Happier people are healthier, but does becoming happier lead to better health? In the current study, we deployed a comprehensive, 3-month positive psychological intervention as an experimental tool to examine the effects of increasing subjective well-being on physical health in a nonclinical population. In a 6-month randomized controlled trial with 155 community adults, we found effects of treatment on self-reported physical health—the number of days in the previous month that participants felt healthy or sick, as assessed by questions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Questionnaire. In a subsample of 100 participants, we also found evidence that improvements in subjective well-being over the course of the program predicted subsequent decreases in the number of sick days. Combining experimental and longitudinal methodologies, this work provides some evidence for a causal effect of subjective well-being on self-reported physical health.

Building from the growing empirical science of happiness, or subjective well-being (SWB), we have developed a 12-week comprehensive intervention program—Enduring Happiness and Continued Self-Enhancement (ENHANCE)—to increase SWB and enable a thorough examination of the mechanistic processes of program content and administrative structure for SWB change over time. In a randomized controlled trial, participants (N = 155; 55 using the in-person format, 100 online format) were randomly assigned to participate in ENHANCE or to a waitlist control condition. All participants completed assessments of SWB, including non-self-report measures, and process variables at baseline, posttest, and follow-up (3 months). We found evidence supporting the efficacy of ENHANCE for increasing SWB, whether administered in-person or online. Furthermore, development of the skills targeted in the program (e.g., gratitude, mindfulness) accounted for SWB improvements. This study provides initial evidence that ENHANCE can promote SWB and offers insights regarding the processes involved in these changes. To bolster these findings, we present additional data (n = 74) from a fourth assessment showing within-person maintenance of SWB gains over 6 months in the original treatment condition (n = 39) and a replication of the immediate ENHANCE treatment effects in the waitlist condition (n = 36). We discuss potential avenues for the utilization of ENHANCE in basic research and applied disseminations.

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Objective: Few studies have investigated the assessment and functional impact of egocentric and allocentric neglect among stroke patients. This pilot study aimed to determine (1) whether allocentric and egocentric neglect could be dissociated among a sample of stroke patients using eye tracking; (2) the specific patterns of attention associated with each subtype; and (3) the nature of the relationship between neglect subtype and functional outcome. Method: Twenty acute stroke patients were administered neuropsychological assessment batteries, a pencil-and-paper Apples Test to measure neglect subtype, and an adaptation of the Apples Test with an eye tracking measure. To test clinical discriminability, twenty age- and education-matched control participants were administered the eye tracking measure of neglect. Results: The eye tracking measure identified a greater number of individuals as having egocentric and/or allocentric neglect than the pencil-and-paper Apples Test. Classification of neglect subtype based on eye tracking performance was a significant predictor of functional outcome beyond that accounted for by the neuropsychological test performance and Apples Test neglect classification. Preliminary evidence suggests that patients with no neglect symptoms had superior functional outcomes compared with patients with neglect. Patients with combined egocentric and allocentric neglect had poorer functional outcomes than those with either subtype. Functional outcomes of patients with either allocentric or egocentric neglect did not differ significantly. The applications of our findings, to improve neglect detection, are discussed. Conclusion: Results highlight the potential clinical utility of eye tracking for the assessment and identification of neglect subtype among stroke patients to predict functional outcomes. (JINS, 2019, 25, 479–489)