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