Study Lyubomirsky et al. (2006): study US 2003

Public

Student participants in a life review exercise and controls, California, USA, 2003

Survey name

Unnamed study

Sample

Respondents

N = 111

Non Response

Assessment

Multiple assesment methods
1. Respondents completed a packet of outcome measures administered during their ntroductory psychology class. From this initial adminidstration, 36 students were randomly selected to serve as a comparison group, and the remaining 75 were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 experimental groups (writing, talking, or thinking). 2. These 3 experiemntal groups were asked to sign up for 3 conscutive days of participation foloowed by an e-mail contact to take place 4 weeks after their 3rd day of initial participation. The experiemental participants were tested individually. First, they were asked to read an information form that briefly described the tasks involved in the study. Then they received a packet of outcome measures.The outcome measures were administered to respondents 2 times during the course of the study: at Time 1 (1st week of their psychology class for the comparisonb group, and on the 1st day of pasticipation for the 3 experimental groups, and at Time 2 (4 weeks after Time 1)via an e-mail message for all groups.

Correlate

Authors's Label

Talking, writing, thinking about happiest experiences in life

Our Classification

Remarks

Average time spend on exercise per day: - writing: 10-15 minutes - talking: 5-10 minutes - thinking: 5-10 minutes

Distribution

Writng group N=24; talking group N=25,  thinking group N=26, control group N=36.

Operationalization

Respondents were asked to list their 3  best or happiest experiences in life on a 1-10 scale, ranging from 1= not happy to 10= extremely happy. Then they were asked to higlight the most happy experience.
Respondents then experienced 1 of 3 manipulations.:
a The writing group were asked to write about their deepest thoughts and feelings regarding their happiest experience.
b The talking group were asked to talk about their best life experience into an audiotape recorder.
c The thinking group were asked to think privately about their experience.

Each of the 3 experimental groups were exposed to the experimental conditions 15 minutes each day during 3 days of participation.
After each session the respondents administered the final questionnaire (T1).
4 weeks after their participation (T2), all participants (3 experimental groups + 1 control group) filled out an e-mail questionnaire with the same questions as in T1.

Control: no intervention, but reported happiness on e-mail at T1 and T2

Observed Relation with Happiness