Gratitude Letter Research Articles

Happiness intervention decreases pain and depression, boosts happiness among primary care patients

The aim of the study was to determine whether positive psychological interventions (PPIs) in a primary health care setting would improve physical and mental health over time. Most treatments for depression focus on reducing symptoms rather than on creating positive states of mental health. Empirical studies to verify the efficacy of PPIs in primary health care are needed. In a six-week pilot program, we invited patients in a primary health care setting with symptoms of depression to participate in groups designed to increase levels of happiness. The program involved interventions such as engaging in good deeds, writing gratitude letters, and introducing empirical research. Patients completed the SF12v2(®) at the beginning and end of the program and at three- and six-month follow-up. Measures included physical functioning, bodily pain, mental health, social functioning, and vitality. Patients also participated in focus groups to discuss their experiences. Of the 124 patients who enrolled in this pilot study, 75 completed the six-week program, and 35 participated in two follow-up assessments. Among the participants who remained for all follow-up assessments, scores improved from baseline to 6-month follow-up for health, vitality, mental health, and the effects of mental and physical health on daily activities. This subset of patients reported greater energy and more daily accomplishments, along with reductions in functional limitations. Improvements in mental and physical health and functioning were shown over a six-month period. The study provides a basis for the further investigation of PPIs in creating improvements for patients with depression in primary health care.

“Such a Great Light”: Letters to Louisa and Abba Alcott from the Holley School for Freed People and the Story of Winnie Beale's Emancipation

Abstract This article transcribes and offers historical introduction to a hitherto-unpublished collection of letters from Sallie Holley and Caroline Putnam, founders of the Holley School for the freed people of Lottsburgh on Virginia's Northern Neck, to renowned author Louisa May Alcott and her mother, Abigail May Alcott, who over many years solicited and sent contributions to the school. As good ambassadors for their project, Holley and Putnam sent letters of gratitude documenting the use of various donated items and offering a vivid picture of the daily life of the school. The letters also contain three versions of a transcribed slave narrative of one of the school's neighbors, Winnie Beale, who was sold South before the Civil War and worked her way back to Lottsburgh after emancipation.

“Such a Great Light”: Letters to Louisa and Abba Alcott from the Holley School for Freed People and the Story of Winnie Beale's Emancipation

Abstract This article transcribes and offers historical introduction to a hitherto-unpublished collection of letters from Sallie Holley and Caroline Putnam, founders of the Holley School for the freed people of Lottsburgh on Virginia's Northern Neck, to renowned author Louisa May Alcott and her mother, Abigail May Alcott, who over many years solicited and sent contributions to the school. As good ambassadors for their project, Holley and Putnam sent letters of gratitude documenting the use of various donated items and offering a vivid picture of the daily life of the school. The letters also contain three versions of a transcribed slave narrative of one of the school's neighbors, Winnie Beale, who was sold South before the Civil War and worked her way back to Lottsburgh after emancipation.

Culture Matters When Designing a Successful Happiness-Increasing Activity

Research shows that performing positive activities, such as expressing gratitude and doing acts of kindness, boosts happiness. But do specific positive activities work equally well across cultures? Our study examined the role of culture–activity fit by testing two positive activities across two cultures. Participants from the United States ( n = 250) and South Korea ( n = 270) were randomly assigned to express gratitude, perform kind acts, or engage in a neutral activity for the first half of a 6-week positive activity intervention. Multilevel growth modeling analyses revealed that the effect of practicing gratitude or kindness was moderated by culture: U.S. participants increased in well-being (WB) from both activities, γ11 = 0.19, SE = 0.06, t(511) = 3.04, p = .0006; γ12= 0.11, SE = 0.06, t(511) = 1.73, p = .03 (compared with the control group), but South Korean participants benefited significantly less from practicing gratitude than did U.S. participants, γ13 = −0.24, SE = 0.07, t(511) = −3.36, p = .002. South Korean participants, however, showed similar increases in WB as did U.S. participants when performing kind acts, γ14 = −0.06, SE = 0.07, t(511) = −0.82, ns. Finally, although greater self-reported effort yielded significantly larger increases in WB for U.S. participants, the effect of effort was not as strong for South Korean participants. We posit that, due to their dialectical philosophical tradition, South Koreans might have been more prone to feel mixed emotions (e.g., indebtedness and gratitude) while engaging in the gratitude letter activity than did U.S. participants.

Teaching Undergraduate Positive Psychology: An Active Learning Approach Using Student Blogs

In just over ten years positive psychology has become a major subfield in psychology. This is reflected in the development of positive psychology courses at many universities and in over a thousand empirical articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Thus far, there is little published research suggesting ways to incorporate active learning techniques into these courses. This article describes the use of student blogs, employing a university blog platform, to teach several interventions in an undergraduate positive psychology course. The authors asked students enrolled in an introductory positive psychology course at a large university to complete three exercises, referred to as Three Good Things (recalling three good things that happened in the last 24 hours), Signature Strengths (using signature strengths in novel ways), and the Gratitude Letter (writing a letter of gratitude to someone who has been a positive influence in one's life), and record their experience in a blog. These exercises have been found to increase happiness and positive emotions. Students made a significantly higher evaluation of the course with blogs than of the same course without blogs. The authors describe how the techniques were assigned and scored, and examine the benefits and challenges of this method.

Promoting Happiness and Life Satisfaction in School Children

Studies in positive psychology, including happiness, well-being, and life satisfaction, are reviewed. The preponderance of the research literature on the promotion of positive psychology tends to focus on broad social competences. However, there is an emerging body of evidence that supports employing specific techniques that are more amenable to school-based practice, can also promote happiness and life satisfaction in children and adolescents. An exploratory study conducted by McCabe-Fitch (2009) is included that exemplified the use of the specific techniques of the Gratitude Letter and Three Good Things in Life.

Letters of Gratitude: Further Evidence for Author Benefits

This study examined the effects of writing letters of gratitude on three primary qualities of well-being; happiness (positive affect), life-satisfaction (cognitive evaluation), and depression (negative affect). Gratitude was also assessed. Participants included 219 men and women who wrote three letters of gratitude over a 3 week period. A two-way mixed method ANOVA with a between factor (writers vs. non-writers) and within subject factor (time of testing) analysis was conducted. Results indicated that writing letters of gratitude increased participants’ happiness and life satisfaction, while decreasing depressive symptoms. The implications of this approach for intervention are discussed.

Letters of Gratitude: Improving Well-Being through Expressive Writing.

Letters of Gratitude: Improving Well-Being through Expressive Writing.

„WER DIESEN BRIF BEI SICH HAT …“ ANMERKUNGEN ZU EINEM „HAUS- UND SCHUTZBRIEF“<br>»KDOR IMA TO PISMO S SABO …« OPOMBE K »HIŠNEMU IN VAROVALNEMU PISMU«</br>

Focusing on a minor element of folk beliefs and superstitions, the article examines the belief, widespread at least until the First World War, that some objects and acts possess magical powers. The author suggests that folk beliefs in the magical power of certain objects have been saturated with Christian faith. The same holds true for supplications and letters of gratitude. Broaching a variety of subjects, most of which relate to the hardships of life, these letters address Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, and saints. Contents of the so-called letters from heaven, household blessings, and letters of protection, all of which were documented as early as the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, has been ascribed to the Sacred that protects people from harm in their homes, on the road, and during wartime. One of these letters, bearing an inscription „Household Blessing and Protection Letter“, has been found by the author in his father‘s legacy. According to oral data, and in view of the fact that the letter was frayed and quite worn out, his father had been carrying it with him throughout the Sec­ond World War. Its wording indicates a model after which the letter was worded, possibly the Holstein type from the 18th century that was designed for use during wartime. *** Članek obravnava drobnejšo temo iz ljudskega verovanja oz. praznoverja. Gre za nekdaj (vsaj do 1. svetovne vojne) precej razširjeno prepričanje o čarovni moči predmetov in dejanj. Avtor ugotavlja, da je ljudsko prepričanje v čarno moč predmetov zelo prežeto s krščansko vero, tako tudi v priprošnjih in zahvalnih pismih z izjemno raznovrstno vsebino, ki se večinoma nanaša na tegobe vsakdanjega življenja, nagovarjajo Marijo, Jezusa in svetnike. V t. i. nebeških, hišnih in varovalnih pismih, dokumentiranih že na koncu 15. in začetku 16. stoletja, pa je vsebina pripisana Svetemu, ki varuje posameznike doma, na poti, v vojni. Takšno pismo, z napisom »Hišno in varovalno pismo« je avtor našel tudi v zapuščini svojega očeta; po pripovedovanju in obrabljenosti sodeč ga je oče imel pri sebi skoz vso drugo svetovno vojno. Besedilo kaže na mogočo predlogo, tj. holsteinski tip iz 18. stoletja, namenjen rabi v vojnih časih.

The Civic Duty to Hate: Stalinist Citizenship as Political Practice and Civic Emotion (Kiev, 1943-53)

In contrast to traditional scholarship that views citizenship as a status of a certain category of persons, present-day scholars understand it as a set of institutionally embedded political, social, and cultural practices that define a person as a member of a polity. (1) It seems that Stalinist ideologues shared this postmodernist understanding. While the issue of disenfranchisement remained of some importance until 1936, concern with a person's status was not among mature Stalinism's main worries. (2) In this article, I argue that the Stalinist state understood citizenship as practice, with participation in a set of political rituals and public display of certain civic emotions being the marker of a person's inclusion in the political world. What role did political rituals and emotions--such as love for the Motherland and the Great Leader--play in the relationship between the Soviet state and its citizens? In his influential work on Stalinism, Stephen Kotkin attempts to overcome the simplistic state-society dichotomy by arguing that power operated through language. Ordinary people assumed state-prescribed primarily by Bolshevik, and learning the art of this identity game was essential for social advancement or mere survival. Kotkin goes as far as to claim that it is irrelevant whether those speaking believed in what they were saying--the important point is that they knew what language they were supposed to speak. (3) A group of talented young scholars has taken Kotkin's analysis a step further. They argue that while the rules of Bolshevik were determined and enforced by the state, Soviet people appropriated them and conceptualized the Stalinist political order in terms of official ideology. (4) These contributions address the issue of individual belief and agency under Stalin, but they move away from Kotkin's fascinating conundrum of why the issue of belief seems irrelevant. Going back to this unresolved issue, I propose to bring the state back into the picture as an agency constantly educating and monitoring the political allegiance of its citizenry. The state's professed aim was to create a new Soviet person, or what modern scholars call an inner Soviet self. But if today's students of Stalinism search for manifestations of this Soviet self in diaries and private correspondence, contemporary authorities could verify citizens' beliefs and allegiances only through their participation in state-approved political and social practices. Personal belief thus was not exactly irrelevant for the state--certainly not in theory--but rather difficult to assess outside the public domain. Hence the state's attention to mass political rituals and its requirement for people to speak up at innumerable meetings. By marching, signing letters of gratitude, and expressing public approval of the Party's policies, ordinary citizens presumably expressed their sincere support of the agenda. Kotkin's interpreters are right in saying that many Soviet citizens, perhaps even most, to some degree internalized the official ideology. But just like today's researchers, the machinery of the Stalinist state could only make assumptions about what its citizens really thought. Hence the irrelevance of belief in Kotkin's provocative formulation. All that the bureaucrats could really ascertain was mass participation in political rituals. (5) The Party's ideological functionaries, however, insisted on a certain form of participation. Since they expected the population to fully internalize the official ideology, they also called for emotional responses to political events. The obligatory civic emotions of Stalin's time are relatively easy to gauge by perusing contemporary newspapers. The two obvious candidates are love and gratitude--love for the Motherland and Stalin, and gratitude to Stalin and the Soviet state for their gift of life and well-being. …

A Peripartum Inpatient Psychiatric Program for Mothers and Infants

A Peripartum Inpatient Psychiatric Program for Mothers and Infants

Encounters with death.

I never saw a dead body until my first anatomy class. Today those who have willed their bodies to science receive letters of gratitude, visit with our students, and have their names put up on memorial plaques; but 37 years ago our subjects were derelicts and anonymous old men found dead in flop house hotels. George C, his name written on a tag tied to one toe, lay stretched out on one of the six dissecting tables in the anatomy laboratory that autumn morning when 1 was 22 and beginning medical school. I remember hesitating at the door and then joining my four partners at Mr. C.'s side, trepidation giving way to curiosity, the moment imprinted forever in my memory by the smell of formalin.

South After Gettysburg: Letters of Cornelia Hancock, 1863-1868 (review)

Book Reviews121 SouthAfterGettysburg: Letters of Cornelia Hancock, 1863-1868. Edited by HenriettaStrattonJaquette. Foreword by Bruce Catton. (NewYork: Thomas Y. Crowell. 1956. Pp. xu, 288. $4.00.) while accounts of the battles and leaders of the Civü War wül always fascinate the student of American history, the experiences of the ordinary enlisted men and the citizens who managed to get close to the battlefields, prove equaUy as interesting. The observations of Cornelia Hancock are of that caliber. A Quaker girl of twenty-three, she went to Gettysburg after the battle and helped care for the wounded soldiers. Even though Dorothea Dix turned her down as a nurse, Cornelia stayed on and went right to the dirty and generaUy unpleasant task of keeping things clean and tending to the needs of the uncomplaining soldiers. In letters to her famfly and to the Friends Association in Philadelphia Cornelia Hancock gave an unrestrained account of her days. She had nothing but praise for the enlisted men who suffered their lot quietly and bore out the truism that those who are truly Ul have no mood for complaints. For the drunks and "goldbricks" of her day she was beautifully articulate and her comments within the hearing of the soldiers must have cheered them immeasurably. "The privates in the army who have nothing before them but hard marching , poor fare and terrible fighting," she wrote on one occasion, "are entitled to aU the unemployed muscle of the North and they wül get mine with a good will." And with a good wül Cornelia Hancock pitched into the disagreeable and exhausting job of trying to make conditions a little bit more pleasant for the casualties of Gettysburg. Whüe a tireless "angel of mercy," she could in no way be pictured as a radiant Nightingale moving about tents, barns, or crude sheds with a candle held high. In a letter to her sister she described herself as "dirty as a pig" but as weU as ever. Observing the terrible neglect of the wounded, the wagonloads of amputated arms and legs, and the men with headwounds set aside to die, this young nurse from New Jersey could grow fiercely impatient with those who just talked. In one letter she rang out with a hearty, "KuI the copperheads!" Liked by the soldiers, who presented her with a modest süver medal of appreciation and wrote letters of gratitude, Cornelia was ever busy on their behalf. After Gettysburg, and before going on to Washington to a new assignment , she echoed Sherman when she wrote, "I think war is a hellish way of settling a dispute." In Washington Nurse Hancock was assigned to a "Contraband Hospital," but she was not happy in her new location. She disliked the people she worked for and with. As for the men in charge of the contrabands she said they were being investigated for practicing "a sort of second hand slavery." Summing up aU she had seen of human rapacity and cussedness she felt it took "two good persons to watch one knave and then he can accomplish more evU than the two can overthrowin a long time." From Washington Miss Hancock went to the Second Corps Hospital at Brandy Station. She liked the congenial people she worked with there and found the tasks of a field hospital far less frustrating than her stint with the almost hopeless contraband muddle she had left in the Capitol. It became 122CIVIL WAR history routine in time, and she could conclude a letter with "There is nothing of importance happening here: the drums beat, the bugle sounds, the winds blow, the men groan—that is aU—" But it was not "routine" for long, and she was off again to help patch up the stream of wounded after the Wüderness. Under fire Cornelia was cool, quick witted, and observant. The "cowardly officers . . . crouching closely to the" river's bank disgusted her. At City Point she was back at her hospital work and letter writing. Her estimates were shrewd: "I am not at aU for faltering nor growing weary," she wrote her sister. "I would not acknowledge that it is any less our duty to whip...