Who self-initiates gratitude interventions in daily life? An examination of intentions,curiosity, depressive symptoms,and life satisfaction

Despite a variety of interventions to increase well-being, little is known about who is interested in and initiates exercises on their own. We explored individual differences that predict who is most likely to participate in a voluntary gratitude intervention. College students (n = 226) completed measures of curiosity, depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, and intentions to change their lifestyle. Afterwards, participants received a personalized invitation to take part in a web-based intervention to enhance their well-being (anonymous and strictly voluntary). Results suggested that 11.5% of participants started the gratitude intervention. Individuals endorsing strong intentions to change their lifestyle (+1 SD above mean) were 2.2 times more likely than their peers to start the gratitude intervention. People with greater trait curiosity endorsed greater intentions to start this intervention; people with greater depressive symptoms endorsed weaker intentions. Both curiosity and depressive symptoms indirectly influenced initiation of the gratitude intervention via intentions. These findings provide support for particular paths that lead to the initial behavioral effort towards healthy change. We discuss the implications for attempting to increase and sustain people’s well-being.     

Dating during the time of COVID-19: Risk perceptions and political ideology

This study examined predictors of single people's beliefs about COVID prevention behaviors, intentions to engage in COVID prevention behaviors while dating, and actual dating behavior during the pandemic. Results revealed that single participants engaged in “riskier” dating behaviors (i.e., in-person unmasked) more frequently than “safer” dating behaviors (i.e., remote, or in-person masked/distanced). Individuals who perceived greater (vs. lesser) risk associated with COVID more strongly endorsed beliefs about social distancing (self and other) and were more likely to personally (or request others) engage in COVID prevention behaviors while dating. However, perceived risk did not predict actual dating behaviors. Conservatives (vs. liberals) less strongly endorsed beliefs about social distancing (for others, but not the self) and were less likely to personally (or request others) engage in COVID prevention behaviors while dating. Conservatives also reported meeting potential romantic partners more frequently than liberals. However, political ideology did not predict actual dating behaviors. Results suggest there is a disconnect between college students' beliefs/intentions and their actual dating behavior. These results demonstrate the importance of developing public health interventions that take into account the disconnect between college students' health-related intentions and actual behaviors, particularly in the context of dating.     

Nostalgia,Gratitude, or Optimism: The Impact of a Two-Week Intervention on Well-Being During COVID-19

Research indicates that brief 2-min positive psychology interventions (PPIs) increase well-being during COVID-19 lockdowns. The present study extended this to assess the effectiveness over two-weeks. Participants (n?=?150) were randomly allocated to one of three PPIs; nostalgia, gratitude, best possible self (BPS), or control. The interventions were slightly adapted for the lockdown and were completed three times, every seven days over two-weeks. Well-being measures were completed immediately after the first intervention (T1), after the next two interventions (T2?T3) and at one-week follow-up (T4) (but no baseline measure of well-being was taken). At T1, participants in the nostalgia, gratitude, and BPS intervention had higher self-esteem than those in the control intervention. At T1 and T2, participants in the gratitude and BPS intervention reported higher social connectedness than participants in the nostalgia and control intervention. Then at follow-up (T4), participants in the nostalgia, gratitude, and BPS intervention had lower fear of COVID-19 than those in the control intervention. Overall, the results show the benefits of nostalgia, gratitude and optimism, compared to the control, during lockdown.

     

Work–family conflict,social support,and turnover intentions: A longitudinal study

This longitudinal study examined the relative merits of two alternative perspectives on the interplay between work–family conflict, social support, and turnover intentions. According to the cross-domain perspective, family-to-work conflict (FWC) should be more important in predicting increases in turnover intentions than work-to-family conflict (WFC). According to the matching-perspective, however, WFC should be more important in predicting increases in turnover intentions than FWC. We expanded the debate about matching- versus cross-domain relationships by testing whether resources (i.e., social support) should stem from the same domain (i.e., work or family) as the conflict (i.e., matching-principle) or from the other domain (i.e., cross-domain perspective). Additionally, authors hypothesized that changes in WFC and FWC predicted changes in turnover intentions and tested reciprocal relationships between WFC/FWC and turnover intentions. This longitudinal study (5-month time lag) with 665 employees revealed that (increases in) WFC predicted increases in turnover intentions, whereas (increases in) FWC did not. The relationship between WFC and increases in turnover intentions was buffered by work–family specific leader support but not by work–family specific support from family and friends. Further, results revealed reverse relationships such that turnover intentions predicted increases in WFC and FWC. Taken together, the results of this study supported the matching-principle rather than the cross-domain perspective. The reverse relationships found between work–family conflict and turnover intentions challenge the common view that work–family conflict antecedes turnover intentions in a unidirectional way.     

Who volunteers for companionship with mental patients? A study of attitude-belief-intention relationships1

329 students were asked to join a companionship program for mental hospital patients. It was expected that the relationship between humanitarian attitudes and intention to participate would be stronger for subjects with benign beliefs than for subjects with unfavorable beliefs about patients The findings were (a) subjects’ intentions corresponded to their later joining (p<.001), and were unrelated to social desirability, (b) general helping and social-responsibility attitudes correlated higher than did specific beliefs about patients, with willingness to become a companion, (c) attitude-intention correlations were greatest for subjects with neutral beliefs, and weakest for subjects with benign beliefs (upsetting the main hypothesis), (d) the same pattern of correlations obtained in subgroups trichotomized on the basis of another scale (ostensibly unrelated to volunteering for companionship) which had an authoritarian component. Result (d) suggests that a personality factor, not beliefs about patients, moderated variations in the attitude-intention relationship     

Prenatal exposure to sex hormones predicts gratitude intervention use. Examination of digit ratio,motivational beliefs,and online activities

Men are less grateful than women and less likely to intentionally enhance gratitude via interventions. Yet, little is known if sex differences in gratitude result from biological influences such as prenatal testosterone and estrogen levels – hormones that control the development of sex-specific characteristics. In two studies, we examined how sex and second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) – an indicator of prenatal sex hormones exposure – predicts gratitude intervention use. In the first study, we tested whether lower 2D:4D (i.e., higher masculinization) would suppress gratitude intervention use. Contrary to expectations, after controlling for sex, women and men with more male-type fingers were more motivated and likely to complete the intervention. In the second study, we replicated these findings using a larger sample and different 2D:4D metric. Our research suggests that motivation towards gratitude interventions is facilitated by female sex and masculinity. These findings provide initial evidence for the biological grounding of individual differences in gratitude behavior.     

Effects of a Strengths Intervention on General and Work-Related Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Positive Affect

In this article, we explore the use of strengths interventions, defined as activities and processes that target the identification, development, and use of individual strengths, as an organizational tool to increase employee well-being. Engaging with one’s strengths is assumed to be a pleasant activity that elicits positive emotions like joy, pride, and gratitude, which, in turn, contribute to feelings of overall well-being and satisfaction. Building on this assumption, we hypothesized that participating in a strengths intervention leads to increases in general (i.e., psychological capital and satisfaction with life), and work-related well-being (i.e., increased work engagement and decreased burnout), and that positive affect mediates these effects. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a field experiment with a sample of N = 116 Dutch working people who were assigned to either an experimental group (participating in a strengths intervention) or a waitlist control group. All participants filled in a pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 1 month follow-up questionnaire. Results indicate that participating in a strengths intervention creates short-term increases in employee positive affect and short- and long-term increases in psychological capital. We did not find evidence for a positive, direct effect of the strengths intervention on satisfaction with life, work engagement, and burnout respectively, but we did find support for indirect effects via the mediator positive affect.     

The Effect of Individual Difference Variables on Information Sharing in Decision‐Making Groups

We examined need for cognition, social desirability, and communication apprehension for their influence on the mention and repetition of shared and unshared information in 8‐person decision‐making groups. Both need for cognition and social desirability influenced the discussion of shared and unshared information in decision‐making groups. The findings indicate that increasing motivation to participate in group discussions may not help overcome the bias favoring shared over unshared information. Additionally, there are indications that social desirability increases the repetition of shared information. This finding is consistent with the idea of mutual enhancement (i.e., the idea that group members discuss shared information because it enhances their position with other group members).     

Gratitude and Subjective Wellbeing: A Proposal of Two Causal Frameworks

Gratitude, the experience of appreciating the positive aspects in life, has been associated with increased subjective wellbeing (SWB). This paper proposes two causal frameworks (i.e., a cognitive and a psycho-social framework) that highlight the possible mechanisms by which gratitude influences SWB. This paper provides support for these two frameworks by reviewing research conducted to date on the relationship between the experience of gratitude and SWB, in terms of reduced symptoms of psychopathology, better interpersonal relationships, and improved physical health. In addition, the promising potential of gratitude interventions to improve SWB in healthy individuals and those with symptoms of psychopathology are reviewed. While gratitude interventions represent a relatively new approach, the limited evidence suggests that they may eventually provide an effective form of intervention that can be used to complement current therapy aprroaches for improving SWB. Therefore its potential application in clinical populations and the underlying mechanisms that might be driving the positive effects of gratitude interventions in improving SWB deserve further research attention.     

The role of gratitude in the development of social support, stress, and depression: Two longitudinal studies

In two longitudinal studies, the authors examined the direction of the relationships between trait gratitude, perceived social support, stress, and depression during a life transition. Both studies used a full cross-lagged panel design, with participants completing all measures at the start and end of their first semester at college. Structural equation modeling was used to compare models of direct, reverse, and reciprocal models of directionality. Both studies supported a direct model whereby gratitude led to higher levels of perceived social support, and lower levels of stress and depression. In contrast, no variable led to gratitude, and most models of mediation were discounted. Study 2 additionally showed that gratitude leads to the other variables independently of the Big Five factors of personality. Overall gratitude seems to directly foster social support, and to protect people from stress and depression, which has implications for clinical interventions.     

Using Message Framing to Promote Social Support in Depression: When Misery Makes Better Company

A depressed person may have particular difficulty obtaining social support unless, as previous research indicates, members of the person’s support network believe that their interactions with the depressed person will be rewarding. Continuing this line of research, two studies investigated how message framing influences perceptions of providing social support to someone diagnosed with depression. In Study 1, participants first evaluated a website created by the research team, which emphasized either the rewards of volunteering to help individuals suffering from depression (gain-framed) or the drawbacks of not volunteering (loss-framed). One week later, participants read a vignette about a friend suffering from depression. Participants initially exposed to the gain-framed website indicated that the friend was in greater need of help, and they expressed stronger intentions to help and maintain supportive contact with the friend. The first phase of Study 2 was identical to the first phase of Study 1. However, a week after evaluating the framed website, participants interacted via instant messaging with a confederate posing as a prospective undergraduate student, who disclosed during the conversation that she had been diagnosed with depression. Participants initially exposed to the gain-framed website indicated greater comfort interacting with the prospective student and greater willingness to engage in follow-up interactions with the student (e.g., exchange emails, talk on the phone) compared to participants initially exposed to the loss-framed website. The implications of these findings for increasing the provision of social support to individuals with depression are discussed.     

Exploring Perceived Social Support from Peer Facilitators in an HIV Treatment Adherence Intervention for African American Patients: A Content Analysis of Participant Perspectives

HIV treatment adherence interventions increasingly rely on peer facilitators to promote treatment adherence and improve patient retention, yet little is known about how participants perceive the role performed by peer facilitators. The present study examined participant perceptions in terms of the social support from peer facilitators in a hospital‐based intervention in Chicago. Content analysis was conducted with reference to four types of social support (instrumental, informational, emotional and affiliational) on exit interviews with 11 participants enrolled in the intervention that targeted African‐American patients living with HIV/AIDS. We examined how the type of social support perceived by participants was related to their self‐reported behaviours in three domains: adherence, sexual safety and general coping. Our analysis revealed that most participants perceived informational and emotional support from their peer facilitators, followed by instrumental support. Affiliational support was the least frequently perceived type of social support. We found that perceived informational support from peer facilitators with regard to adherence had greater impact and credibility amongst participants than the same type of support from medical providers. Informational support was cited most frequently with regard to influencing adherence and sexual safety behaviours, whereas perceived emotional support was cited primarily with helping participants cope with HIV. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enhancing social relationships through positive psychology activities: a randomised controlled trial

Despite the robust relationship between well-being and social relationships, the latter has received little examination within positive psychology activities (PPAs). This study aimed to test whether kindness- and gratitude-based PPAs, through positive social interaction with peers, enhanced relationship satisfaction. Using a longitudinal randomised controlled design, 225 participants were assigned to one of three conditions (relationship-focused, self-focused or control) and completed measures of relationship satisfaction, social support and happiness on three occasions (baseline, post-intervention and six weeks). The experimental PPAs were relationship-focused (involving social interaction) or self-focused (no social interaction). Those who completed relationship-focused PPAs had greater increases in relationship satisfaction than the self-focused and active control activities at six-week follow-up. Additionally, only those in the relationship-focused condition felt their existing friendships had improved at intervention cessation. Regardless of participants’ initial levels of social support, the intervention effects remained. In conclusion, PPAs fostering social kindness and gratitude significantly strengthened relationship satisfaction.     

We Are the World—and They Are Not: Prototypicality for the World Community,Legitimacy, and Responses to Global Inequality

The relation between developed and developing countries is characterized by inequalities that sometimes hinder actions against worldwide problems. The current research presents an intergroup approach, based on the ingroup projection model, towards an analysis of psychological processes that perpetuate global inequality on a social group level. Precisely, we argue that people from developed countries perceive their group as more prototypical for the world population than they perceive people from developing countries. These perceptions of ingroup prototypicality should in turn relate to legitimacy beliefs and predict unfavorable behavioral intentions towards developing countries. We present two studies that corroborate our hypotheses: In Study 1, participants from a developed country perceived their ingroup as more prototypical for the superordinate group (i.e., world population) than the outgroup (i.e., developing countries), which in turn was related to beliefs that global inequality is legitimate. This finding was replicated in Study 2, and the predicted effect of ingroup prototypicality on behavioral intentions was mediated by legitimacy beliefs. These findings demonstrate that intergroup processes can contribute to perpetuating global inequality.     

A Test of Two Positive Psychology Interventions to Increase Employee Well-Being

Purpose

Despite an abundance of organizational research on how contextual and individual difference factors impact well-being, little research has examined whether individuals themselves can take an active role in enhancing their own well-being. The current study assessed the effectiveness of two simple, self-guided workplace interventions (“gratitude” and “social connectedness”) in impacting well-being.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Sixty-seven university employees participated in one of the two self-guided interventions for 2 weeks and completed self-report measures prior to the intervention, immediately following the intervention, and one-month post-intervention. Growth curve modeling was used to examine the effects of each intervention.

Findings

Partially supporting hypotheses, the gratitude intervention resulted in significant increases in positive affective well-being and self-reported gratitude but not did significantly impact negative affective well-being or self-reported social connectedness. The social connectedness exercise did not significantly impact any of those four outcomes. However, both interventions related to a reduction in workplace absence due to illness.

Implications

The study suggests that self-guided, positive psychology interventions (particularly gratitude) hold potential for enhancing employee well-being. Because the interventions are short, simple, and self-guided, there is little in the way of costs or drawbacks for organizations. Thus, these types of interventions seem like a potentially useful component of workplace wellness initiatives.

Originality/Value

This study is one of the few to examine whether self-guided, positive psychology interventions can enhance well-being. Moreover, this is the first study to examine a social connectedness workplace intervention and the first to demonstrate effects on illness-related absence.     

Informal care in social context: A social psychological analysis of participation,impact and intervention in care of the elderly

Abstract

Concern about the provision and effects of care to elderly people by unpaid family, relatives and friends has arisen in the contexts of changing demographic structures of populations and, in Britain at least, explicit policy by Government which seeks to promote familial responsibility for the financial, physical and emotional needs of elderly populations. The present review examines the extent and nature of informal care to elderly people, assesses the evidence to support sociological models of care work participation and the extent to which such models are reflected in beliefs concerning care of elderly people and intentions to cease direct provision of care. Studies of the psychological impacts of care work and of interventions to modify carer wellbeing are critically reviewed. It is suggested that future psychological research should focus on modeling the modifiable psychological processes which explain variance in care work participation, impact and uptake of services, and on the impacts of changing social policy on social perception and wellbeing of elderly people.     

“Transformation Tuesday”: Temporal context and post valence influence the provision of social support on social media

Social network sites (SNSs) such as Facebook have become integral in the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationships. Users of SNSs seek social support and validation, often using posts that illustrate how they have changed over time. The purpose of the present research is to examine how the valence and temporal context of an SNS post affect the likelihood of other users providing social support. Participants viewed hypothetical SNS posts and reported their intentions to provide social support to the users. Results revealed that participants were more likely to provide social support for posts that were positive and included temporal context (i.e., depicted improvement over time; Study 1). Furthermore, this research suggests that visual representations of change over time are needed to elicit social support (Study 2). Results are discussed in terms of their practical implications for SNS users and theoretical implications for the literature on social support and social media.     

Stigma as framed on YouTube: Effects of personal experiences videos on students’ beliefs about medicalizing intersex

People with physical intersex characteristics can be subject to medical interventions that risk human rights to bodily integrity and self‐determination. Proponents and opponents of medicalization use personal narrative videos on YouTube to frame intersex as a stigma best understood through a medical or social identity frame. Ninety‐nine psychology students watched one of two YouTube videos with either a medical or social identity frame, or participated in a comparison group who watched no video. Participants extracted the videos’ medical or social identity framing in their own words. The social identity video increased participants’ sense that medicine was more harmful and less beneficial, and the medical video decreased participants’ sense that medicine was harmful. Although the videos aimed at bringing about social understanding of intersex people, neither video impacted stigmatizing beliefs about intersex people as a group. Rather, effects of the videos on beliefs about harms of medicalization were moderated by two stigma measures; social distance and gender binary beliefs. Medical intervention on intersex has been justified, in part, on grounds that stigma is inevitable. While intersex stigma has rarely been empirically examined, the present study shows that people with less propensity to stigmatize see less benefit from medicalizing intersex traits and are more open to learning few framings from personal experience videos.     

Comparison of Media-Literacy Programs to Strengthen College Women's Resistance to Media Images

This study examined whether, in comparison to no-intervention and video-only intervention control conditions, two distinct media literacy interventions could promote media skepticism and reduce negative body image in a sample of college women ( N = 110). It was expected that an externally oriented ( i.e., feminist sociocultural) media literacy intervention would have its greatest impact on measures related to media skepticism, while an internally oriented ( i.e., cognitive) intervention would have its greatest impact on measures related to negative body image. Contrary to expectations, in comparison to the no-intervention condition, both media literacy interventions were similar in effectiveness to a video-only ("Slim Hopes," Kilbourne, 1995) condition in increasing participants' skepticism about the realism, similarity, and desirability of media that depict a thin ideal of beauty. There were no between-group differences on negative body image at posttest, suggesting that negative attitudes about one's body may require more extensive, longer-term interventions.     

In search of durable positive psychology interventions: Predictors and consequences of long-term positive behavior change

A number of positive psychology interventions have successfully helped people learn skills for improving mood and building personal resources (e.g., psychological resilience and social support). However, little is known about whether intervention activities remain effective in the long term, or whether new resources are maintained after the intervention ends. We address these issues in a 15-month follow-up survey of participants from a loving-kindness meditation intervention. Many participants continued to practice meditation, and they reported more positive emotions (PEs) than those who had stopped meditating or had never meditated. All participants maintained gains in resources made during the initial intervention, whether or not they continued meditating. Continuing meditators did not differ on resources at baseline, but they did show more PE and a more rapid PE response to the intervention. Overall, our results suggest that positive psychology interventions are not just efficacious but of significant value in participants’ real lives.