European Conference on Positive Psychology 2014, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Trimbos-instituut.
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1. 15/07/2014 1 Positive Psychotherapy: Use of Positive
Interventions and the Moderating Role of Personality European
Conference for Positive Psychology July 2, 2014 Weiting Ng SIM
University
2. 15/07/2014 2 Importance and benefits of SWB Subjective
well-being (SWB)/happiness Life satisfaction Affect component:
positive affect (PA) & negative affect (NA) (Diener, Suh,
Lucas, & Smith, 1999) Higher well-being is linked to more
successful life outcomes (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005)
Happiness Better outcomes in the work, social, and health domains
Positive affect leads to success-enhancing behaviors Examples:
sociability, better conflict resolution, more effective coping
3. 15/07/2014 3 Importance and benefits of SWB Benefits of
positive affect: Broaden-and-build model Build physical,
intellectual, and social resources Broaden scope of attention,
cognition, and behavior Undo detrimental physiological effects of
NA Improve psychological resilience Benefits on physical health (
Fredrickson, 1998; Isen, 2008; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004)
4. 15/07/2014 4 Positive interventions & well-being
Positive interventions: activities that promote positive feelings,
behaviors, or cognitions Positive activities enhance well-being
Practicing gratitude; performing acts of kindness; visualizing best
possible selves Higher life satisfaction; increased PA; reduced NA
(Emmons & McCullough, 2003; Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, &
Schkade, 2005; Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006) Happiness-enhancing
benefits of positive interventions endure (Cohn & Fredrickson,
2010) Increased happiness & decreased depressive symptoms even
after 6 months (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005)
5. 15/07/2014 5 Positive interventions & well-being
Positive psychotherapy Positive interventions are effective in
treating clinical populations Build up positive psychological
resources that can boost well-being instead of focusing on
alleviating and eliminating negative mood symptoms Group positive
psychotherapy reduced depressive symptoms and increased life
satisfaction (Seligman, Rashid, & Parks, 2006) Meta-analysis:
Positive psychology interventions were effective in alleviating
depression (Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009)
6. 15/07/2014 6 Moderating role of personality on efficacy of
positive interventions? Do positive interventions successfully
enhance well-being for everyone? Would personality moderate the
efficacy of positive interventions? Positive interventions
Personality traits (e.g., neuroticism) Boost well-being (e.g.,
improve life (e.g., practicing gratitude, visualizing best possible
selves) satisfaction, increase PA, reduce depressive symptoms)
7. 15/07/2014 7 Personality and well-being Neuroticism (N) is
associated with lower happiness; Extraversion (E) is associated
with greater happiness (Cheng & Furnham, 2003; DeNeve &
Cooper, 1998; Hayes & Joseph, 2003) N is linked to higher
negative affect; E is linked to higher PA (e.g., Costa &
McCrae, 1980; Larsen & Ketelaar, 1989, 1991; Lucas &
Fujita, 2000) Heritable differences in SWB accounted for by genetic
influences from N, E, and C (Weiss, Bates, & Luciano,
2008)
8. 15/07/2014 8 Moderating influence of neuroticism on affect
Personality differences in well-being Neuroticism moderates the
effectiveness of regulation and coping strategies on mood repair
Coping strategies are effective for low- but not high-N in
alleviating depression (Bolger & Zuckerman, 1995) High N unable
to use reappraisal successfully to reduce negative emotions (Ng
& Diener, 2009) High N more susceptible to detrimental effects
of maladaptive strategies on positive emotions (Ng, 2012) Does
moderating influence of neuroticism extend to effects of positive
activities on well-being?
9. 15/07/2014 9 Moderating role of personality on efficacy of
positive interventions Extraversion and Openness Moderated impact
of positive interventions on happiness and depressive symptoms
(Senf & Liau, 2013) Greater benefits for those higher on
extraversion & openness Neuroticism Moderated sustainability of
positive intervention effects (Ng, 2014) Low-neuroticism
individuals who exercised gratitude or kindness reported higher
happiness compared to controls, a week after they stopped
performing the activities (But no beneficial effect for high N)
Beneficial effects on behavioral choice, however, endured
10. 15/07/2014 10 Factors that moderate efficacy of positive
interventions Many other factors that moderate efficacy of positive
interventions Motivation & effort; depression status; culture;
features of activity (e.g., Sin & Lyubomisky, 2009) Only
participants who were motivated and invested effort experienced
enhanced well-being (Lyubomirsky, Dickerhoof, Boehm, & Sheldon,
2011) How to overcome moderating influences that weaken beneficial
impact of positive interventions?
11. 15/07/2014 11 Maximizing success of positive interventions
Practice Improves effectiveness of regulation strategies (Ng &
Diener, 2013) Inform participants about the potential
happiness-enhancing benefits of positive interventions Participants
who were led to believe that visualizing best possible selves
effectively improved well-being showed greater increases in PA than
those who performed the same activity (Layous, Nelson, &
Lyubomirsky, 2013)
12. 15/07/2014 12 Maximizing success of positive interventions
Activities should vary in content and timing (Sheldon &
Lyubomirsky, 2007) Variety of positive activities Timing Methods of
implementing positive psychology interventions Technological
developments (e.g., smartphone applications) (Parks et al., 2012)
Online self-administered positive interventions are as effective as
those administered in-person (Layous et al., 2013)
13. 15/07/2014 13 Conclusions Positive interventions are
effective Enhance well-being; reduce depressive symptoms (Emmons
& McCullough, 2003; Lyubomirsky et al., 2005; Sin &
Lyubomirsky, 2009) More effective than traditional psychotherapy/
antidepressant medication (Seligman et al., 2006) Moderating
factors (e.g., personality) Eg: Neuroticism may moderate efficacy
and durability of positive interventions Customize positive
intervention treatment