Positive Interventions

Happiness according to Seligman

(a) positive emotion and pleasure (the pleasant life); (b) engagement (the engaged life) (c) meaning (the meaningful life). latter two being in fact more important

What does perma stand for?

P - positive emotions E - engagement R - relationships M - meaning A - accomplishments

Can people change?

- Roberts & Del Vecchio - meta analysis of 152 longitudinal studies - high correlation between personality measures over a 7 year period. - personality changes are rare - however happiness is not a personality trait - happiness is partly genetic - hedonic treadmill theory - people tend to have a default happiness level. - however psych traits are rarely a 100% genetic, always influenced by environmental factors. - Diener - while most people remain at a set point, some people's will change significantly.

Bolier et al - PPI

carried out a meta- analysis of 39 studies, totaling over 6,000 participants, and also found a significant and lasting impact of PPIs, although the effects were rather small.

At the very core of Positive Psychology is the idea that

people's individual (but not necessarily group) level of happiness is only slightly related to their objective conditions of living.

What are Positive interventions

treatment methods or intentional activities that aim to cultivate positive feelings, behaviors, or cognitions. PPIs can be simple excercises, taught by online instructions or even on the phone. The participant is then supposed to repeat those excercises with a given frequency (depending on an excercise).

Perma

- by seligman - more complex model of happiness. Seligman believes that these five elements can help people- individuals as well as insitutions- reach a life of fulfillment, happiness, and meaning. -PERMA redefines the goal of our behaviour from happiness to well-being. -In other words, Seligman points out that people sometimes make choices which don't make them happier, but they increase their well-being and possibly allow them to flourish.

PPI and psychotherapy

- can be used to prevent relapse and increase positive affect

Online positive interventions

- designed as online programs - financially sustainable - allow anoniminity and confidentiality - allows people to determine their own rate of progression through a program. - use online interactive format that is appealing and engaging - online format may not be equally appealing for everyone - because of age and culture.

Sin & Lubomirsky - PPI and psychotherapy

- meta analysis of 51 positive interventions - PPI significantly enhance well being and decrease depressive symptoms. Depressed participants benefited more from PPIs than nondepressed (floor effect?). - Individual interventions were most effective, followed by group interventions, and self-administered PPIs. - Self-selected individuals benefited more than non self- selected (motivation, optimism). - Older participants benefited more (maturity, seriousness, better emotional regulation). - Interventions delivered over longer period of time seem to be most effective.

How can we increase effectiveness of those interventions?

- shotgun approach - couple exercises at the same time. - performed by skilled therapist - longer duration of exercises.

Seligman - pos interventions results

- two of the exercises - using signature strenghts in a new way and three good things - increased happiness and decreased depressive symptoms for 3 months. -The gratitude visit, caused largest positive changes, but after 3 months they returned to the baseline. -Participants who adhered to their excercise benefited the most.

Youth based interventions - Manicavasager

-Manicavasagar et al. (2014) tested the effectiveness of an online positive psychology program to improve well-being and prevent mentall illness of Australian youth. -N=235, aged 12-18, recruited through schools and youth organizations; randomly assigned to the program group („Bite Back") or to control websites.

PPIs and culture

-Members of individualist cultures, whose values and cultural prescriptives are highly supportive of the pursuit of individual happiness, have been found to benefit more from PPIs than members of collectivist cultures -Culture might mediate what interventions are most beneficial. Therefore a consideration of the patient's culture is useful in choosing a specific intervention. - For instance, a client from a collectivist culture may experience greater boosts in Meta-Analysis of Positive Psychology Interventions 483 Journal of Clinical Psychology DOI: 10.1002/jclp well-being when practicing prosocial and other-focused activities (e.g., performing acts of kindness, writing a letter of gratitude), compared with individual-focused activities (e.g., reflecting on personal strengths).

Seligman - positive interventions

-five positive interventions are described, and data from RCTs on their effectiveness is presented. -Those interventions were excercises delivered via the internet. - A placebo control was an instruction to keeping a journal for one week about early memories. - Participants levels of happiness (steen happiness index) and depression (center for epidemiological studies - depression scale) were assessed. - participants followed for 6 months.

Seligman - pos intervention - 5 exercises in the study

1. Gratitude visit - deliver letter of gratitude to someone who never been properly thanked. 2. Three good things in life - that went good each day and their causes. 3. You at your best Participants were asked to write about a time when they were at their best and then to reflect on the personal strengths displayed in the story. 4. Using signature strengths in a new way: Participants were asked to take our inventory of character strengths online at www.authentichappiness.org and to receive individualized feedback about their top five ("signature") strengths (Peterson et al., 2005a). They were then asked to use one of these top strengths in a new and different way every day for one week. 5. Identifying signature strengths This exercise was a truncated version of the one just described, without the instruction to use signature strengths in new ways. Participants were asked to take the survey, to note their five highest strengths, and to use them more often during the next week.. ◦ Participants were instructed to carry out the selected excercise for 1 week.

Manicavasager results

Bite Back consisted of variety of excercises within 9 positive psychology domains: gratitude, optimism, flow, meaning, hope, mindfulness, character strengths, healthy lifestyle, and positive relationships. Control condition contained entertainment websites with no psychological content. Results showed that participants in the online intervention who visited the site at least 3 times per week after 6 weeks reported significant decreases in depression and anxiety and improvements in well- being. No effect was observed in Bite Back participants who used the site less frequently.

Youth Based Interventions why?

Many adolescents experience disorders, and suicide remains one of the leading causes of death in this age group, yet many of them will not seek professional help, for various reasons.

Seligman - pos intervention participants

N = 577 42% males 58% females largely white (77%)

How do you assess whether the positive intervention works?

Positive Psychology adopted a method of assessing treatment commonly used in medicine or clinical psychology, namely: - the random-assignment, placebo-controlled design (RCT, or randomized controlled trial).