Becoming Happier Takes Both a Will and a Proper Way: An Experimental Longitudinal Intervention to Boost Well-Being

By Sonja Lyubomirsky, R. Dickerhoof, Julia K. Boehm, Kennon M. Sheldon. Emotion, 2011

737 citations recorded by the source corpus.

An 8-months long experimental study examined the immediate and longer-term effects of regularly practicing two assigned positive activities – expressing optimism and gratitude – on well-being. More important, this intervention allowed us to explore the impact of two meta-factors that are likely to influence the success of any positive activity – whether one self-selects into the study knowing that it is about increasing happiness and whether one invests effort into the activity over time. Our results indicate that initial self-selection makes a difference, but only in the two positive activity conditions, not the control; and that continued effort also makes a difference, but again only in the treatment conditions. We conclude that happiness interventions are more than just placebos, but that they are most successful when participants know about, endorse, and commit to the intervention.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/843cca46d86e4c2fc6367cd253a1c2b626c46ba3

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Citations in the corpus

What Is the Optimal Way to Deliver a Positive Activity Intervention? The Case of Writing About One’s Best Possible Selves (2012, methodology): “Past research has demonstrated the importance of effort (Lyubomirsky et al. 2011), selfconcordant motivation (Sheldon and Lyubomirsky 2006) and attitudes towards happiness increasing activities (Sheldon et al.”
Revisiting the Sustainable Happiness Model and Pie Chart: Can Happiness Be Successfully Pursued? (2019, background): “For example, in the quasi-experiment described above, those who chose to engage in a practice designed to make them happier (versus a neutral activity) – and who put forth more effort into that practice (as assessed by objective raters) – showed bigger boosts in happiness (Lyubomirsky et al., 2011).”
Working time reduction policy in a sustainable economy: criteria and options for its design. (2014, background): “, 2005), as long as “participants know about, endorse, and commit to [them]” (Lyubomirsky et al., 2011).”
Can Gratitude and Kindness Interventions Enhance Well-Being in a Clinical Sample? (2015, background): “Lyubomirsky et al. (2011) examined the efficacy of an 8 month gratitude intervention on well-being, and found that participants who self-selected into the study displayed improved well-being.”
The how, why, what, when, and who of happiness: Mechanisms underlying the success of positive activity interventions. (2014, background): “Three studies have demonstrated that people who engage in positive activities even after the prescribed study period continue to show improvements in well-being over a control group (Cohn & Fredrickson, 2010; Lyubomirsky et al., 2011; Seligman et al., 2005).”
Variety is the spice of happiness: The hedonic adaptation prevention model. (2013, background): “…eff ects on happiness likely depend on many other moderators besides variety, such as how diligently or successfully one performs the activity (Lyubomirsky et al., 2009 ; Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006 ), how well the chosen activity fi ts one's personality and interests (Lyubomirsky, 2008 ),…”