interpret and integrate many diverse findings regarding cardiovascular reactivity, resting blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Based on this theoretical account, it was hypothesized that conversations about the self would be related to greater cardiovascular reactivity than conversations not focused on the self, and further, that conversations about private aspects of oneself would be related to greater cardiovascular reactivity than conversations about public aspects of oneself. The magnitude of differences in reactivity across the three conversations were expected to depend upon various resources the individual brought into the situation, especially their private and public self-consciousness, social competence, tendency to disclose, usual extent of conversations and their usual comfort felt during conversations. To test these hypotheses an experimental procedure was developed where participants had their blood pressure and heart rate monitored every minute (for approximately 35 minutes) by an automatic blood pressure monitor. During this time they were engaged in three conversations with the researcher about private self, public self, and non-self topics. This procedure was subsequently used on 102 women who, following the experiment, completed a questionnaire which included measures of the relevant individual resources. Results showed that as predicted, blood pressure was most reactive when participants talked about aspects of their private self, and least reactive during non-self talk. Heart rate, however, was most reactive when participants talked about aspects of their public self. Of the individual resource variables, usual extent of conversations and usual comfort of conversations modified the differences in reactivity across the private self, public self and non-self talking conditions, both separately and in combination. Differences in diastolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure reactivity across the three conditions depended on both the usual extent individuals engaged in conversations and how comfortable they usually feel doing so. Unexpectedly, when these resources were considered, reactivity observed during public self talk was significantly different from reactivity observed during either private self or non-self talk. Overall the results broadly supported the present self-construction account of cardiovascular reactivity during language use. They also highlighted the importance of conversational resources, most notably usual extent and comfort of conversations, in affecting cardiovascular reactivity during any specific conversation. The thesis concludes with some reflections on social constructionist ideas, the realist paradigm, and the nature of language in cardiovascular reactivity research.