Positive psychological interventions on alcohol use and consequences: Pilot randomized trial in a young adult cannabis-using sample.

INTRODUCTION: Young adults exhibit high rates of concurrent alcohol and cannabis use, which is associated with more negative alcohol-related consequences. Positive psychological interventions have successfully been leveraged to target alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine use, as well as substance use disorders, and may be a useful harm reduction approach to reduce alcohol-related consequences. This pilot study sought to generate effect sizes for two positive psychological interventions, Savoring and Three Good Things, on frequency of alcohol use, quantity of alcohol use, and alcohol-related consequences. METHODS: The current study used data from a pilot study testing positive psychological interventions to reduce cannabis use and cannabis-related consequences in young adults (ages 18 to 25) who used cannabis at least once per week within the prior month (N = 50, Mage = 22.72, 72 % men, 40 % White). Participants reported baseline alcohol and cannabis use and alcohol-related consequences, then the study randomized them to complete a daily Savoring intervention, Three Good Things, or a control exercise, and completed daily text message surveys for two weeks (i.e., the intervention period) and a follow-up survey. RESULTS: Analyses revealed no significant differences across experimental conditions on alcohol use frequency, alcohol use quantity, or alcohol-related consequences at baseline or follow-up. Paired samples t-tests demonstrated that participants in the Savoring group showed large, significant decreases in alcohol-related consequences (t[16] = 2.28, p = .04, gav = 0.54); no decreases occurred in frequency or quantity of alcohol use. The Three Good Things group showed no significant decreases in alcohol-related consequences, frequency of alcohol use, or quantity of alcohol use. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that a larger scale clinical trial is warranted to determine whether Savoring and Three Good Things might function as harm reduction interventions to reduce alcohol-related consequences in young adults who concurrently use alcohol and cannabis. Future research should use a larger sample, a longer intervention administration period, and a longer follow-up period to examine these positive psychological interventions more rigorously.

Adolescer in Time of COVID-19's Pandemic: Rationale and Construction Process of a Digital Intervention to Promote Adolescents' Positive Development.

The coronavirus pandemic has severely impacted children's and adolescents' lives due to policies and regulations implemented to slow the virus from spreading, which led to a loss of routine, structure, academic support, and social contacts. Literature also reports a lack of outdoor activity, inappropriate diet, and disruption of sleeping habits as affecting children's and adolescents' lifestyles and well-being. Remarkably, these consequent psychological, behavioral, and emotional changes can compromise their self-esteem, sense of self-efficacy, and self-concept, affecting their immune systems. These maladaptive coping strategies and associated effects may emerge as a failure to access some of the sources of support that might help them cope. Facing this crisis, we aimed at promoting well-being, growth, and the positive development of Portuguese adolescents through an intervention focused on positive coping strategies. We developed "Adolescer in time of COVID-19-A good practices Guide for adolescents in social distancing" as a digital document to be quickly disseminated online, answering the emergent needs of Portuguese youth between 13 and 18 years old during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we present the rationale and process of construction of this intervention while living within a quarantine period, considering the restrictive measures adopted at the time.

Why Studies in the Effect of Positive Psychological Interventions Should Use Life-Satisfaction as an Outcome.

The effect of positive psychological interventions (PPIs) is mostly assessed using self-report measures of positive mental health. These measures are problematic because (1) the content addressed is often not clear, (2) different scales are used to assess different notions of positive mental health, which impedes comparability, (3) the concept of positive mental health involves objective capabilities which are not well measurable using subjective self-estimates, and (4) the concept behind the measures denotes presumed chances for adaptation to life rather than adaptation as such. Therefore, we should also measure the effect of PPIs using life-satisfaction, which is (a) a clear-cut concept and as such tells us what an intervention brings about, (b) is well measurable using self-reports, since it is a subjective concept, (c) it allows better comparability across studies, and (d) it indicates actual adaptation to life instead of strengthening of presumed of chances for adaptation.

The Future of Evidence-Based Temperance Interventions.

Positive psychology has accumulated a large and ever-growing body of scientific knowledge about human strengths and virtues. However, research on positive psychology interventions (PPIs) to develop such is still in its infancy. In this brief position paper, we summarize the status of PPIs in one of the positive psychology's most important virtues: temperance. Temperance refers to the capacity to manage habits and protect against excess and is composed of forgiveness, humility, and (we include) patience. Specifically, we examine the current state-of-the-science in the conceptualization of temperance, explore the efficacy of temperance interventions, and reflect upon what the future may hold in this research domain. In this paper, we first highlight the challenges and opportunities for expanding the theoretical conceptualization of temperance and reflect upon the challenges in temperance-related PPIs. For each aspect of temperance, we propose a specific research agenda. Second, we explore what is needed for PPIs to promote temperance and how growth in temperance intervention research can be fostered. Generally, while forgiveness interventions are well established, we recommended that both humility and patience interventions need more viable evidence-based research on existing and new interventions. Third, we advanced several recommendations regarding how to promote more research in new interventions. These recommendations included attracting more funders to the area, developing new interventions, and employing new technology. Because intervention research in temperance is in its infancy, the future looks rosy for PPI researchers as we move into a second generation of positive psychology research.

Positive Psychological Coaching Tools and Techniques: A Systematic Review and Classification.

Positive psychological coaching (PPC) has emerged as a popular "paradigm" for practitioners interested in the professional development of people. A recent review consolidated the literature on PPC and produced a 5-phase positive psychological coaching model aimed at facilitating professional growth. However, little is known about practically operationalizing each phase of the coaching process (i.e., how to facilitate each phase and which underlying tools and techniques could be employed to do so). As such, the purpose of this systematic review was to address this limitation by (a) determining which coaching tools and techniques are proposed within the coaching literature and (b) classifying the identified tools and techniques into the respective phases of PPC model. The investigation used a two-step approach by conducting a systematic literature review (to identify various PPC tools/techniques) followed by an iterative heuristic classification process (to assign these PPC tools/techniques to a known PPC model). The systematic literature review resulted in 24 peer-reviewed publications on positive psychological coaching, providing 117 different coaching tools that could be condensed into 18 overarching coaching techniques. The iterative classification process showed that most techniques and tools are useful in at least two phases. Interestingly, experts still vary in opinion on the timing and application of these specific techniques and tools within the positive psychological coaching process. This study provides researchers and practitioners with practical guidelines to facilitate a positive psychological coaching process.

Exploring meaning in life through a brief photo-ethnographic intervention using Instagram: a Bayesian growth modelling approach.

The 4th Industrial Revolution has provided several digital platforms through which to disseminate scalable and cost-effective interventions (e.g. Apps and Social media). Instagram, a popular visual-ethnographic social media platform, could be employed to implement and scale interventions aimed at aiding individuals in discovering meaning in life and gratitude through capturing and reflecting upon photographs of meaningful moments. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of a brief photo-ethnographic meaningful-moments intervention aimed at enhancing wellbeing (life satisfaction) and managing common mental health problems (stress/depression/anxiety) through Instagram. A 4 × 1 treatment-only intervention design was used to assess the immediate and long-term changes in meaning, gratitude, life satisfaction, and depression/stress/anxiety. Within-person development on the subscales was evaluated with Bayesian level and shape models. The results showed significant improvements in all factors directly after the intervention. Over the long term, significant changes with baseline measures for the presence of meaning, appreciation for others, and life satisfaction was found. Participants also reported a significant but small change in depression over the long term. Instagram could therefore be an interesting tool to consider when the aim is to enhance wellbeing and manage common mental health problems in the short-, medium- and long-term.

Positive Psychological Coaching Definitions and Models: A Systematic Literature Review.

Despite the popularity of the term Positive Psychological Coaching within the literature, there is no consensus as to how it should be defined (framed) or what the components of a positive coaching "model" should include. The aim of this systematic review was to define positive psychological coaching and to construct a clear demarcated positive psychological coaching model based on the literature. A systematic literature review led to the extraction of 2,252 records. All records were screened using specific inclusion/exclusion criteria, which resulted in the exclusion of records based on duplicates (n = 1,232), titles (n = 895), abstracts (n = 78), and criteria violations (n = 23). Twenty-four academic, peer-reviewed publications on positive psychological coaching were included. Data relating to conceptual definitions and coaching models/phases/frameworks were extracted and processed through thematic content analysis. Our results indicate that positive psychological coaching can be defined as a short to medium term professional, collaborative relationship between a client and coach, aimed at the identification, utilization, optimization, and development of personal strengths and resources in order to enhance positive states, traits and behaviors. Utilizing Socratic goal setting and positive psychological evidence-based approaches to facilitate personal growth, optimal functioning, enhanced wellbeing, and the actualization of people's potential. Further, eight critical components of a positive psychological coaching model were identified and discussed. The definition and coaching process identified in this study will provide coaches with a fundamental positive psychological framework for optimizing people's potential.

Uncovering strengths within community dwelling older adults: What does it mean for health care practice?

The aim of this paper is to present the psychological strengths we identified from interviews with community dwelling older adults. Data for this paper is drawn from participants in a community dwelling older adult study. The latter involved qualitative in-depth interviews with the participants exploring their well-being. All participants were community dwelling and living in a region in the North Island of New Zealand. Interviews took place between March 2017 to September 2017. Thirty-seven older adults between the ages of 66-99 took part in semi-structured interviews and all interviews were audio-recorded. Interviews ranged from 1 to 3 hr. Analysis was informed by the Values in Action Character strengths framework. We were able to identify strengths within the VIA conceptual framework comprising; cognitive strengths, emotional strengths, social and community strengths, protective strengths and transcendental strengths. Throughout this study we found that participants experienced difficulties in identifying and talking about their strengths. In many ways this may reflect participants' strength of humility, demonstrating modesty in talking about themselves. This study has highlighted the challenges older adults experienced in identifying their own strengths. However, the study has demonstrated how narratives can be one way of uncovering psychological strengths with older adults. In particular, these findings highlight the range of strengths, for example, bravery, gratitude, hope, humour, kindness, perseverance, spirituality, that older adults have and give a voice in highlighting these. However, more practical ways of making strength-based practices workable in daily practice, for example, in clinical assessment and health promotion programs are required.

Effect of positive psychology interventions on psychological well-being of midwives: A randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: The psychological well-being of midwives is very important in the context of providing health services to two vulnerable groups of society, namely, mothers and infants. Therefore, the present study was conducted aiming to investigate the effect of positive psychological interventions on the psychological well-being of midwives. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was a randomized clinical trial with pretest-posttest design along with a control group. The statistical population of the study included all midwives working in community health centers of Mashhad City, Iran, which were first selected through cluster sampling method from five health centers of the city, i.e. centers 1 and 3. Then, all centers and subsidiary bases of these centers were listed, and the centers and bases were divided into two groups of intervention and control by simple random allocation method. Sixty respondents were randomly assigned to two equal intervention and control groups and responded to the Ryff's Psychological Well-being questionnaire in two stages of pretest and posttest. Educational interventions based on interventions, including Seligman's PERMA model, in which psychological well-being is defined in terms of five domains namely positive emotions (P), engagement (E), relationships (R), meaning (M), and accomplishment (A), were conducted in eight sessions of 2 h (two sessions per week). Data were analyzed using independent t-test, paired t-test, Mann-Whitney test, and Wilcoxon test. RESULTS: There was a significant difference between the posttest scores of the two intervention and control groups in the total psychological well-being variable (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Given the findings of the study, it is suggested to use the Seligman's PERMA model to improve the psychological well-being of midwives in health centers.

An exploration of how community-dwelling older adults enhance their well-being.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES: To explore community-dwelling older adults approaches to enhancing their psychological well-being. BACKGROUND: Older adults who are living with long-term or chronic health conditions are particularly at risk of experiencing low psychological well-being. Little attention has been paid to preventive strategies that enhance psychological well-being and, in particular, to understanding how older adults enhance their own well-being. METHODS: Using Seligman's PERMA model of well-being (2011) as an organisational framework, this qualitative study interviewed 48 older people aged between 66 and 99 years. Of these, 17 men and 20 women participated in semi-structured interviews. Additionally, 11 women, all widows with a mean age of 81 years, participated in a focus group. The data were analysed with reference to the five aspects of PERMA (Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment) with a focus on identifying what actions the older people were taking to enhance their well-being. Further analysis involved coding the data into processes or practices and also influencing factors. FINDINGS: Most participants used a range of strength-based strategies or practices to enhance their well-being. For a small number of participants (n = 3), these practices were supported by the presence of partners as carers. However, using PERMA as our conceptual model illustrated that despite Seligman's view that individuals can take positive action within each of the five aspects of PERMA to enhance well-being, external factors, for example economic circumstances or mobility, can influence the ability of older adults to undertake well-being practices. CONCLUSIONS: Older adults have a range of strategies or practices that they use to enhance their well-being. However, well-being is not a static concept and it is important to recognise the influence of health, social and environmental factors as enablers and enhancers of well-being. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Nurses can play a central role in supporting older adults who may be at risk of lower well-being. Nurses can do this by developing interventions to enhance well-being and ensuring better person-activity fit of strategies and practices. Our findings support the need for nurses to be involved in providing opportunities for older people to discuss well-being to support the development of individual, as well as community, models of well-being.

Positive psychological experiences in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

OBJECTIVE: Positive psychological constructs (e.g., optimism and hope) have been associated with superior health outcomes in the recovery from hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in prior work. However, such studies have not examined a broad range of positive psychological constructs, their sources or evolution over time, or their connections with key health behaviors. We used semistructured qualitative interviews in 25 HSCT patients to explore the nature and sources of positive psychological experiences during the first 100 days after transplantation. METHODS: Participants completed interviews during their HSCT hospitalization and approximately 100 days after transplantation. Transcribed interviews were organized and analyzed using NVivo 12 software by two coders (κ = 0.92). Interviews focused on the breadth of positive psychological experiences, their sources and evolution during the 100 days, and participants' perceived impact of positive constructs on health behaviors. RESULTS: Several positive psychological constructs especially gratitude, determination, and optimism were frequently expressed. Family support and deliberate participation in pleasant and meaningful activities were the two primary sources of positive psychological experiences after HSCT. At baseline, participants consistently reported gratitude for their donors while follow-up was consistently characterized by hope for cure and return to baseline level of functioning. Additionally, participants related bidirectional relationships between positive psychological well-being experiences and completion of health behaviors over time. CONCLUSIONS: As one of the first qualitative studies characterizing the breadth, sources, and evolution of positive psychological experiences in HSCT patients, these findings add to the literature aimed at understanding psychological well-being in this complex and growing patient population.

Strengthening the Healthy Adult Self in Art Therapy: Using Schema Therapy as a Positive Psychological Intervention for People Diagnosed With Personality Disorders.

This article reviews recent theoretical contributions and studies about art therapy that attempt to capture aspects of healthy ego functioning and presents an inventory of art therapy interventions to strengthen the Healthy Adult. It discusses how art therapy can offer interventions that focus specifically and directly on the integration and growth of the whole person, and which interventions are suitable for this purpose in the treatment of people diagnosed with severe personality disorders. A link is made between the Healthy Adult as a familiar concept from Schema Therapy, and Positive Psychology, with its focus on well-being, strength and positive affect. On the basis of our present knowledge, available studies and experiences, art therapy seems promising in contributing to the development of Healthy Adult functioning. Art therapy addresses the different areas of healthy adult functioning. Specific art therapy interventions are discussed on a concrete level. Art therapy appears to offer ways to strengthen the Healthy Adult and helps people to free themselves from destructive patterns and to work on satisfying their basic needs as independent and responsibly functioning individuals in a positive connectedness with themselves and their surroundings. The strength of art therapy may be the experiential level and the appeal to the capacity to play, to flexibility, and to be creative. This makes experiences easier to reach, and developing from there into a Healthy Adult mode is possible in a manner that is more felt than thought. Creativity can be regarded as the ability of the Healthy Adult to be flexible and to find different solutions to a problem. This appeal of art therapy fits well the therapeutic goal of empowerment and well-being, which is at the heart of positive psychology. More research is needed to verify the effects and working mechanisms of art therapy interventions.

Frontal Alpha EEG Asymmetry Before and After Positive Psychological Interventions for Medical Students.

Subjective well-being (SWB) refers to traits concerned with happiness, fulfillment and enrichment and is a substantial predictor of a flourishing life. Interest in the promotion of well-being has blossomed in recent years, and it is widely reported that positive psychological interventions (PPIs) can effectively improve SWB. However, to date, the neural correlates of PPIs remain elusive. Since previous research has suggested that emotion regulation might be the theoretical foundation for potential working mechanisms, here we used electroencephalography (EEG) techniques to identify whether the intentional increase of subjective well-being through PPIs was associated with greater tonic left frontal activation. Fifty-five students met the inclusion criteria and were allocated to a randomized controlled trial that was single blinded. The intervention group received PPIs once a week for 10 weeks (n = 28). Meanwhile, students in a placebo control group (CG, n = 27) were asked to write down early memories every day for 10 weeks and were invited to share voluntarily at the weekly meeting. Measures of subjective well-being, depression and anxiety were assessed at pre-test and post-test. Forty-eight students completed the post-test, and the collected data were analyzed across time (PPIs, n = 25; CG, n = 23). It was found that students undergoing the 10-week PPIs reported larger improvement in SWB, and greater relief in self-rated depression and anxiety from pre-intervention to post-intervention than did those in the control group. As expected, in conjunction with the promotion of subjective well-being and the amelioration of emotional distress from pre- to post-treatment in the intervention group, a significantly increased coefficient of frontal alpha EEG asymmetry was found. In summary, these findings suggest that adaptive emotion regulation, which is characteristic of greater tonic left frontal activation, reflects the efficiency of PPIs and highlights the frontal alpha EEG asymmetry as a neural substrate linking PPIs and mental health. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ChiCTR-ROC-17012636.

Three good deeds and three blessings: The kindness and gratitude interventions with Chinese prisoners.

BACKGROUND: Studies have found lower well-being among prisoners than in the general population. Positive psychological interventions provide fruitful ways of enhancing people's well-being, but little is known about whether these contribute to prisoners' well-being. AIMS: To test the effects of two typical positive psychological interventions - kindness and gratitude - on Chinese prisoners' well-being. METHODS: One hundred and forty-four participants were randomly assigned to three conditions: kindness or gratitude groups in addition to 'treatment as usual' and a control condition of treatment as usual alone, with 48 men in each condition. Participants completed established well-being measures before and after the 6-week intervention and a similar period in control conditions. RESULTS: Both kindness and gratitude interventions significantly increased prisoners' well-being compared to the control group. The kindness intervention promoted higher well-being than the gratitude intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Although both kindness and gratitude interventions enhanced prisoners' happiness and mitigated negative affect, the weaker effect of the gratitude condition reflects Chinese strongly communal culture, so further cross-cultural studies would be of interest. Future research should also include longer term follow-up and expand the work to include women in prison.

EEPIC - Enhancing Employability through Positive Interventions for improving Career potential: the impact of a high support career guidance intervention on the wellbeing, hopefulness, self-efficacy and employability of the long-term unemployed - a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Labour market policy (LMP) and its implementation have undergone rapid change internationally in the last three decades with a continued trend towards active LMP. In Ireland however, this shift has been more recent with ongoing reforms since 2012 and a concomitant move toward active labour market 'work-first' policy design (i.e. whereby unemployed people are compulsorily required to work in return for their social welfare benefits). Labour market policies vary from those that require this compulsory approach to those which enable the unemployed to move towards sustainable quality work in the labour market through upskilling (human capital approach). Despite this, however, long-term unemployment-a major cause of poverty and social exclusion-remains high, while current employment support approaches aimed at sustainable re-employment are, arguably, unevaluated and under examined. This study examines the effectiveness of a new high support career guidance intervention in terms of its impact on aspects of wellbeing, perceived employability and enhancing career sustainability. METHOD: The study involves a single-centre randomised, controlled, partially blinded trial. A total of 140 long-term unemployed job-seekers from a disadvantaged urban area will be randomly assigned to two groups: (1) an intervention group; and (2) a 'service as usual' group. Each group will be followed up immediately post intervention and six months later. The primary outcome is wellbeing at post intervention and at six-month follow-up. The secondary outcome is perceived employability, which includes a number of different facets including self-esteem, hopefulness, resilience and career self-efficacy. DISCUSSION: The study aims to assess the changes in, for example, psychological wellbeing, career efficacy and hopefulness, that occur as a result of participation in a high support intervention vs routinely available support. The results will help to inform policy and practice by indicating whether a therapeutic approach to job-seeking support is more effective for long-term unemployed job-seekers than routinely available (and less therapeutic) support. The findings will also be important in understanding what works and for whom with regard to potentially undoing the negative psychological impacts of unemployment, building psychological capital and employability within the individual, and developing career trajectories leading to more sustainable employment. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN16801028 . Registered on 9 February 2016.

Assessing the efficacy and effectiveness of a Positive Psychology-based self-help book / Evaluación de la eficacia y la efectividad de un libro de autoyuda basado en Psicología Positiva

The current article discusses the potential utility of self-help books as a means of disseminating positive psychological interventions, and presents data comparing a positive psychology-based self-help book with a cognitive-behavioral self-help book and a self-monitoring control condition. We studied college freshmen (N=58), and argue that this population is a particularly appropriate target for well-being intervention. Outcome measures included both indices of efficacy (depressive symptoms and life satisfaction) and effectiveness (e.g. the extent to which participants found their assigned activities to be meaningful). The two book groups outperformed the control and were equivalently efficacious at reducing depressive symptoms; on life satisfaction, positive self-help outperformed cognitive-behavioral, but only at 6-month follow-up. Positive self-help was also superior to cognitive-behavioral self-help on indices of effectiveness. Possibilities for future directions are discussed, with an emphasis on the realities of practical dissemination to both college students, and to the general public.

El presente artículo analiza la utilidad potencial de los libros de auto-ayuda como medio de difusión de las intervenciones psicológicas positivas, y presenta datos comparando libro de autoayuda basado en psicología positiva, un libro de autoayuda cognitivo-conductual, y una condición de control de auto-monitorización. Participaron estudiantes universitarios de primer año (N = 58), y defendemos que esta población es un objetivo particularmente apropiado para intervenciones centradas en el bienestar. Las medidas de resultado incluyeron tanto índices de eficacia (síntomas depresivos y satisfacción con la vida) como de efectividad (por ejemplo, el grado en el que los participantes juzgaron que sus actividades asignadas tenían sentido). Los dos grupos de libros superaron al grupo control y fueron igualmente eficaces en la reducción de los síntomas. Respecto a la satisfacción vital, el grupo de autoayuda positiva superó al cognitivo-conductual, pero sólo a los 6 meses de seguimiento. La intervención positiva de auto-ayuda también fue superior a la cognitivo-conductual en los índices de efectividad. Se discuten las posibilidades de futuras direcciones, enfatizando las realidades de la difusión práctica tanto en estudiantes universitarios como al público en general.