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.
Martínez-Martí
María Luisa
ML
Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Campus de Somosaguas, Pozuelo, 28223 Madrid, Spain. maui.martinez@psi.ucm.es
Avia
María Dolores
MD
Hernández-Lloreda
María José
MJ
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect; D001290:Attitude; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012938:Social Perception; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D014956:Writing; D055815:Young Adult