RAFFLES SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM 2020 – MENTAL HEALTH

3 February 2020

This year, for RSS 2020, we had the honour of having very knowledgeable and skilled speakers in the field of mental health to talk to us and share their knowledge with us. These speakers include Dr Lim Wei Shyan – Department of Psychological Medicine, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Adjunct A/Prof Angie Chew – Chief Executive Officer & Mindfulness Principal Brahm Centre, Ms. Ma Jialin – HOD Student Well-being 2, Raffles Institution, Dr. Imelda Caleon, Ph.D. – Assistant Dean and Programme Director of Lifelong Learning, Research Programme NIE and NTU, Ms. Chua Kah Hwee and Ms. Woo Mei Hui – PHP Teacher-Mentors, Raffles Guidance Centre and student presenters Yang Wanshen and Brendan Mark.

DR LIM WEI SHYAN on Psychological Well-Being:

Psychological Well-Being compromises of Subjective Well-Being, Hedonic Well-Being and Eudaimonic Well-Being.

SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING

Subjective well-being (SWB) is a self-reported measure of well-being, which describes quality of life, including emotional reactions and cognitive judgments.

Determinants of subjective well-being include personality traits such as extraversion and neuroticism, fulfilment of psychological needs such as respect earned and social support and also external factors such as loss of a relationship or job, or demographic variables such as age and even material wealth.

HEDONIC WELL-BEING

Hedonic well-being (HWB) refers to the perception that increased pleasure and decreased pain leads to overall greater levels of happiness.

Benefits of positive thinking can be illustrated by the “Broaden and Build Approach “. Positive emotions predispose towards active, pro-social behaviours that improve variety seeking, creativity and flexibility in categorizations. It can broaden scope of cognitions and attention and lower rates of illness onset. It also builds physical activity and fitness, improves intellectual resources like learning and build success-enhancing behaviour.

However, complete happiness is not just a bed of roses as we all assume it to be. Happiness also has its ‘dark side’. As such, one may become more relationship centred and less so in the achievement domain and more gullible and self-centred. Pursuit of happiness is a trap as when more people try to attain happiness the less likely they are to obtain it. Simultaneously, some may have the inability to accept negative emotions in the future.

EUDAIMONIC WELL-BEING

Eudaimonic well-being (EWB) refers to subjective experiences related to the desire to live a life filled with human excellence or flourishing.

Factors contributing to flourishing include altruism, an example being volunteer work, as helping others can be a distraction to some while enhancing meaning in life. Other forms could be exercising gratitude and also pro-social spending and social relationships which induces higher positive emotions, thus satisfying basic psychological needs.

Q&A:

Q: Besides practising gratitude how does one carry out a paradigm shift towards EWB?

A: There is no definite way or hard and fast rule to process towards this shift. The most useful advice that would resonate with people is that to remind yourself every day that the moment you wake up you will decide to do something good today. Your emotions mainly arise from what you do and how you do it.

ADJUNCT A/PROF ANGIE CHEW on Engineering an Undefeated Mind:

Who needs enemies when we are so efficient at beating ourselves up?

Mindfulness is the awareness that arises from “paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment and nonjudgmentally “– Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Many of us have lots of fears – for students, it’s more commonly the fear of failure. What if we just study and try our best and accept our grades as our rewards. The more fear, expectations and anger you have towards a certain situation, the more you set yourself up for disappointment and shame. Sometimes when you start panicking, signals are sent to your amygdala in the brain and you may notice muscle pain, stiff neck, chest pain and quickened heart rate. If this sounds familiar to you, you might be having anxiety. With mindfulness practice you can slowly recover from negative thoughts and lessen your anxiety. However, trying to get rid of it all at once is most likely unattainable. It takes time to heal and mental resilience to move forward.

Mental abuse is much more painful than physical abuse because you are consumed by your own thoughts, negative thoughts.

Teenagers tend to become more rebellious when their amygdala is fully developed at around age 15. This is part of a process in which your brain tells you to become more independent. To prevent negative consequences arising from this process, practice ‘STOP’.

S – Stop for just a moment

T – Take a breath

O – Observe your experience

P – Proceed

This practice prevents you from getting angry and sometimes speaking before you actually think.

Always tell yourself that “I am enough. Who I am is enough. What I do is enough, and what I have is enough “.

MS. MA JIALIN on Mindfulness in Schools, Project .b Curriculum:

Atychiphobia – the fear of failure and not being good enough is especially prevalent in students. There is a need to address the issue of stress students face in school because they spent majority of their time in school. But how do we do that?

Research has said that mindfulness practice can drive academic excellence as well. Mindfulness involves paying attention on purpose in the present moment with curiosity and kindness to things as they are. We can aim to promote somatic literacy, cognitive literacy, emotional literacy, social literacy and ecological literacy amongst students and move past the numerical literacy that Singapore has excelled in.

Q&A:

Q: What were some challenges you might have faced in implementing this project .b curriculum and bringing mindfulness into Singapore’s education system?

A: It is important to clarify to schools that mindfulness practice is fully secular and numerous research is evident in proving so. We do not want to force mindfulness and mindfulness is also not for everyone, but it is important for everyone to give it a try. We must encourage students to start small and reflect on the benefits they have obtained from this practice and also ensure teachers understand this process before fully implementing this curriculum school-wide.

DR. IMEDLA CALEON, Ph.D. on Current Trends in Positive Psychology and Positive Education:

Positive psychology is the study of science and society, focus on well-being and flourishing whilst emphasizing traits, mind sets and behaviours that affect quality of life of an individual. The focus of positive psychology is “PERMA “.

P – Positive Emotions

E – Engagement

R – Relationships

M – Meaning

A – Accomplishment

Positive Psychology 1.0

Positive psychology 1.0 has been criticised for risk of pollyannaism. Pollyanna was an orphan that adopted the philosophy of looking at only the positives in life. According to studies, those who are over optimistic and ignore the negatives in life are the people that often end up in danger and have high mortality rates.

It has also been criticised for positive-negative dichotomy and context. For example, in the movie Inside Out, the main character Riley wanted to leave home. However her feelings of sadness was the one that stopped her when she remembered the good memories she shared with her parents. So sadness is sometimes good and should not be pushed away forcefully.

Positive Psychology 1.0 has been criticised also for co-valence of emotional states. We cannot love someone if we have no fear – fear of losing them.

Positive Psychology 2.0

Positive Psychology now looks at the different aspects of life and both positive and negative experiences that shape life and having a good blend of the positives and negatives.

According to studies, happiness can make us more willing to engage in risky behaviours while that being the opposite when one experiences fear. Both joy and sadness have positive and negative aspects. Simultaneously when one is very optimistic they do not see the danger in certain situations. Though pessimism has the behaviour of avoiding, it can help in proactive coping. Forgiveness and anger display the same framework. For example, when forgiveness prolong in abusive married couples, abuse is not controlled but continued and the situation is not dealt with correctly. Meanwhile anger, even though it promotes aggression, it has the power to address justice.

In essence, one needs to know how to manage risks and balance in life whilst integrating ‘negatives’ and ‘positives’ to optimize well-being.

Positive Education

Positive education compromises of teaching skills of achievement and skills of well-being together. A better well-being is synergistic with better learning and thus there is a need to promote improved well-being. Character strengths interventions identified that focussing on our weakness has the same effect as when we focus on our strengths.

YANG WANSHEN & BRENDAN MARK on Sleep Longer, Sleep Better

Sleep is important and sleep affects our mental health. Even though most of us are aware that sleep is essential in our daily lives, very few of us actually put it into practice. This is evident in an interview we conducted amongst Raffles students, where the average Raffles student was found to sleep 5.56 hours a day and with none sleeping at more than 8 hours a day. However, it is suggested by the American Academy of Medicine that the average student should be getting 8-10 hours of sleep per day.

So, what exactly happens when you do not get enough sleep? Our interpersonal relationships get affected, poor time management which leads to a snowballing workload day by day and overall, our mental health is at stake. Some things said by Raffles students regarding the lack of sleep include “more tired and stressed with life”, “harder to cope and concentrate”, “I get very moody and don’t feel like talking” and even some saying “I look like I want to fall in my bed and die”.

By observation from the above, most people are in fact aware of what the lack of sleep can do to them. But why then do we still not get the ideal amount of sleep? It is due to the overall lack of awareness and self-control. Frequent phone usage, heavy workload, procrastination, poor time management, late school days and the feelings of just being used to sleeping late are the more common reasons as to why students do not get their optimum level of sleep every day.

Thus it is extremely important to ensure you get enough rest everyday so that you can function better the next day. The poster below summarizes everything you need to do and be aware of, to slowly make the change towards longer, more optimum sleeping hours.

MS CHUA KAH HWEE, MS WOO MEI HUI & MITCHELL KOH on RI Peer Helpers Programme:

Peer Helpers Programme (PHP) is a Monday enrichment programme conducted every Monday mornings for approximately 40 Year 5 students selected into the programme. It is held from 8am to 9.40am and held across the span of 2 terms. Students are selected into this programme after submitting an essay and then attending an interview with the teachers-in-charge, Ms Chua Kah Hwee and Ms Woo Mei Hui.

Students in this programme are equipped with skills such as active listening and peer support. They learn more about stress, anxiety, depression and the symptoms of such mental health programmes.

PHP students are guided to be more self-aware reflective thinkers, better serve the school community, learn basic counselling needs and understand more about mental illness and mental health conditions.

Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) is held annually in August by the PHP students is a week along exhibition with projects exhibiting common mental health disorders in the society and how we can do more to help them.

Students also attend two learning journeys in the course of this programme. Last year, they visited Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) in June and then Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in July.

My Rest Space (MRS) near Marymount gate is also run by peer helpers and is a relaxing space for you to distress, sleep or just pop bubble wrap after school. We have bean bags and couches for students in the school to relax. PHP students are required to man the MRS for a minimum of 10 hours for completion of the programme. This is also to ensure that when any student needs help or counselling, our peer helpers are always readily available to help them.

In 2019, we had peer helpers to give a civics sharing on their PHP journey in Raffles and also raise awareness on depression and anxiety such as seeing warning signs and symptoms or just being there as a friend for their peers.

At the end of the programme, peer helpers are required to submit a reflection essay of 1000 words and transcript of a peer helping session on what they have learnt. This is completed on an individual basis post-programme.

Past Raffles Science Symposium Mental Health Science Strand Coverage

Raffles Science Symposium Mental Health Science Strand 2019

Raffles Science Symposium 2018: Mental Health Science Strand

Raffles Science Symposium 2017: Mental Health Science Strand