This was a really surprising study. I knew that a lot of self-help stuff wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, but I never thought that any of the exercises and methods that the experts recommend would be almost completely useless. I figured there had to be lasting benefits for any exercise that attempted to increase happiness But it seems I was wrong.
Only 5 of the 40 happiness interventions (intervention is just a fancy word for exercise) were presented in this research paper. The researchers are gradually testing the rest of them, and I’ll try and track some more of them down in the next few days for you guys and gals.
The five happiness exercises that were tested:
- Gratitude Visit Exercise - Participants were given one week to write and then 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 Exercise - Participants were asked to write down three things that went well each day and their causes every night for one week. In addition, they were asked to provide a causal explanation for each good thing.
- You at Your Best Exercise - Participants were asked to write about a time when they were at their best and then to reflect on the personal strengths displayed in the story. They were told to review their story once every day for a week and to reflect on the strengths they had identified.
- Using Signature Strengths in a New Way Exercise - Participants were asked to take the inventory of character strengths test online at www.authentichappiness.org (see this post for info on this and other tests) and received individualized 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.
- Identifying Signature Strengths Exercise - This exercise was a truncated version of the one just described, without the instruction to use signature strengths in new ways. Participants were asked to take the survey, to note their five highest strengths, and to use them more often during the next week.
Now keep in mind that all of these happiness exercises are or were at one time being recommended by someone in the self-help field. This is nothing more than a test of pre-existing happiness boosting exercises.
The Results
The research looked at two different things: how much the happiness exercises affected happiness levels and how much they affected depression levels. You can see the results for happiness levels here, and the results for depression levels here.
And if for whatever reason you don’t like your results in graph form, here is how it all breaks down:
- Gratitude Visit Exercise – This was a potentially useful exercise. There was a sharp increase in happiness that eventually leveled off after six months, and depression was the opposite, it dropped sharply right at the start but leveled off again after 3 months.
- Three Good Things in Life Exercise - This was the most effective exercise. Happiness steadily increased and depression dropped way down and stayed down for all six months.
- You at Your Best Exercise - This was one of the two really disappointing exercises. Happiness increased a bit off the start but was actually slightly lower than what it began at after one month, three months and six months. Depression fell sharply right after the exercise started but was almost back to where it began after only one week. This is definitely an exercise to avoid.
- Using Signature Strengths in a New Way Exercise - This was another really promising exercise. Happiness increased moderately and stayed that way, and depression dropped significantly and stayed down.
- Identifying Signature Strengths Exercise - This was another disappointing exercise. Happiness increased a bit right after the exercise was introduced but was back where it had started after only one week. Depression dropped but only moderately and was back to where it started after 3 months.
Happiness Exercises You Should Do:
The results of the Three Good Things in Life Exercise and the Using Signature Strengths in a New Way Exercise were very impressive, and I’ll be putting up some more detailed info on them in the next few days.
I think too that the Gratitude Visit Exercise has a lot of potential. The effects lasted for three months, which is substantial, and it’s an easy exercise to do that could be repeated every three months without too much effort.
Happiness Exercises You Should Avoid:
The Identifying Signature Strengths Exercise wasn’t all that useful but it’s just a lazy version of #4 anyway. The You at Your Best Exercise, however, is definitely one to avoid. I was amazed to see the slight drop in happiness that it caused. It was very slight, and might just be a statistical anomaly but even so, avoid doing that exercise.
And if anyone can match any of these exercises to the teachings of a self-help author or guru I would love to know.
Further Reading:
- Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions by Martin Seligman, Tracy Steen, Nansook Park, and Christopher Peterson (pdf)
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Typo alert: “The research looked at two different things, how much the happiness exercies”
Where did you get the photo at the top of the article? If you found it on Flickr or something, shouldn’t you link to where you got it?
My own strengths test pointed out that I’m terrible with gratitude, so maybe I really need to try the “Three Good Things in Life”.
The “You At Your Best” exercise reminds me of Dr Phil’s ‘The Self Matters Companion’, which had a few similar exercises. I remember having a lot of difficulty with them, since I was much younger at the time and didn’t have any real accomplishments under my belt. I guess I can see how doing it could actually depress a person; however, I think it’s relevant to look for past successes sometimes. After all, one quarter of self-efficacy (according to Wikipedia) is ‘past experience’.
Thank you Fekket, no matter how many times I go over posts I always seem to miss something.
The image is from http://www.sxc.hu and from what I can tell in their licensing agreement I’m not bound to link to the original, but I might be wrong, I’ll look in to it when I get a chance.
The three good things in life exercise really is a good one. I was already doing it before I read this study but this only confirms how useful it is.
I agree that looking for past successes is important, and that’s interesting that it’s linked to self-efficacy like that. I think where that exercise fails is that it doesn’t go far enough with personal strengths. Just identifying and thinking about your strengths isn’t going to do much.
And thanks for the tip-off on Dr. Phil, I’m going to see what I can find out about that book of his.
Even if the legality of crediting the original isn’t an issue, I still think it’s good show to link back. It’s publicity for SXC and the original photographer, and plus, if I want to use the image in one of my own projects, I’ll know where to get it.
You can get both the companion and whole book on Amazon used for like $2, but I think even pirated ebooks are around here somewhere. Or, as Levar Burton said, check your local library!
ok you’re right, done. I hope this wasn’t all a big song and dance just to get at my pretty picture
Interesting research. Thanks for this.
Exercises 2 and 4 are the most likely to become habits, even unconsciously, because they immediately feel good, yet don’t require much work like 1 and 5. 4 is also very practical, unlike 3, and starts by having you think about your strengths, which is likely to induce a positive affect.
3 is probably most disappointing because it involves a comparison to how you could be behaving and acting, and thus can encourage perfectionism. Comparing your current actions to your potentially best actions is a great way to feel like you aren’t performing at your best!
1 probably doesn’t lead to lasting results in happiness because you’d need to practice it regularly, but are unlikely to do so because of the reflection and work involved, and because there aren’t that many major life events to apologize for. Of course it may clear up and heal interpersonal conflicts and lead to more ease or wholeness, something that happiness studies don’t seem to consider valuable enough to measure.
For example, let’s say that I take a happiness survey today and report that I’m generally at 7/10 for happiness. I go see a therapist and clear up some major trauma in my past around family and relationships, which makes me really happy for a while but then come back to my regular 7/10 feeling 6 months later. But my life is significantly improved with my family and relationships, even though I don’t feel ecstatic or bubbly all the time. Isn’t this real progress? Do we need to be bubbling over with joy to consider ourselves happy?
Just some thoughts…keep up the good blogging.
~Duff
Great comment Duff, lots of interesting thoughts.
If your life was significantly improved with your friends and family then why wouldn’t you be an 8/10? It’s true that we have a baseline level of happiness that we return to but it’s also true that if you work at it you can change the baseline level.
I’m planning on writing a post on this soon but if you want to learn about the connection between brain malleability and raised happiness levels check out this post over at Positive Psychology News Daily. The connections between neurobiology and personal growth are really fascinating and hold a lot of potential I think.