THE GRATITUDE PROJECT

The Psychology of Happiness

THE GRATITUDE PROJECT with Oral Presentation/Two BlogsProject SummaryA significant amount of research has confirmed that people who acknowledge their gratitude on a regular basis for various events, people, possessions, accomplishments and opportunities in their lives report increased happiness and a decrease in symptoms of depression. This five-part project is designed to help you learn about gratitude through personal experience with the expectation that increased gratitude will increase your happiness. One main goal of this project is to help you build the discipline to practice gratitude in your life as much as possible.

1. Your Gratitude History:To be completed on Blackboard Discussion Forum (see BB for more details)Write a short essay about your personal experience with gratitude that will cover a discussion of the following topics:

1) Your self-perception of how much you have practiced gratitude in your life and any increases or decreases in your practice of gratitude that might have been associated with different phases of your life

2) Your memory of early and more recent influences on your practice of gratitude up to this point. This discussion might include a discussion of poor or good role models that have influenced your practice of gratitude (for example, did you learn about gratitude from a parent, sibling or other relative or a friend, teacher, clergy, etc)

This Gratitude History essay should be a minimum of 200 words and maximum of 300 words and be organized into at least two or three paragraphs.

2. Gratitude Interview

Interview someone you know about their ideas on their gratitude. The interviewee needs to be an adult over 21 who you did not interview for The Happiest People I Know Project. It would be preferable to choose someone who you can interview in person.

To help your potential interviewee feel comfortable agreeing to an interview, you can offer them complete confidentiality by noting that you can create a fake name for them in your write-up and you can change any other identifying information that might point to their true identity. Also, you can tell them that I will be the only person reading your paper.

The write-up for this interview should include answers to the following questions:

1) What is your self-perception of how much you have practiced gratitude in your life?

2) What types of things have you been grateful for or thankful for in your past or current life? (You might need to give them some of the incomplete sentences listed below to give them an idea of the type of items that qualify as gratitude)

3) Discuss any increases or decreases in your practice of gratitude that might have been associated with different phases of your life

4) Discuss your memory of early and more recent influences on your practice of gratitude up to this point. This discussion might include a discussion of poor or good role models that have influenced his/her practice of gratitude (for example, did you learn about gratitude from a parent, sibling or other relative or a friend, teacher, clergy, etc)

5) Do you feel motivated to alter your current level of gratitude? Why or why not?

When writing up the responses to this interview, write-up the interview in third person as if you are a reporter writing a story about that person. Do not use a lot of quotes to answer the questions. Instead I would prefer that you paraphrase most of their responses while using an occasional quote if you feel that the interviewees quote is the most effective way to express a given idea.

Begin the write-up telling a few details about the interviewees demographics (age range, gender, type of profession, marital status, how you know that person). Then discuss the answers to your questions.

The Gratitude Interview should be a minimum of 250 words and maximum of 350 words and be organized into several paragraphs.

Page 23. Retrospective Gratitude Journal To be completed on Blackboard Discussion Forum (see BB for more details) Think back over all of things you are grateful for throughout your life and list the five events, people, possessions, accomplishments or opportunities that you have most appreciated over the years. For each posting, describe the specific item you are grateful for and then explain in two or three sentences why that item had such a strong impact on the quality of your life. So each item should be described by a minimum of three sentences.

In creating this retrospective journal, use the heading, Retrospective Happiness Journal, and under that heading list your five items (or more if you like) as follows: Past Gratitude Posting 1, Past Gratitude Posting 2, etc.

What qualifies as gratitude? No topic is too small regardless of what others might think in terms of the importance of that item. Gratitude is a very personal emotion and we are all grateful for different things. To help you get in touch with your gratitude, consider using any of the prompts below that ask you to complete the sentence:

a) I am grateful that ___________ did ___________ for me.

b) I am thankful that my loved ones have ______________.

c) I am grateful for my ability to ______________________________.

d) I am thankful to have had the opportunity to ____________________.

e) I am grateful that I have ____________________________________.

f) I am so grateful that ___________ taught me a lesson about ________.

g) I am so thankful that __________________ worked out well.

4. Current Gratitude Journal

Beginning with Week 1 of this quarter, you are expected to write 3 things you are grateful for each day through Week 9 of this quarter. These should describe three events, people, possessions, accomplishments or opportunities that you were grateful for in that week. Keep a running journal, including date and submit with final project.

5. Gratitude Letter Identify someone in your life who had a very positive impact on your life. In this letter you should:a) directly express your feelings of thankfulness toward themb) give a detailed description of how that person helps you, teaches you, inspires you, supports you, sets examples for you, etcc) describe what qualities you appreciate about them (i.e., their humor, wisdom, patience, generosity, etc.)d) address letter to a fictitious name and sign your name to letter

For help in figuring out the type of letter to write, an example will be discussed in class.

The Gratitude Letter should be a minimum of 200 words and maximum of 300 words and be organized into several paragraphs. Although I am sure that the person you are writing would be very touched to receive this letter, it is not a requirement of this project to send the letter. Consequently, it would be acceptable to write a letter to someone in your life who has passed on or difficult to track down. Conclusion Oral PresentationDiscuss what you have learned from each component of this project. Also, discuss how you could or already have applied this knowledge to your own life. This prepared oral presentation should be 3 to 5 minutes. A typed prepared outline should be submitted before or the day of oral presentation. You may utilize Power Point slides or 3 by 5 index cards or any visual aid to help with presentation.

I will be happy to meet with you ahead of time for a review of your outline, paper or oral presentation.

Page 3Other RequirementsA. The paper must be typed with no exceptions. The type should be double-spaced with a 12-point Times New Roman font. The margins must be one inch or smaller on the top and bottom of each page and one inch or smaller on the left and right margins.

B. The project should be stapled together as follows:

1) A title page including the title, The Gratitude Project, centered on the front page. Your name, course # and the date you submitted the paper should be typed in the lower left-hand corner.

2) Your Gratitude History-BB Discussion Forum3) Gratitude Interview

4) Retrospective Gratitude Journal-BB Discussion Forum5) Current Gratitude Journal

6) Gratitude Letter7) Oral Presentation Outline and any copies of PP if applicable

8) Ending with the Evaluation Report Form (found at the back of this assignment description) with your name typed at the top, but otherwise left blank

C. Be sensitive to spelling, grammar, sentence construction, and paragraph construction as errors will result in grade reduction. Avoid common problems such as sentences without a subject and a verb, run-on sentences, or paragraphs that never end. A good paragraph should be no longer than five to seven sentences to help your paper be more organized and readable. Although I gave you guidelines for the way to construct each paragraph, feel free to split your material into more paragraphs (at an appropriate place to split it) if any of your paragraphs are running too long.

If you lack confidence in your writing skills, I urge you to have a draft of your project reviewed by someone you respect as a skilled writer. Also, I encourage you to take advantage of the staff resources at the Academic Skills Center to assist you with questions you have about certain writing problems.

D. Deadline: The paper is due at the beginning of class on Week 9 (hard copy only). Any late papers will be penalized by a 10-point reduction in the grade for the paper for each day that the paper is late. Failure to submit a paper will result in failure of the course. Oral Presentations will be during week 8 & 9.If you have an excused absence for Week 9, the paper should be e-mailed to me by the beginning of class on that day or it will be marked down by one letter grade for lateness for every day that it is late beyond the due date. Due to the possibility of periodic electronic glitches, I ask that you verify receipt of anything that you e-mail to me.

E. Always keep a copy of the paper after you have turned it in.

Confidentiality

I want to reassure you that I will be the only one reading your paper and would not share the content with anyone. GRADING CRITERIA FOR THE PROJECT: If you do a good job on meeting all of the requirements listed on the attached Evaluation Report, you should get a high B (85 to 89 points). Grades of A minus or A on this paper are reserved for those students who go above and beyond with the assignment and offer a more in-depth analysis than requested in the project description for each case study and for the conclusion.

Any Questions?I would be happy to meet with you if you want some help in developing the content of your paper. Depending on the day, I may be able to meet with you before or immediately after a class. To set up a time email me at dturgeon@neit.edu. Be sure to put the class name in subject line.

Page 4Evaluation Report

The Gratitude Project

Name____________________________________

Overall Grade_________________ A. Your Gratitude History sufficiently covered the questions for this section as noted in the project description. ______ B. Your Gratitude History had a 200 300 words and the word count was listed at the end of this section.

______ C. The Gratitude Interview sufficiently covered the questions for this section as noted in the project description. ______ D. The Gratitude Interview had 250 - 300 words. ______ E. The Retrospective Journal had at least five gratitude postings and each posting consisted of at least three sentences

to describe the posting as noted in the project description.

______ F. The Current Gratitude Journal had at least 3 gratitude postings for each week starting week 1.______ G. The Gratitude Letter covered the three areas of expressed gratitude as noted in the project description.

______ H. The Gratitude Letter had 200-300 words.

______ I. Your conclusion covered the conclusion topics noted in the project description. An outline was submitted.______ J. Your conclusion was a 3 to 5 minutes. ______ Power Point or index cards were used (optional)______K. The paper was typed double-spaced with a 12-point Times New Roman font. The margins were one

inch or smaller on the top and bottom of each page and one inch or smaller on the left and right margins.

______L. The project was stapled together as follows:

1) A title page including the title, The Gratitude Project, centered on the front page. Your name, course # and the date you submitted the paper were all typed in the lower left-hand corner.

2) Your Gratitude History

3) Gratitude Interview

4) Retrospective Gratitude Journal 5) Current Gratitude Journal

6) Gratitude Letter

7) Conclusion- Oral Presentation done during class8) This Evaluation Report Form at the end with your name at the top, but

Otherwise left blank

______M. You were sensitive to spelling, punctuation, grammar, sentence construction, and paragraph construction as errors

will result in grade reduction. You avoided common problems such as sentences without a subject and a

verb, run-on sentences, forgetting commas after an introductory clause in a sentence, or paragraphs that never

end (a good paragraph should be no longer than five to seven sentences to help your paper be more organized

and readable).

______N. The paper was submitted on or before the due date.

GRADING CRITERIA FOR THE PROJECT: If you do a good job on meeting all of the requirements listed on the attached Evaluation Report, you will get an 85 to 89 on the paper. Scores of 90 and above are reserved for those students who go above and beyond with the assignment and offer a more in-depth analysis of each case than is requested in the project description.

Due to my concern about some problems with your writing style, I strongly suggest you bring your next paper to a tutor at the Academic Skills Center to help you work on the following problems: