Dissertation Part One: A Novel Measure of Narrative Self Functioning
Amada, N M. (2023). CUNY Academic Works.
The eudaimonic field of well-being is founded on the idea that self-knowledge and the realization of potential = optimal well-being.
The “self” is central here.
What we experience as a self is actually a collection of cognitions underpinned by neural communication. Depending on what self-referential experience is taking place, distinct brain regions coordinate to generate a coherent self-representation.
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The central motivation for developing the narrative self-functioning scale was to describe, distinguish and measure the class of cognitive functions that are integral to the successful striving for greater well-being.
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The 30-item Narrative Self-Functioning Scale (NSFS) with dimensions of Self-Insight, Self-Regulation, Self- Attitudes, Connected Self, and Existential Self, which was filled out by undergraduate students (N=347) in an online self-report survey.
Scale refinement led to a final 15-item version that evidenced good reliability, as well as good convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity.
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Part One
Dissertation Part Two: NSF Mediates the Relationship Between Psychedelic Integration and Optimal Wellbeing
Amada, N M. (2023). CUNY Academic Works.
Part Two
Study two of the dissertation applies study one by investigating the relationship between extent of post-psychedelic integration and optimal psychological well-being, and the potential mediating role of narrative self-functioning to establish a base model of the primary variables of interest to psychedelic transformation.
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This model is then tested across clinical and nonclinical populations of psychedelic users self-administering in naturalistic settings with the goal of starting a foundation for a unified model of psychedelic transformation.
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Narrative Self-Functioning did not fully mediate the relationship between Integration and Characteristics of Self-Actualization (CAS), but it did account for over half of the variance in that relationship.
