RESEARCH STUDIES
We have an association with the Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Auckland. More recently we are working with the Faculty of Education at the University of Auckland looking at looking ways Healthy Thinking may improve outputs like literacy and numeracy in schools.
What we are trying to do is measure the effects of Healthy Thinking and provide evidence that it works on productivity, self-reports and physiological measures of stress such as Heart Rate Variability.
Having such an association helps analyze data and add strength to research initially conducted by Dr. Tom Mulholland who gathered data on thousands of workers globally on what their stress triggers, thoughts and emotions are. It was from this data that we built our Attitude Profiling System. One current research project is doing factor analysis on these profiles and comparing them to the DASS (Depression and Anxiety Scale) to see which profiles are potentially the most stressful.
STUDY BY OPRA PSYCHOLOGY GROUP
An initial research project conducted by Dr. Mulholland and OPRA Psychology Group found that 92% of people found Healthy Thinking very effective or effective at home (no one thought it was not effective). In addition, 75% of people said that Healthy Thinking had created long-term behavioral change at work, and of these 100% thought that the change would be permanent, and this is a year after they had taken the Healthy Thinking training.
STUDY ON ST JOHN AMBULANCE STAFF
Another project in a group of St John Ambulance staff showed similar results to the previous study in terms of self-report of the effectiveness of Healthy Thinking post training. In addition, stress, anxiety, and depression, as measured by the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1993), appear to have decreased from pre-Healthy Thinking to post-Healthy Thinking. The mean for depression was 6.25 pre-HT and 3.33 post-HT training, and the mean for anxiety was 4.88 pre-HT and 2.65 post-HT. The biggest change was seen in the mean stress score, which decreased from 13.08 (pre-HT) to 5.02 (post-HT). This was measured across a team pre and post intervention and in mean group scores, not individual scores.
Further work needs to be done in this area looking at individual differences and physiological measures of stress like Heart Rate Variability. Approval has been given for such a study in Paramedics and our Healthy Thinking Foundation is trying to secure funding to achieve this.
OTHER STUDIES
We are currently measuring stress levels in Vets across New Zealand in conjunction with the NZ Veterinary Association and comparing these to a survey we did on Vets in the United Kingdom.
Other current proposals include measuring Heart Rate Variability in bank Executives. Low Heart Rate Variability has been linked to Sudden Cardiac Death, increased anxiety and depression and a decrease in the brains executive functions like memory and concentration, planning and Situational Awareness.
We would be happy to consider working with organisations who want to further this research. Please contact us for more information.