Abstract
This paper concerns the early-phase development of a group self-development and personality exploration programme (DEEPdown) grounded in the Five Factor Model. A university pilot study wherein students completed the first iteration of the DEEPdown programme (n = 29), and a clinician survey (n = 36) were undertaken in parallel. University students completed feedback forms and focus groups; clinicians viewed a video summary. Data were analysed using quantitative and thematic analysis. Students consistently reported various positive experiences (e.g. space to reflect) and helpful in-session events (e.g. normative personality education). Their mean satisfaction level was 4.5 out of 5 (SD = 0.51), and in response to “I would recommend DEEPdown to friends and/or family”, 50% strongly agreed and 50% agreed. 27 of 29 students completed the 7-week programme. Clinician feedback was mostly favourable (e.g. 78% indicated that they would consider DEEPdown training), yet caution was also indicated (e.g. only 61% would recommend DEEPdown to a client). Key identified outcomes across both studies included greater self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-compassion. Concerns surrounding insufficient session duration and content complexity arose in both studies. DEEPdown (iteration 1) was broadly acceptable to both students and clinicians. While further refinement and empirical evaluations in different settings are needed, DEEPdown has the potential to positively impact upon important aspects of well-being. To encourage collaboration from the scientific community, we have released DEEPdown as an open source intervention that is freely usable, modifiable, and empirically testable without author permission; all programme content is available on an open source platform (https://osf.io/9eysm/).
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Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available for participant confidentiality reasons, but they are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank both sets of participants for their time and insights. The programme of research was completed as part of the requirements of the first author’s PhD in Clinical Psychology, which was funded by the Health Service Executive.
Participant data included in this study are anonymised but potentially identifiable. Therefore, data sharing is not possible. The study was not pre-registered.
Funding
This work was supported by the Health Service Executive who sponsored CT’s participation on University College Dublin’s Clinical Psychology Training programme.
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Conal Twomey and Gary O’Reilly: Conceptualization, Formal Analysis and other Methodology, Funding Acquisition, Visualization, Validation, Investigation. Conal Twomey only: Data curation, Software, Project administration, Writing- Original draft preparation. Gary O’Reilly only: Supervision, Writing - Reviewing and Editing.
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The authors are authors of the DEEPdown programme described within this paper.
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The authors developed the DEEPdown programme evaluated in this paper.
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Twomey, C., O’Reilly, G. Early appraisal of the first iteration of a self-development and personality exploration programme (DEEPdown). Curr Psychol 41, 7086–7104 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01216-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01216-y