The Impact of a Gratitude Intervention on Health: A Psychophysiological Approach
Mentor 1
Raymond Fleming
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
28-4-2017 1:30 PM
End Date
28-4-2017 4:00 PM
Description
Previous research indicates that a written gratitude practice improves self-reported well-being including lower levels of anxiety and depression, better active coping strategies, as well as increased happiness, self-acceptance, and quality of life. However, little research has been conducted to investigate the relationship between gratitude practice and physiology. The original study, used a 2-group design with a 14-day intervention. Our pilot study was run to attempt to address problems with compliance with the study procedures. For both studies, participants first completed a qualifying survey. They were then matched before beginning a 14-day written gratitude intervention. The original study had participants complete a survey daily during the 2 week intervention period while the pilot had participants complete surveys 6 out of 14 days. At the end of the intervention period, participants completed a post-intervention survey before completing an in lab portion of the study, which included a 4-hour ambulatory period followed by the final laboratory component and debriefing. During a 4-hour ambulatory data collection period, participants were prompted 4 times to answer questions about what they were doing and what they were thinking about during the 10 minutes leading up to the prompt (pager alarm). This ecological momentary assessment strategy allows us to measure concordance between the self-reported and physiological data to determine whether, and in what manner, the measurements (HR and HRV) may indicate effects of gratitude on cardiovascular and respiratory responses. The results of the initial study were inconclusive, especially with regard to the nature of the gratitude intervention. For the current study, participants were required to complete a similar procedure to the original study, but participants were exposed to one of two gratitude interventions: one prioritized people that the individuals were grateful for, while the other asked for general items (people, daily occurrences, places, etc.). An untreated control group was not used for the pilot. A total of 9 participants have completed this study thus far, resulting in 4 pairs of participants for data analysis. Repeated measures ANOVAs will be used to determine differences between the two intervention protocols. In this manner, both between and within participant variability can be used to describe the outcomes of the pilot.
The Impact of a Gratitude Intervention on Health: A Psychophysiological Approach
Union Wisconsin Room
Previous research indicates that a written gratitude practice improves self-reported well-being including lower levels of anxiety and depression, better active coping strategies, as well as increased happiness, self-acceptance, and quality of life. However, little research has been conducted to investigate the relationship between gratitude practice and physiology. The original study, used a 2-group design with a 14-day intervention. Our pilot study was run to attempt to address problems with compliance with the study procedures. For both studies, participants first completed a qualifying survey. They were then matched before beginning a 14-day written gratitude intervention. The original study had participants complete a survey daily during the 2 week intervention period while the pilot had participants complete surveys 6 out of 14 days. At the end of the intervention period, participants completed a post-intervention survey before completing an in lab portion of the study, which included a 4-hour ambulatory period followed by the final laboratory component and debriefing. During a 4-hour ambulatory data collection period, participants were prompted 4 times to answer questions about what they were doing and what they were thinking about during the 10 minutes leading up to the prompt (pager alarm). This ecological momentary assessment strategy allows us to measure concordance between the self-reported and physiological data to determine whether, and in what manner, the measurements (HR and HRV) may indicate effects of gratitude on cardiovascular and respiratory responses. The results of the initial study were inconclusive, especially with regard to the nature of the gratitude intervention. For the current study, participants were required to complete a similar procedure to the original study, but participants were exposed to one of two gratitude interventions: one prioritized people that the individuals were grateful for, while the other asked for general items (people, daily occurrences, places, etc.). An untreated control group was not used for the pilot. A total of 9 participants have completed this study thus far, resulting in 4 pairs of participants for data analysis. Repeated measures ANOVAs will be used to determine differences between the two intervention protocols. In this manner, both between and within participant variability can be used to describe the outcomes of the pilot.
