Positive psychology and the internet: A mental health opportunity

By Joanna Mitchell, D. Vella‐Brodrick, Britt Klein. 2010

145 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper reviews two relatively young fields of research – positive psychology and internet interventions – and discusses the potential of online positive psychology interventions (OPPIs) as an effective and sustainable health promotion tool within a comprehensive approach to mental health care. The paper starts with a review of positive psychology, in particular well-being theory and contemporary research, and then followed by an overview of the advantages (e.g., accessibility and sustainability) and disadvantages (e.g., digital divide) of delivering mental health interventions via the internet. Finally, the results of a literature review combining the two fields of research are presented. Five randomised controlled trials were identified testing the efficacy of OPPIs as a means of enhancing well-being, with three studies demonstrating increased well-being compared to a control group. In the three studies that had populations with mild to moderate depression symptoms at baseline, there was significant symptom reduction, suggesting that well-being interventions, while primarily targeted at improving wellness, may also have an illness treatment and prevention function. While this review is limited by the small number of studies currently available, researchers, practitioners and consumers are asked to consider the opportunities and benefits of delivering well-being interventions online.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Literature and Literary Theory, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9a4c4ea7424a7735bb34346ab9bcb4bd5812ffce

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Citations in the corpus

Strength-Based Positive Interventions: Further Evidence for Their Potential in Enhancing Well-Being and Alleviating Depression (2013, background): “The dropout rate in this study was 61.1 %, which is comparable to other Online-studies (e.g., Abbott et al. 2009; Mitchell et al. 2009; Mitchell et al. 2010; Shapira and Mongrain 2010).”
Can Gratitude and Kindness Interventions Enhance Well-Being in a Clinical Sample? (2015, background): “…Australia A. O’Donovan C. A. Pepping Behavioral Basis of Health, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia research indicates that even very brief self-administered positive psychological interventions can have beneficial outcomes for clinical samples (Layous et al. 2012; Mitchell et al. 2010).”
The added value of the positive: A literature review of positive psychology interventions in organizations (2013, methodology): “Furthermore, we expand the work of Sin and Lyubomirsky (2009), Wood et al. (2010), Mitchell et al. (2010), and Mazzucchelli et al. (2010), who focused on well-being only (Mazzucchelli et al., 2010; Wood et al., 2010), on well-being and depression (Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009), or on wellbeing and…”
What Is the Optimal Way to Deliver a Positive Activity Intervention? The Case of Writing About One’s Best Possible Selves (2012, background): “…access to the Internet is not universal either, greater numbers of people are gaining access through a variety of locations (e.g., home, smart-phones, public libraries, work, or Internet cafes; Mitchell et al. 2010), and the cost of using the Internet is a fraction of the high cost of therapy.”
Positive psychology interventions: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies (2013, unknown): “We also cross-checked the references from the studies retrieved, the earlier metaanalysis of Sin & Lyubomirsky (2009) and two other reviews of positive psychological interventions [38,39].”
Putting the ‘app’ in Happiness: A Randomised Controlled Trial of a Smartphone-Based Mindfulness Intervention to Enhance Wellbeing (2016, background): “The potential exists to transport contemporary web-based delivery (e.g. Schueller and Parks 2012; Mitchell et al. 2010; Schueller 2010) to an even more accessible, cost-effective and user-friendly platform.”