The scientific team of the Laboratory of Qualitative Research in Psychology and Psychosocial Well-Being of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens is in charge of researching and highlighting the topics that impact the residents of Eleusis on a psychosocial level. Their role is also to conduct the sociodrama sessions and collect and analyse the data. 

Psychologists started by mapping the social phenomena of Eleusis and sought to contemplate the meaning of terms like “Eleusis-life, citizenship, cooperation, social issues, and daily life”. Social matters that affect the residents’ daily lives include environmental pollution, employment and unemployment, the refugee/immigrant situation, and the residential parameters visible in the area (landscape industrialisation, changes to the urban environment, etc.).

The team designed a way to map the social matters based on their intensity and sought to determine how they affect psychosocially (socially, culturally, environmentally and scientifically) the daily lives of Eleusis’s residents. They selected two ways; firstly, by using Google form questionnaires filled out by Eleusis’s residents anonymously and according to scientific confidentiality and secondly, by conducting interviews with the city’s representatives (representatives of institutions, associations, etc.). The material gathered will make the three topic categories concrete to set the framework of the sociodrama sessions carried out in the city in September 2021.

Our team will analyse the sociodrama sessions using the qualitative analysis method (verbal and non-verbal evaluation) and in collaboration with the crew of the “Athena Research” Centre through the biomarker measurement method (radial pulse, heart rhythm, skin conductivity etc.). Using the data collected, the team of the “Athena” Research Centre will proceed with implementing the digital platform, where artists will find and extract data to produce original art pieces.

The participants in the sociodrama sessions will gain a deeper understanding of concepts like social behaviour, stereotypes, social phenomena and problems, the “other” way of thinking, the way of thinking of the “Other” experientially, in association with themselves as well as the different opinions represented by other members of the team. In addition, they will benefit from increased empathy since in the sociodrama sessions, participants “play” all the different roles. We may refer to a “deep awareness” of the various processed areas. 

The goal is to release the healthy elements of the individuals’ communication within each team and help the team deal with the problems. 

As mental health professionals, we ultimately care about the promotion of wellness and the transformation of the way of thinking and vice versa of the psychological stance of the people. Eleusis is a typical example, an intersection of different roads; commercial, historical, synchronic and diachronic. Thus, it may represent many locations/cities with relevant problematic areas in Greece and abroad.