Momentary Gratitude Intervention Produces Immediate Mood Effects Sarah Ringenberg & Emily Ragsdale Indiana Wesleyan University
Ecological Momentary Gratitude
Intervention Produces Immediate
Mood Effects
Sarah Ringenberg & Emily RagsdaleIndiana Wesleyan University
BackgroundPracticing gratitude has led to higher
levels of positive affect (Emmons & McCullough, 2003)
Seligman studied long-term effects of gratitude intervention (Seligman & Steen, 2005)
Three good things Gratitude visit You at your bestUsing signature strengths in a new way Identifying signature strengths
Background (cont.)
Listing three good things and using signature strengths in a new wayIncreased happiness/decreased depressive
symptoms for six months
Gratitude visitCaused large positive changes for one month
Control and other two conditions produced positive, but short-term effects
(Seligman & Steen, 2005)
Background (cont.)
Literature suggests a strong, unique, and causal relationship between gratitude and well-being (Wood et al., 2010)
Gratitude can have a “healing effect,” making it useful as a psychotherapeutic intervention (Emmons & Stern, 2013)
Difference in this StudyPast studies have simply evaluated effects
of gratitude by using retrospective recallParticipants think back to how they felt rather
than respond at the time the feeling is taking place
We examine the momentary effect of gratitude interventionPractice of three good thingsImplemented through the use of an app
Ecological
Momentary
Assessment &
Intervention
iHabit™
iHabit™ EMA/EMI AppApp is designed to collect data in the
moment More accurate in gathering dataOffers a number of question formats
Free response, Likert scale, Slider response
Provides various intervention techniquesQuotes, prompts, encouragement, etc.
Potential intervention tool to create behavior changeIncreases participant awareness
Research Question
How does practicing gratitude affect happiness
in the moment?
Method
ParticipantsTraditional undergraduate students from
Indiana Wesleyan University (N=152)Chance to increase happinessiPhone necessary for participationMonetary compensation ($25.00)
Randomly assigned to one of three conditions
Study Design
Pretest
14-Day Full Gratitude
InterventionPosttest
1 Month Follow-Up
14-Day Partial Gratitude
InterventionPosttest
1 Month Follow-Up
14-Day Control
InterventionPosttest
1 Month Follow-Up
Pretest/Posttest
Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test (Thomas & Watkins, 2003; Diessner & Lewis, 2007)
Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988)
Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985)
ConditionsDaily Prompts End-of-Day
Questions
Full Gratitude Group(N=53)
“Please list 1 or 2 things that happened in the last hour for which you are grateful.”
“Please write down 3 good things that happened today.”
Partial Gratitude Group(N=48)
Same as the Control Group
Same as the Full Gratitude Group
Control Group(N=51)
“Please list 1 or 2 of the major things you have been doing in the last hour.”
“Please list 3 ways you spent your time well today. Please list 3 ways you wasted your time today.”
Please list 1 or 2 things that happened in the last hour for which you are grateful:
Assessing for Mood
Participants could indicate mood level on app after:Daily PromptsEnd-of-the-day questions
Please rate your mood right now.
Results
Analysis of CovarianceHigher mood-in-the-moment ratings for
gratitude group when controlling for pretest scores on:Total Gratitude score (p=.03)PANAS Positive Affect (p<.001)Satisfaction with life (p=.001)
Mean of Mood Ratings
Full Gratitude Group Partial Gratitude Group
Control Group50
55
60
65
70
75
80
Condition
Mean
F(2,431)=5.15, p<.01
Analysis of Variance
Lower variability of mood scores for the full gratitude group compared to partial gratitude and control
Variability of Mood Ratings
Full Gratitude Group Partial Gratitude Group
Control Group10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Condition
Mean
Discussion
DiscussionIncreased mood-in-the-moment ratings
The full gratitude group reported higher mood scores in the moment compared to the other two groups
Stabilized mood effectLess variability in the full gratitude
group
Implications Intentionally reflecting on blessings increases
mood in the moment
Consistently practicing gratitude can help mood become more consistent and stable
Over time, we would suspect that consistently practicing gratitude will result in:Long-term increase and stability of mood
(Seligman & Steen, 2005)
Other positive psychosocial outcomes (Emmons & Stern, 2013)
Further Research
Expanding gratitude intervention to the larger community
Offering gratitude intervention for a longer and more varied amount of time
Displaying the changes in mood levels on the app
Acknowledgements
Tim Steenbergh, PhD
Jason Runyan, D.Phil
Doug Daugherty, PsyD
References Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings
versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377–389. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.2.377
Emmons, R. A., & Stern, R. (2013). Gratitude as a psychotherapeutic intervention. Journal of clinical psychology, 69(8), 846–55. doi:10.1002/jclp.22020
Seligman, M., & Steen, T. (2005). Positive psychology press: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410-421.
Wood, A. M., Froh, J. J., & Geraghty, A. W. a. (2010). Gratitude and well-being: a review and theoretical integration. Clinical psychology review, 30(7), 890–905. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.005