Options
Expressing gratitude and visualising best possible self: a randomised controlled study in Singapore
Author
Tan, Ernest Jia Rui
Supervisor
Neihart, Maureen
Abstract
Local and international reports on the state of wellbeing in Singapore depicted a country of lowered wellbeing and heightened dissatisfaction. At the same time, rising prevalence rates of depression threatened to become the leading mental disease by the year 2030 and pose a burden to productivity rates and the economy. To counter this deteriorating trend, promising research from positive psychological interventions have proved to improve wellbeing, mood, and life satisfaction. Among the positive activities that produced significant changes in affect and number of depressive symptoms, are the exercises of writing a gratitude letter (GL) and visualising one’s best possible self (BPS). These studies were mainly conducted in western cultures and involved relatively larger numbers of western research participants. There is relatively little research on how the results of such interventions are expressed in Asian cultures, where different cultural features exist, such as the experience of dialectical emotions and a tendency to focus on negativity. The present study tested the efficacy of the GL and BPS exercises on 81 postgraduate students at a Singapore university. In this randomised controlled study, participants performed a onetime writing exercise, where self-report scores of positive and negative affect, as well as depressive symptoms were measured at immediate pre- and post-exercise intervals. The BPS exercise significantly increased post-exercise scores of positive affect compared to the control group, and an increase of positive affect that approached significance compared to the GL condition. No significant changes in negative affect and depressive symptoms were found between the groups. Positive benefits from the BPS exercise proved promising for future cross-cultural research in positive interventions and for implementing as a feasible intervention in public health programmes in Singapore.
Date Issued
2015
Call Number
BF575.H27 Tan
Date Submitted
2015