Good health and a happy outlook on life may seem equally valuable yet independent goals. However, a growing body of research confirms that a happy prospect can have a very real impact on your physical well-being. New research shows that both online and in-person psychological interventions — tactics specifically designed to boost subjective well-being — have positive effects on self-reported physical health. The online and in-person interventions were equally effective.
“Although previous studies have shown that happier people generally have better cardiovascular health and immune system responses than their less fortunate counterparts,” said Kostadin Kushlev, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Georgetown University and one of the authors of the paper. study one of the first randomized controlled trials to suggest that increasing psychological well-being, even in generally healthy adults, may have benefits for their physical health.”
Intervention for healthy outcomes
Over the course of six months, Kushlev and his colleagues at the University of Virginia and the University of British Columbia examined how improving the subjective well-being of people who were not hospitalized or otherwise undergoing medical treatment affected their physical health.
A group of 155 adults between the ages of 25 and 75 were randomly assigned to either a waiting list control condition or a 12-week positive psychological intervention that addressed three different sources of happiness:the "core self," the "experiential self," and the "social self." .
The first 3 weeks of the program focused on the core self and helped individuals identify their personal values, strengths and goals. The next 5 weeks focused on the experience itself, involving emotion regulation and mindfulness. This phase also gave participants tools to identify maladaptive thinking patterns. The last 4 weeks of the program focused on the social self, learning techniques to cultivate gratitude, foster positive social interactions and be more involved in their community.
Called Enduring Happiness and Continued Self-Enhancement (ENHANCE), the program consisted of weekly modules that were either led by a trained clinician or completed individually using a custom online platform. None of the modules focused on promoting physical health or health behaviors, such as sleep, exercise, or nutrition. Each module contained a one-hour lesson of information and exercises; a weekly writing assignment, such as journaling; and an active behavioral component, such as guided meditation.
“All activities were evidence-based tools to increase subjective well-being,” Kushlev noted.
At the end of the program, participants received individual assessments and recommendations on which modules would be most effective in improving their long-term happiness. Three months after the conclusion of the study, the researchers followed up the participants to evaluate their well-being and health.
Happy future t
Participants who received the intervention reported increasing levels of subjective well-being over the course of the 12-week program. They also reported fewer sick days than control participants throughout the program and three months after it ended.
The online mode of administering the program proved to be as effective as the in-person mode led by trained facilitators.
“These results speak to the potential of such interventions to be scaled in ways that reach more people in settings such as college campuses to increase happiness and promote better mental health in students,” Kushlev said.
