Psychology of Happiness

Psychology of Happiness

Term Paper

Your paper assignment is to write a research report that describes your self-implementation of one strategy for enhancing subjective well-being. You will actually implement two of them on yourself, but will only have to write about one. Specifically, after you collect the data on the two strategies you will write about the one that worked the best. Each one will be implemented over a 2 week period, and you will use the scales for assessing subjective well-being discussed in class to determine their effectiveness (OHI and PANAS). The papers will be structured as research reports, complete with cover page, abstract, introduction, method, results and discussion sections, as well as a reference page.

The strategies to choose from: (1) Counting blessings/expressing gratitude. (2) Imagining best-possible selves. (3) Practicing acts of kindness. (4) Seeing the positive. If there are others you come across and would rather use them, please let me know. I am open to suggestions.

Implementing the strategies

(1) Counting blessings/expressing gratitude

Keep a gratitude journal. Twice a week, for two weeks, reflect on those things for which you are grateful and write them down. What are they, and why are you grateful for them? It can be things that you have in your life, people that make it better, or helpful things that others have done for you. Be as detailed as possible and give it lots of thought. Try to think about different aspects of your life when you do the task. Each time you do so, it should take about 15-20 minutes.

(2) Best possible selves

Twice a week, for two weeks, reflect on your ideal self. Imagine yourself in the future, 10 to 15 years from now, after everything has gone as well as it possibly could. Focus on all the important areas of your life and write down what you will be like in terms of these aspects (e.g., career, marital status, children, involvement in social organizations, etc.). In short, what is this future self like once you have accomplished all your goals? Each time you do so, it should take about 15-20 minutes.

(3) Practicing acts of kindness

This involves doing good deeds to help others. Try to pick people that are not close family or friends. Examples of acts: giving blood, helping a child with their work, picking groceries up for an elderly person. The acts that you do for others are of your choosing, but obviously something that helps them in some meaningful way. Do this twice a week, for two weeks, each day trying to do a few kind acts if possible. Write down what your acts of kindness were each day.

(4) Seeing the positive

Take the time to reflect on bad things that have happened, things that may often be on your mind. Then write down the good consequences or opportunities that arose as a result. Most negative events present opportunities and at least some important positive outcomes in our lives. So, think about those good things that would not otherwise have happened. Do this twice a week, for two weeks, taking about 15-20 minutes each time.

Tasks to complete during your self-study

(1) Complete the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire three times – once prior to the beginning of the self-study, once after you complete the first strategy for enhancing happiness (i.e., two weeks into the study), and once after your implementation of the second strategy.

(2) Complete the PANAS scale before and after you implement a task on a given day. So, each day that you write in your gratitude journal, for example, complete the PANAS scale before you do so and afterward.

Abstract

Provides a short description of the task you implemented and what you found. Should not be more than about 150 words.

Introduction

The introduction should be 2-3 pages long. It should describe the strategy that you chose to write up in your self-study, and research that supports its use. You can use the Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2007) paper (on Beachboard), and the Seligman (2002) text. In addition, I would like you to incorporate at least two additional journal articles not mentioned in class as support for the specific strategies you implemented. The more thorough your literature review, the better. Also check out Lyubomirsky’s website because she has links to her main papers.

The introduction should begin with a concise paragraph that introduces the issue and identifies the strategy that you are testing. Then in subsequent paragraphs of your introduction you should expand on what the strategy is, why it is supposed to work, and discuss research that supports its use. Summarize the relevant studies that have tested the strategy you are discussing.

Method

This section should briefly describe the measures that you use (i.e., the PANAS and Oxford Happiness Inventory). It should also discuss exactly how you went about implementing the happiness-enhancing strategy. What exactly did you do in each session? For how long? In what setting? So, structure this section with two subsections – one that is called Materials and apparatus, and one titled Procedure. The first describes all the measures that you took, and the latter describes exactly how you implemented the happiness enhancing strategy.

Results

This section should include a chart for the two types of measures that you took (PANAS and OHI). You should also describe the results in words. You don’t need to run inferential statistics (which would be impossible with n = 1). Instead, base your summaries of the results on the descriptive statistics. Did your happiness scores go up, down, or stay about the same? I will post a sample of the results, with graphs, that you can use to model your own. It will be an excel file.

Include a bar graph in your results section that displays your score on the OHI measure that you took immediately before you completed the strategy you are writing up, and the one that you completed after the strategy that you are writing about. The Y axis should be out of a maximum of 6 because you should divide your total on the OHI by 29 (the number of items) to get an average. (See the Excel file on Beachboard for an example).

Include a chart in your results section that displays the positive and negative affect that you displayed before and after each of the 4 times you implemented the strategy you are writing about. The Y-axis should be out of a maximum of 5 because you have to divide your total of positive affect and total of negative affect by 10. (See the Excel file on Beachboard for an example).

Discussion

Summarize your results, and state whether you think the strategy was effective at enhancing your personal happiness. If you feel that the strategy was not very effective, reflect on why you believe this is the case, and what you think could be done to improve on it. This should be done in about a page and a half.

Appendix

Include as an appendix all your daily reflections, raw data and journals that you keep while doing the assignment. This should include all your materials for BOTH strategies, so we can make sure that you implemented two of them. You only need to include the Appendix on the final paper, not the first draft.

Formatting instructions

The paper should be 7-8 pages in length (typed, and double spaced) excluding the supplemental materials in your Appendix. The due date for the first draft will be April 18. The final draft will be due on May 9. A penalty of 5% per day will be given to any paper handed in late, including the first draft (the points will be deducted from the grade for the final paper). The first draft must also be a COMPLETE draft of the required length. Otherwise the paper will not be accepted and the late penalty will apply. The final drafts will be turned in along with the first drafts. Computer problems will not be accepted as excuses for handing papers in late. When you turn in your final draft, be sure to turn in the journals that you kept to record your activities in each session.

The papers must conform to the following guidelines: All papers must be typed and double-spaced, single-sided on white paper, stapled at the top, left-hand corner. They must be typed in a 12-point font and have one-inch margins all around. They must be free from errors in spelling and grammar. They must also contain references in APA format. Failure to cite your sources or to copy information directly from another source is considered plagiarism.