Gratitude Journal Research Articles

The Effects of Writing Gratitude Journal on Preservice Early Childhood Teacher’s Gratitude and Positive Affect

The Effects of Writing Gratitude Journal on Preservice Early Childhood Teacher’s Gratitude and Positive Affect

The Effects of Writing Gratitude Journal on Preservice Early Childhood Teacher’s Gratitude and Positive Affect

The Effects of Writing Gratitude Journal on Preservice Early Childhood Teacher’s Gratitude and Positive Affect

The Effects of Gratitude Journaling on Turkish First Year College Students’ College Adjustment, Life Satisfaction and Positive Affect

This study examined the effects of gratitude journaling on first-year college students’ adjustment, life satisfaction, and positive affect. Students who scored high (i.e., scores between 35 and 56) on the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen et al. in Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 385–396, 1983) and low (i.e., scores between 48 and 144) on the University Life Scale (Aladag et al. in Turk Psikolojik Danisma ve Rehberlik Dergisi, 2(20), 41–47, 2003) were invited to participate in the study. Among the 24 students who met the criteria, 21 volunteered to participate. Students in the experimental group (11) kept a gratitude journal for 3 weeks, whilst those in the control group (10) were not involved in any gratitude-related activity. Results indicated that students in the experimental group had significantly higher post-test scores on gratitude, adjustment to university life, life satisfaction, and positive affect. Results related to gratitude interventions, positive emotions and college student adjustment are discussed.

Feeling Thanks and Saying Thanks: A Randomized Controlled Trial Examining If and How Socially Oriented Gratitude Journals Work.

This study examined the effect of a reflective interpersonal gratitude journal, a reflective-behavioral interpersonal gratitude journal and an active control journal, on primary qualities of well-being and depression. Participants (n = 192; 67.2% female) completed this 3-month longitudinal randomized controlled design. Participants in the reflective-behavioral condition experienced the greatest improvements in affect balance and reductions in depression at immediate posttest. Both gratitude interventions improved affect balance at 1 month, compared to the control. Changes in affect balance for those in the reflective-behavioral condition were mediated by the rate at which people expressed gratitude in their existing relationships. This effect was moderated by participant's baseline depressive status. Expressing felt gratitude to others appears to be a crucial step in deriving benefits, and these benefits may not be limited to the emotionally healthy. Given the applied popularity of gratitude interventions, understanding not only if but also how they work is essential.

Gratitude pays: A weekly gratitude intervention influences monetary decisions, physiological responses, and emotional experiences during a trust-related social interaction

Gratitude interventions assist individuals in the pursuit of greater personal and social well-being. Yet, little is known about whether these interventions increase interpersonal trust. In the current study, we tested whether a weekly gratitude-promoting intervention enhances the decision to trust a stranger in a monetary game several days later. Furthermore, we tested whether this intervention influences emotional and physiological reactions during the trust-making decision. After completing a gratitude journaling intervention or a control condition, participants engaged in a laboratory-based trust game. Continuous self-reports of emotional valence and physiological reactivity were recorded throughout the game. Compared with the control group, participants completing the gratitude intervention experienced more positive emotions and this mediated their greater willingness to entrust more money to a stranger. Participants who received the gratitude intervention experienced higher respiration rates and systolic blood pressure responses during trust making decisions – indicative of greater motivational intensity.

‘The Three Good Things’ – The effects of gratitude practice on wellbeing: A randomised controlled trial

BackgroundThere are mixed findings concerning the effectiveness of gratitude interventions. This study investigated a commonly used gratitude-based intervention (‘count–your–blessings’) in promoting physical and psychological wellbeing in a UK sample.MethodsA randomised controlled trial to examine the efficacy of a three–week gratitude intervention in promoting psychological and physical health. 108 healthy participants (aged 18–36) were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions (gratitude or no–assigned activity). Those in the gratitude condition kept daily gratitude journals for 21 days. Participants completed self–report measures related to gratefulness, affect, prosociality, physical and subjective wellbeing. These measures were collected at two time–points (pre– and post–intervention), three weeks apart. Two separate analyses were conducted for participants who completed the intervention (Completer analysis) and including those who dropped out (Intention–to–treat analysis [ITT]).FindingsCompleter analysis revealed that the gratitude condition resulted in heightened feelings of gratefulness. Those in the grateful condition showed greater increases in state gratitude and positive affect, relative to the control condition, who reported a reduction in wellbeing. Overall, the ITT analysis yielded essentially the same findings as the completer analysis.DiscussionCounting one’s blessings can improve wellbeing and could be incorporated in existing psychotherapies. This brief and simple intervention warrants further investigation.

Case Study of Writing gratitude Journal of Elementary Preservice Teachers

Case Study of Writing gratitude Journal of Elementary Preservice Teachers

Pilot Randomized Study of a Gratitude Journaling Intervention on Heart Rate Variability and Inflammatory Biomarkers in Patients With Stage B Heart Failure.

Stage B, asymptomatic heart failure (HF) presents a therapeutic window for attenuating disease progression and development of HF symptoms, and improving quality of life. Gratitude, the practice of appreciating positive life features, is highly related to quality of life, leading to development of promising clinical interventions. However, few gratitude studies have investigated objective measures of physical health; most relied on self-report measures. We conducted a pilot study in Stage B HF patients to examine whether gratitude journaling improved biomarkers related to HF prognosis. Patients (n = 70; mean [standard deviation] age = 66.2 [7.6] years) were randomized to an 8-week gratitude journaling intervention or treatment as usual. Baseline (T1) assessments included the six-item Gratitude Questionnaire, resting heart rate variability (HRV), and an inflammatory biomarker index. At T2 (midintervention), the six-item Gratitude Questionnaire was measured. At T3 (postintervention), T1 measures were repeated but also included a gratitude journaling task. The gratitude intervention was associated with improved trait gratitude scores (F = 6.0, p = .017, η = 0.10), reduced inflammatory biomarker index score over time (F = 9.7, p = .004, η = 0.21), and increased parasympathetic HRV responses during the gratitude journaling task (F = 4.2, p = .036, η = 0.15), compared with treatment as usual. However, there were no resting preintervention to postintervention group differences in HRV (p values > .10). Gratitude journaling may improve biomarkers related to HF morbidity, such as reduced inflammation; large-scale studies with active control conditions are needed to confirm these findings. Clinicaltrials.govidentifier:NCT01615094.

The Lack of Gratitude's Practice in a Hyper Individualist, Hyper Consumer, and Hyper Technologized Society

This paper proposes to identify the gratitude practice of a group of 40 master students at Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, young people that have been raised in a society dominated by capitalist values: individualism, consume, competition, efficiency, and financial power. Research objectives have followed to analyse the gratitude level for their lives, to the investigated master students, to identify the important persons from their lives and the changes determined by the exercise of Gratitude Journal. Content analyse of the journals demonstrated the lack of gratitude practice of master students, their focus on negative aspects of their lives, the limited number of persons their feel gratitude for, the negative perception on today society, but also positive changes in their lives as a consequence of the exercise of Gratitude Journal completion (reflections considering their own live, the important persons and the importance of spending time with family, the satisfaction for making charitable activities).

A grateful heart may be a healthier heart.

In their thoughtful commentaries, Doraiswamy and Oz (2015) and McClintock (2015) draw on poets, mystics, and the biomedical literature to increase our appreciation of the importance of gratitude for cardiac health as well as overall spiritual well-being. The field of behavioral cardiology (Pickering, Clemow, Davidson, & Gerin, 2003) has undergone a significant transition over the past decade or so. Early research focused primarily on so called negative psychological traits, with Friedman and Rosenman’s Type A behavior pattern, which was first identified in cardiovascular disease patients and characterized by hostility, competitiveness, and time urgency (Friedman & Rosenman, 1959), setting the stage. Over the ensuing decades most studies continued with this focus and expanded it to include topics of stress, anger, anxiety, and depression (Rozanski, Blumenthal, & Kaplan, 1999; Sheps & Sheffield, 2001). Numerous articles document the significant adverse associations of such traits with morbidity and mortality in cardiac patients (Chida & Steptoe, 2009; Rutledge, Reis, Linke, Greenberg, & Mills, 2006). The transition in behavioral cardiology has been of an increasing interest in the effects of more positive psychological attributes such as compassion, empathy, and gratitude, among others. For gratitude research in particular, Figure 1 shows the number of studies that have appeared in the scientific literature since 1965, with the number of articles appearing between 2010 and the present being greater than all the prior years’ publications combined. In contrast to the adverse associations and effects of negative psychological traits on well-being and outcomes, studies of positive psychological attributes indicate beneficial effects on overall quality of life as well as physical health in cardiac patients (DuBois et al., 2012). In heart failure patients in particular, gratitude has been identified as a significant resource for alleviating the struggles associated with symptomatology (Sacco, Park, Suresh, & Bliss, 2014). In their commentary, Doraiswamy and Oz (2015) correctly point out that our “cross-sectional study cannot determine causality.” In this regard, we recently completed a randomized, controlled trial of an 8-week gratitude journaling intervention in 40 Stage B patients. In his commentary, McClintock (2015) notes that gratitude “can be consciously cultivated” to “shift one’s attention away from the negative . . . and into the good and the beautiful.” We used journaling as such a way to cultivate gratitude, with the aim of increasing its presence in the patients’ lives and thus enhancing its potentially beneficial effects on their wellbeing. In this trial we found that those patients who were randomized to gratitude journaling plus their usual care, versus patients who were randomized to usual care alone, showed increased heart rate variability as well as reduced circulating levels of inflammatory biomarkers IL-6 and sTNFr1 (Redwine et al., in press). We are currently in the process of conducting qualitative assessments of the journals themselves to explore potential associations of journaling content and the observed beneficial outcomes. Gratitude journaling is a low-cost Paul J. Mills, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, Department of Psychiatry, and UC San Diego Center of Excellence for Research and Training in Global Integrative Health, University of California, San Diego; Laura Redwine, Department of Psychiatry and UC San Diego Center of Excellence for Research and Training in Global Integrative Health, University of California, San Diego; Deepak Chopra, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California, San Diego, and Chopra Center for Wellbeing, Carlsbad, California. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Paul J. Mills, UCSD, 9500 Gilman Drive #0725, La Jolla, CA 92093-0725. E-mail: pmills@ucsd.edu T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic an Ps yc ho lo gi ca l A ss oc ia tio n or on e of its al lie d pu bl is he rs .

Why do people prefer gratitude journaling over gratitude letters? The influence of individual differences in motivation and personality on web-based interventions

Gratitude interventions can be divided into those that explicitly cultivate appreciative feelings (gratitude journaling) and those that strengthen relationships (gratitude letter). There is an absence of research on the motivation to participate in different gratitude interventions. Using an experimental approach, we compared two gratitude interventions on underlying motivations for starting and completion. We provided students (N=904) with an opportunity to start a web-based intervention (gratitude journaling or letter). Subsequently, we measured the perceived usefulness of the intervention, social norms related to using this intervention, their self-control, and intention to start the intervention. Results showed that keeping a gratitude journal and writing a gratitude letter to someone were perceived as equally useful and socially acceptable. Yet participants felt less efficacious in writing a gratitude letter, which in turn decreased self-initiation and the actual completion of the intervention. As for individual differences, people with greater dispositional gratitude expected the intervention to be easier, more beneficial, and socially acceptable; meaningful sex differences also emerged. Our findings provide new insights into underlying motivations and individual differences that influence the initiation and efficacy of gratitude interventions.

Gender differences in the person-activity fit for positive psychology interventions

Research on positive psychology interventions (PPIs) has established the value of activities such as acts of kindness, gratitude, and savoring life’s joys, for increasing individuals’ sense of well-being. Critical to the efficacy of PPIs is person-activity fit – the degree activities stem from intrinsic motivation. Although person-activity fit effects are well documented, gaps remain in our understanding of how sociodemographic variables, particularly age and gender, play a role. We investigated how gender may affect self-reported person-activity fit across three PPIs: A gratitude journal; Acts of Kindness; and Savoring life’s joys. Age was explored since the subject sample ranged widely, from 18 to 51 years. Twenty-eight men and 82 women completed person-activity fit questionnaires. A multiple analysis of variance resulted in a main effect for gender, with women showing greater person-activity fit for all three PPIs. Among women only, age correlated significantly with person-activity fit for all three PPIs, suggesting greater maturational variability among men.

Integrative Care for Pediatric Patients with Pain

Although pediatric patients with chronic pain often turn to complementary therapies, little is known about patients who seek academic integrative pediatric care. The study design comprised abstraction of intake forms and physician records from new patients whose primary concern was pain. The study setting was an academic pediatric clinic between January 2010 and December 2011. Of the 110 new patients, 49 (45%) had a primary concern about headache (20), abdominal pain (18), or musculoskeletal pain (11). The average age was 13±4 years, and 37% were male. Patients reported an average pain level of 6±3 on a 10-point scale, and most reported more than one kind of pain; parents had an average of 7±3 health concerns per child, including fatigue (47%), mood or anxiety (45%), constipation/diarrhea (41%), and/or sleep problems (35%). Most patients (57%) were referred by specialists; 71% were taking prescription medications; and 53% were taking one or more dietary supplements at intake. Of those tested, most (61%) had suboptimal vitamin D levels. All families wanted additional counseling about diet (76%), exercise (66%), sleep (58%), and/or stress management (81%). In addition to encouraging continued medical care (100%) and referral to other medical specialists (16%), frequent advice included continuing or initiating dietary supplements such as vitamins/minerals (80%), omega-3 fatty acids (67%), and probiotics (31%). Stress-reducing recommendations included biofeedback (33%), gratitude journals (16%), and yoga/t'ai chi (8%). Other referrals included acupuncture (24%) and massage (20%). Patients who have chronic pain and who present to an integrative clinic frequently have complex conditions and care. They are interested in promoting a healthy lifestyle, reducing stress, and using selected complementary therapies. Patients with chronic pain who seek integrative care may benefit from the kind of coordinated, integrated, comprehensive care provided in a medical home.

Student Well-Being Interventions

Student well-being in the management classroom is of concern to both educators and managers. Well-being is conceptualized here as students’ reduction in stress, enhanced experienced meaning and engagement in the classroom, and, ultimately, heightened satisfaction with life. The authors investigated whether purposeful semester-long classroom interventions could influence these dimensions of student well-being. Specifically, the authors examined the impact of stress management techniques, gratitude journaling, a combination of stress management and journaling, and a control condition on students in four different sections of a required management course. At the end of the semester, students in the both the combined intervention and gratitude journaling treatment conditions showed a heightened level of meaningfulness and engagement in the classroom. The implications of these findings for management education research and practice as well as strengths and limitations of the research are discussed.

The Effects of Counting Blessings on Subjective Well-Being: A Gratitude Intervention in a Spanish Sample

This study examined a gratitude intervention repeating Emmons and McCullough study (2003) in a Spanish sample, Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (gratitude, hassles and any event) and kept daily records during 2 weeks of gratitude, affect, quality of relationships, physical and subjective well-being. We added design features to assess the intervention long-term impact (follow-up measures), and to improve the design control (pre-treatment measures). Following the cited authors' analysis, i.e., comparing groups only in the post-test, we replicated their results, finding differences in positive affect and gratitude between the gratitude condition and the hassles condition. However, when including both the pre and the follow-up measures in the analysis, results were replicated only partially, as the difference in gratitude disappeared. Moreover, the difference in positive affect between groups in the post-test seemed to be influenced mainly by a decrease in positive affect in the hassles group. Post-test differences between groups in positive affect disappeared in the follow-up. Gratitude interventions may have an effect on well-being, but we consider other methods to promote gratitude besides gratitude journals should be tested.