Positive Psychology Exercises and their Preferences

Abstract

The development of various techniques for increasing wellbeing has been developed by positive psychologists. This study attempted to find out whether some interventions’ preferences have linkages with other interventions’ preferences. The six positive psychology exercises were received by 792 participants. The participants have shown preference for each exercise and the way they have engaged in it. The method followed was factor analysis for each exercise. The individual having a preference for an exercise has high likelihood of completing the exercise. The application’s implications for the positive psychology exercises and the recommendations of the future have been explored and discussed that include the use of interventions.

Introduction

Topic and Importance

The interventions of positive psychology are the behavioral and cognitive strategies designed for increasing well being (King, 2008). One very important goal of positive psychology is augmenting wellbeing. The positive interventions or the brief exercises can achieve the wellbeing which is suggested by the research. This makes research on positive psychology all the more important.

Funneling Topic

The positive psychology has been a scientific field involving the translating of the knowledge to various exercises, interventions, coaching tools, techniques and activities. This can be used to coach clients in group settings at work by employees, students, and anybody wanting wellbeing and satisfaction in the personal and professional life.

The 3 good things exercise are:

• Active constructive
• Savoring
• Strengths

Apart from these 3, Gratitude visit, Life Summary, and Blessings are also considered in this study.

Literature Review

The meta-analyses done in the recent times have confirmed that the 3 good things in exercise lead to sustainable and reliable boosts in wellbeing (Schueller, 2008). However, large magnitude of intervention efficacy’s intra-individual variations has been overlooked by these conclusions. One way of addressing these limitations will investigating the group of exercises or the exercise that provides to an individual with the best fit.

The exercise techniques that are empirically based have the requirement of sufficient data in supporting the decisions of treatment. However, the matching studies’ results have been disappointing often. For instance, one very ambitious study has been the Project MATCH to match the disorders of alcohol use has not found much support by treatment interactions for any patient. However, Project MATCH had many methodological features reducing the variance on the characteristics of patients and treatment response that includes in depth follow up assessments and extensive exclusion criteria. The aspects like these in combination with the moderation’s standard tests are sometimes underpowered in identifying significant effects (Aguinis & Stone-Romero, 1997) that can be impairing the ability of this study in finding patient by treatment interaction despite their existence.

The rationale of the current study is informing the tailored programs’ creation of intervention with the analysis pertaining to whether there is grouping together on the nature of preferences.

Research Question and Aim

The purpose of the current study is investigating whether an exercise preference increases adherence.

Research question: Will the interventions be grouping together on the basis of treatment matching’s existing literature?

Design and Variables

This investigation will be carried out with the help a primary research. This research will be a quantitative one and the design will be correlational. The IV will be the intervention and the DV will be the happiness.

Hypotheses

The primary hypothesis of this study is that similar to interventions, there will be grouping together on the basis of the treatment matching’s existing literature. The basis of this grouping will be on certain exercise characteristics i.e. participants that enjoy expressing gratitude shall prefer both the blessing exercise and gratitude visit. This group can also be on the basis of certain shared techniques’ aspects on the exercise i.e. active constructive and savoring techniques that keep people engaged in interaction or in the present moment. Moreover, it is predictive that an exercise’s preference shall be in relation to adherence and increased completion to that exercise.

Method

The participant will have the enrollment in the study through internet with the access of the research studies’ web portal. The sample size of the participants will be 792 individuals, where most of them are female (77.5%), average age is 53.5 years, white (45.1%) and SD is 11.98. There is random allotment of participants in receiving wither six, four, or two positive psychology exercises. For each participant, the maximum number of exercises that can be received by each participant set these conditions. The inclusion of the exercises has been the strength exercises, savoring, life summary, blessings, and active constrictive responding. The selection of these exercises has been for mirroring the activities in the Positive Psychotherapy of the previous study group (Seligman et al., 2006).

Because there are 720 unique orders administering six exercises, each participant is the recipient of the exercises in identical order. At the start of the study, there was random determination of the administration order as follows: life summary (122), active constructive responding (142), savoring (329), gratitude visit (364), strengths (564), and blessings (792). Each exercise was completed by the participants for one week and then would return to the website for completing the dependent measures and the follow-up questionnaire. The instructions were received by the participants for the next exercise at this time if applicable. The comparative dose-response effect and the overall efficacy have been analyzed of the exercise packages.

Materials

It is required that a classroom setting environment is created in conducting the experiment. The materials as follows are required:

• Consent form of the parents
• Pen
• Stopwatch
• Standardized instructions
• Standardized instructions
• Blank sheets of paper
• Debriefing letter

Procedure

The participants are provided with Standardized Instructions, Consent Form for the participants and the Parent’s Consent Form for the ones above 16 years of age.

The participants’ demographic breakup is that the participants will be 792 individuals, where most them are female (77.5%), average age is 53.5 years, white (45.1%).

The Debriefing letter has been handed down to each participant. After the participants have gone through it, the Debriefing letter is collected before they are guided to the classroom setting where the exercise will take place.

The tool description of the procedure is described below.

1. Setting a stopwatch or a timer for 10 minutes. In this time, participants have the requirement of thinking about their future self that is best possible and writing down on a paper.
2. The participants imagined their life with similarity of the way they thought would be the best for them. Picturing that the participants have their best performance and the achievement was done in relation to their main wants in life.
3. Participants were advised not to worry about punctuation or grammar and focusing instead on their emotions and thoughts in an expressive way. The participants were allowed of having a number of papers for this exercise.
4. Reflection: after the completion of the initial exercise, the participants’ answer and feelings must be reflected upon.

Results

The common factor analysis has been used in this study for the investigation of grouping of exercises one the basis of intervention preference. The selection of factor analysis has been for the variable centered technique, or focusing, in this case, on the participants’ ratings of the interventions and the interventions per se. The application of the common factor analyses has been done with promax rotation in ensuring the factors’ interpretability.

The means and standard deviations are calculated for the exercise scores before and after interventions.

The results have been supportive for the preferences structure amongst the used exercise. To be specific, the ones preferring the active constructive responding exercise have also the preference for the savoring exercise. The ones preferring the strengths exercise have also the preference for the gratitude visit exercise. The ones preferring the summary exercise have also the preference for the blessings exercise.

The table below has demonstrated the correlations of the preference ratings of each exercise.

Discussion

The results have been supportive of system that recommends to the new individuals with new exercises on the basis of the preferences for other exercises. The findings also include the increase in the exercise preferences with linkages to better adherence. Investigation of the way of increasing the continual engagement of the individuals in the practices of positive psychology help the translating of the existing studies in applied settings. Thus, the results support the hypothesis.

The limitations of this study are:

1. Participants have been a convenience sample of people recruited through internet.
2. The reliance of the study has been on self report in gauging the efficacy and preferences of the exercise
3. There can be further bolstering of this study by further research linking the adherence and the preference to efficacy.

Future Direction

This study has expressed concerns on how determining a positive intervention for a given individual is a best fit on the basis of the preference for an earlier exercise.

References

• Aguinis, H., & Stone-Romero, E.F. (1997). Methodological ratifications in moderated multiple regression and their effects on statistical power. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 192–206.
• King, L.A. (2008). Interventions for enhancing subjective well-being: Can we make people happier and should we? In M. Eid & R.J. Larsen (Eds.), The science of subjective well-being (pp. 431–448). New York: Guilford Press.
• Schueller, S.M. (2008, July). Identifying and analyzing positive interventions: A meta-analysis. Paper presented at the 4th Annual European Conference on Positive Psychology, Rijeka, Croatia.