Unveiling Human Emotions: A Journey through Clay Play

Clay play has been recognized as a potential avenue for alleviating depressed mood and reducing stress, frequently employed to aid the recovery of children or soldiers coping with trauma. Despite its widespread use, the theoretical underpinnings remain relatively weak, relying heavily on empirical observations of patient progress in these therapeutic activities. In this study, we investigated the relationship between clay work and human emotion, The experiment recruited 102 university students who either watched a tragedy film, a comedy film, or did not engage in any specific activity, designated as Group A, Group B, and Control Group C, respectively. They were then asked to create clay artworks. Through the analysis of the artworks created under different groups, it was found that participants which in Group A tended to produce clay works with smaller surface areas, narrower color ranges, and more abstract patterns. These observed characteristics suggest that clay crafting serves as an important medium for emotional expression, capable of reflecting young people’s authentic emotions to a certain extent. This provides university educators with an effective assessment method for monitoring the psychological states of college students.