| Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, and Schkade (2005) argue that motivated engagement in happiness-enhancing activities (e.g., thinking positively) can increase well-being. This dissertation tested this assumption by allowing students to choose between two posted experiments---one purported to boost happiness and one described as involving "cognitive exercises." Accordingly, students self-selected into either a "high motivation" group (those who chose the happiness intervention and presumably wanted to become happier) or a relatively "low motivation" group (those who chose the cognitive exercises study and presumably were not as invested in becoming happier). To avoid expectancy effects, at an initial meeting, all participants were informed that this study should improve well-being. Subsequently, students were randomly assigned to either write about their best possible future selves (i.e., express optimism; King, 2001), write letters of gratitude (Emmons & McCullough, 2003), or maintain a list of what occurred over the past week (i.e., the control group).;In addition to testing the effect of motivation to become happier on well-being outcomes, this study also assessed whether the intervention's success depended on person-activity fit, self-concordance, effort, and continued engagement in the activity after the study ended. Further, to better understand how these exercises improve well-being, we examined two potential mediators---namely, actual and perceived increases in satisfying experiences over the course of the intervention.;As predicted, the regular exercise of optimistic and grateful thinking was more successful for students who were motivated to become happier. Additionally, person-activity fit, self-concordance, effort, and continued practice of these activities all moderated the intervention's effect. Further, practicing these happiness strategies led to increases in perceived satisfaction with daily experiences (which ultimately predicted increases in well-being), but practicing these strategies did not led participants to experience more objectively satisfying events. The results of this experiment suggest that motivation to become happier, as well as several other moderators, is central to benefiting from happiness-enhancing activities. Further, supporting a top-down perspective of well-being, changes in how positively people construe and interpret their circumstances (i.e., increases in perceived satisfaction) may play an important role in how the strategies of optimism and gratitude are able to improve well-being. These and other findings are discussed and suggestions for future intervention directions are made. |
