The secret: Read this for lasting happiness!

After discovering the Positive Psychology movement about six months ago, I would like to pass on some of its findings to others because I really think they have the potential to change the way we think. Here I've reviewed an article by Seligman et al (2005, complete ref below) so you can get a bit of a flavour for what's happening in the field without having to read the whole thing yourself! I've also included a little at the end about this theory's relevence to The Secret, a [very!] popular 'motivational' style dvd that draws from 'laws of attraction', among other things (personally I think the science might be a bit suspect but it provokes some interesting thoughts...)

Seligman (and colleagues) have been investigating interventions for making people ‘lastingly happier’; an endeavour that is almost squashed at the outset by the popular opinion that people have a baseline level of happiness, and that while some things may increase it temporarily, that ultimately everyone returns to their normal, baseline levels. Seligman et. al (2005) conducted a randomised control trial over the Internet with 411 participants over a six month period. The sample was slightly biased in that they were mostly White, of average or above average education and income, and were slightly depressed at the outset.

They used a number of interventions:

Placebo control: Early memories
Participants asked to write about their early memories every night for one week

Gratitude visit
Participants asked to write and deliver a letter of gratitude in person to someone who had been especially kind to them but had never been properly thanked

Three good things in life
P’s asked to write down three good things that went well each day and their causes every night for one week. Note that they were asked to provide a causal explanation for the good thing,

You at your best
P’s asked to write about a time when they were at their best and then to reflect on the personal strengths that they had displayed.

Using signature strengths in a new way
P’s asked to take Seligman’s inventory of character strengths (available at www.authentichappiness.org) and to receive individualised feedback about their top five (“signature”) strengths. They were then asked to use one of these top strengths in a new and different way every day for one week

Identify signature strengths
A truncated version of the one just described, without the instruction to use the strengths in a new way. Instead they were asked to use them “more often”.

Results
The results were quite astounding. Two of the interventions – Three good things and Using signature strengths in a new way – increased happiness and decreased depressive symptoms for six months. That’s right – after using them for only one week, people were statistically significantly more happy and less depressed six months on, compared with the placebo controls. The effect size was ‘moderate’ or larger. All other groups, except Gratitude visit, experienced increased happiness the week after they finished the intervention, but this was not maintained. The Gratitude visit participants were significantly happier for one month after the intervention. Participants who, of their own accord, decided to continue with the intervention, experienced even greater happiness six months down the track than those that had done it only for one week (I think it’s incredible that people were seeing improvements after only seven days of reflecting on positive aspects of their day!).


The link with The Secret is that this has major implications for how we treat and manage depressive (and other) disorders. Current psychotherapy best practice is talk therapy, based around challenging negative thoughts, to argue against negative thoughts, to gain insight into the sources of conflict, etc. Note that this is focussing on the negative thoughts. Of course, these methods are quite successful. But I think that I’d much prefer to spend my time thinking about how things were good, and about my strengths, rather than ruminating on my weaknesses.

Finally, it was interesting to note that these participants saw an improvement without the help of an experienced therapist or coach. The authors suggest that even greater improvements may be made with the help of a coach.

I found this article very enlightening and wanted to share it with you!

Abundance and flourishing to you all ;)

PS: The article, if you would be interested in reading the whole thing, is as follows:

Seligman, M. E. P, Steen, T. A., Park, N. & Peterson, C. (2005) Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions. Annual Review of Psychology, July-August, 60, 410-421.