The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Positive Psychological Interventions

Acacia C. Parks, Stephen Schueller, Acacia C. Parks, Stephen Schueller

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781119950561
• eBook ISBN: 9781118315910
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Clinical Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Collating for the first time a range of techniques in positive psychology, this handbook introduces topics such as courage, empathy and humor, and spans areas as diverse as gratitude, forgiveness and strengths. It also explores special considerations such as ethics and motivation, and offers informed conjecture on future directions in research and practice.

• Comprehensive content summarizes theory and research on many areas of positive psychology intervention for the first time and provides essential updates on established interventions
• Features contributions from an array of leading researchers, including Bob Emmons, Sonja Lyubomirsky and Shane Lopez
• Covers established interventions – for instance, coaching and family therapy – as well as newly developed interventions – such as schizophrenia or stopping smoking

Part I
Established Areas of Intervention

1
Gratitude Interventions
A Review and Future Agenda

Tara Lomas, Jeffrey J. Froh, Robert A. Emmons, Anjali Mishra, and Giacomo Bono

Gratitude is highly prized. A small sampling of quotes reveals the power and potential of this virtue. “Whatever you are in search of – peace of mind, prosperity, health, love – it is waiting for you if only you are willing to receive it with an open and grateful heart,” writes Sarah Breathnach in the Simple abundance journal of gratitude. Elsewhere she refers to gratitude as “the most passionate transformative force in the cosmos.” Another popular treatment of the topic refers to it as “one of the most empowering, healing, dynamic instruments of consciousness vital to demonstrating the life experiences one desires” (Richelieu, 1996). Lock and key metaphors are especially common; gratitude has been referred to as “the key that opens all doors,” that which “unlocks the fullness of life,” and the “key to abundance, prosperity, and fulfillment” (Emmons & Hill, 2001; Hay, 1996).

How do these extraordinary claims regarding the power and promise of gratitude fare when scientific lights are shone on them? Can gratitude live up to its billing? In this chapter we review the growing body of work on gratitude and well-being, explore mechanisms by which gratitude interventions elevate well-being, and close by presenting what we consider important issues for the next generation of gratitude intervention studies to address.

What Is Gratitude and How Is It Measured?

Gratitude is a feeling that occurs in exchange-based relationships when one person acknowledges receiving a valuable benefit from another. Much of human life is about giving, receiving, and repayment. In this sense, gratitude, like other social emotions, functions to help regulate relationships, solidifying and strengthening them (Algoe & Stanton, 2011). Feelings of gratitude stem from two stages of information processing: (i) an affirmation of goodness or “good things” in one’s life, and (ii) the recognition that the sources of this goodness lie at least partially outside the self. This cognitive process, furthermore, gives rise to behavioral consequences, specifically the “passing on of the gift” through positive action. As such, gratitude serves as a key link in the dynamic between receiving and giving. It is not only a response to kindnesses received, but it is also a motivator of future benevolent actions on the part of the recipient (see Emmons, 2007 for a review).

Since the emergence of gratitude research in the past 20 years, the two main questionnaires that have been widely administered to measure gratitude are the six-item Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ-6; McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002) and the 44-item Gratitude, Resentment and Appreciation Test or the GRAT (Watkins, Grimm, & Hailu, 1998). Both measures conceptualize gratitude as a trait, or disposition – in other words, a generalized tendency to first recognize and then emotionally respond with thankfulness, after attributing benefits received through benevolence to an external moral agent (Emmons, McCullough, & Tsang, 2003). When measuring dispositional gratitude, researchers examine gratitude as an “affective trait,” or an individual’s innate tendency toward grateful experience (Watkins, Woodward, Stone, & Kolts, 2003). State gratitude, rather, is experienced after a positive event has occurred and as a result usually promotes further reciprocal, prosocial behavior (Wood, Maltby, Stewart, Linley, & Joseph, 2008). Individuals who reported greater dispositional gratitude also reported experiencing greater state gratitude daily (McCullough, Tsang, & Emmons, 2004); this is largely due to grateful people processing positive events differently than those less grateful. Specifically, people with greater trait gratitude perceived a benefactor’s actions toward them more positively (more costly, valuable, and genuine) than their less grateful counterparts, thus demonstrating greater increases in state gratitude (Wood et al., 2008).

The 44-item GRAT includes the three dimensions of trait gratitude: resentment, simple appreciation, and social appreciation (Watkins et al., 1998). Participants complete the GRAT by answering questions such as, “I believe that I am a very fortunate person” and “I’m really thankful for friends and family” using a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree with the statement) (Watkins et al., 2003). Retrospective self-report is the primary method used when measuring gratitude (Emmons, Froh, & Mishra, in press). Further, the self-report scales noted above such as the GRAT (Watkins et al., 1998) and the GQ-6 (McCullough et al., 2002) are measuring dispositional gratitude. State gratitude on the other hand is measured through gratitude interventions where participants are partaking in positive psychology exercises such as, keeping a gratitude journal, writing a gratitude letter, and then delivering the letter (Emmons et al., in press). The benefits derived from participating in these gratitude-inducing exercises are examined by measuring positive outcome variables such as happiness, life satisfaction, and overall well-being at post-intervention follow-up (Bono, Emmons, & McCullough, 2004; McCullough et al., 2004; Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005). Other means for assessing trait gratitude are through attributional measures and free response. With attributional measures, gratitude is measured indirectly through participants’ analysis of helping scenarios and their attribution of the help as being either autonomous or controlled (Emmons et al., in press). For example, grateful individuals are more likely to perceive the help as autonomously motivated versus controlled (Emmons et al., in press). Free response measures ask participants to spontaneously answer questions revolving around the subject of gratitude (Emmons et al., in press). For example, participants may be asked about a time when they felt grateful or about a person for whom they were grateful (Emmons et al., in press).

Findings from the Science of Gratitude

Gratitude is foundational to well-being and mental health throughout the life span. From childhood to old age, accumulating evidence documents the wide array of psychological, physical, and relational benefits associated with gratitude (Emmons & McCullough, 2003; McCullough, Kilpatrick, Emmons, & Larson, 2001). In particular, dispositional gratitude has been shown to uniquely and incrementally contribute to subjective well-being (McCullough et al., 2004; Watkins et al., 2003, Wood, Joseph, & Maltby, 2008), and to result in benefits above and beyond those conferred by general positive affect (Bartlett & DeSteno, 2006; Froh, Yurkewicz, & Kashdan, 2009). For example, dispositional gratitude encourages more positive social interactions, in turn making people better adjusted and accepted by people around them, and finally leading to well-being (McCullough et al., 2001). Dispositional gratitude has also been found to be positively associated with prosocial traits such as empathy, forgiveness, and willingness to help others. People who rate themselves as having a grateful disposition perceive themselves as having more prosocial characteristics, expressed by their empathetic behavior and emotional support for friends within the last month (McCullough et al., 2002). Other benefits have extended to the physical realm including longer sleep and improved sleep quality and more time spent exercising (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).

Interventions to Increase Gratitude in Adults

Numerous research findings, briefly reviewed above, have highlighted gratitude’s positive relationship to subjective well-being and psychological functioning. We will now describe and discuss the empirical evidence behind some widely used gratitude interventions for adults.

Counting blessings

In the seminal gratitude interventions study (Emmons & McCullough, 2003), participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: counting blessings, listing hassles, or a no-treatment control (Study 1). People who were randomly assigned to keep gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events (Emmons & McCullough, 2003, Study 1). Study 2 was an extension of the first study in that a fourth condition was added: downward social comparison. Participants completed weekly reports which asked questions pertaining to physical health and psychological well-being, and were also provided instructions for the condition to which they were assigned (counting blessings, listing hassles, downward social comparison). In each condition, participants listed weekly up to five things they were grateful for, listed five hassles they encountered, or made downward social comparisons indicating ways in which they were better off than others. The daily gratitude journal-keeping exercise resulted in higher reported levels of the positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness, and energy compared to a focus on hassles or a downward social comparison (Emmons & McCullough, 2003, Study 2). Participants only in the gratitude condition responded to the following instruction, “There are many things in our lives to be grateful about. Think back over the past week and write down on the lines below up to five things in your life that you are grateful or thankful for” (Emmons & McCullough, 2003, p. 379). Results from both Study 1 and Study 2 showed that individuals in the gratitude condition (counting blessings) reported higher instances of prosocial behavior – they were more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem or having offered emotional support to another, relative to the hassles or social comparison condition. This indicates that, relative to a focus on complaints, an effective strategy for producing reliably higher levels of pleasant affect is to lead people to reflect, on a daily basis, on those aspects of their lives for which they are grateful (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).

In Study 3, participants with neuromuscular disease were assigned to either the gratitude condition (i.e., counting blessings) or a no-treatment control condition. Participants in both conditions completed 21 “daily experience rating forms” that asked questions about their daily affect, subjective well-being, and health behaviors. Results indicated that individuals in the gratitude condition experienced greater positive affect, were more optimistic, and felt more connected to others than those in the control condition. Spouses of individuals in the gratitude condition also confirm the results of this intervention, indicating increases in their partners’ positive affect and life satisfaction (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).

Three Good Things

The benefits of gratitude were further confirmed in another study that compared the efficacy of five different interventions that were hypothesized to increase personal happiness and decrease personal depression (Seligman et al., 2005). Participants randomly assigned to the “Three Good Things” intervention were instructed to write down each day three good things that had happened to them over the course of one week and attribute causes to these positive events (Seligman et al., 2005). Although this intervention did not procure immediate benefits, individuals in the Three Good Things condition experienced lasting effects, with an increase in happiness and decrease in depressive symptoms seen three and six months later (Seligman et al., 2005).

Grateful self-reflection

In a cross-cultural intervention study (Chan, 2010) Chinese teachers voluntarily participated in an eight-week-long “self-improvement project” aimed at increasing individual self-awareness through the process of self-reflection. Participants’ gratitude, subjective well-being, happiness, meaning derived from life, and teacher burnout were assessed. Participants were asked weekly to record three good things that had occurred, for eight weeks. Teachers then reflected on these positive occurrences using Naikan meditation-inspired questions. The Naikan medit...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Part I: Established Areas of Intervention
• Part II: New and Emerging Areas of Intervention
• Part III: Areas of Application
• Part IV: Special Considerations
• Index
• User License Agreement