How Do Simple Positive Activities Increase Well-Being?

Lyubomirsky, Sonja; Layous, Kristin

doi:10.1177/0963721412469809

Cited by 951 publications

(816 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Along general lines, we found support for the propositions derived from the positive-activity model (Lyubomirsky and Layous 2013), namely for the positive effect of strengths interventions on the well-being of working people and the mediating role of positive affect in this regard. However, while we did find direct effects on indicators of general well-being (positive affect and PsyCap), we only found an indirect but not a direct effect of the strengths intervention on the two indicators of work-related well-being (engagement and burnout).…”

Section: Theoretical and Practical Implicationssupporting

confidence: 57%

“…The positive-activity model (Lyubomirsky and Layous 2013) suggests that undertaking positive activities such as working on one's strengths triggers the experience of a range of positively toned emotions such as joy, pride, and gratitude (Lyubomirsky and Layous 2013), which, if they accumulate, contribute to an individual's well-being in the longer term. The effect of positive emotions on well-being can, on the one hand, be explained by the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson 2001), proposing that experiencing positive affective states makes people more likely to perceive, appreciate, and embrace the good things that overcome them due to broadening their mindsets.…”

Section: The Mediating Role Of Positive Affect In the Relationship Bementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nonetheless, given that gender did not correlate with any of the dependent variables in this study, and that our findings are in line with other studies on positive interventions that used more gender-homogenous samples (Seligman et al 2005), we have no reason to assume that our findings are only applicable to female populations. Second, with regard to the research model, we investigated only one of four possible mediators proposed by the positive-activity model (Lyubomirsky and Layous 2013). While we did investigate the mediating role of positive affect, we did not measure positive thoughts, positive behaviors, or need satisfaction.…”

Section: Limitations and Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of a Strengths Intervention on General and Work-Related Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Positive Affect

2016

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In this article, we explore the use of strengths interventions, defined as activities and processes that target the identification, development, and use of individual strengths, as an organizational tool to increase employee well-being. Engaging with one's strengths is assumed to be a pleasant activity that elicits positive emotions like joy, pride, and gratitude, which, in turn, contribute to feelings of overall well-being and satisfaction. Building on this assumption, we hypothesized that participating in a strengths intervention leads to increases in general (i.e., psychological capital and satisfaction with life), and work-related well-being (i.e., increased work engagement and decreased burnout), and that positive affect mediates these effects. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a field experiment with a sample of N = 116 Dutch working people who were assigned to either an experimental group (participating in a strengths intervention) or a waitlist control group. All participants filled in a pre-intervention, postintervention, and 1 month follow-up questionnaire. Results indicate that participating in a strengths intervention creates short-term increases in employee positive affect and short-and long-term increases in psychological capital. We did not find evidence for a positive, direct effect of the strengths intervention on satisfaction with life, work engagement, and burnout respectively, but we did find support for indirect effects via the mediator positive affect.

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Section: Theoretical and Practical Implicationssupporting

confidence: 57%

Section: The Mediating Role Of Positive Affect In the Relationship Bementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Limitations and Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of a Strengths Intervention on General and Work-Related Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Positive Affect

2016

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“…The positive-activity model (Lyubomirsky & Layous, 2013) supports the assumption that characteristics of the person, such as the availability of personal resources or need for an intervention, impact the effectiveness of positive interventions. Similarly, Briner and Walshe (2015) emphasized that people with a higher need to build resources (such as hope or optimism) are more likely to benefit from an intervention that aims to boost these resources.…”

Section: Do Caregivers With a High Need For Recovery Benefit More Fromentioning

confidence: 88%

Promoting personal resources and reducing exhaustion through positive work reflection among caregivers.

Clauß¹,

Hoppe²,

O’Shea³

et al. 2018

Journal of Occupational Health Psychology

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The aim of this study was to test the effects of a daily positive work reflection intervention on fostering personal resources (i.e., hope and optimism) and decreasing exhaustion (i.e., emotional exhaustion and fatigue) among caregivers for the elderly and caregivers who provide services at patients' homes. Using an intervention/waitlist control group design, 46 caregivers in an intervention group were compared with 44 caregivers in a control group at three points of measurement: Pre-intervention, post-intervention, and at a two-week follow-up. The results show that emotional exhaustion and fatigue were reduced for the intervention group. Primarily, caregivers with a high need for recovery at baseline benefited from the intervention. The results reveal no intervention effects for personal resources; however, they reveal a trend that the intervention led to an increase in hope and optimism among caregivers with a high need for recovery. Overall, the findings show that caregivers benefit from a daily positive work reflection intervention, particularly when their baseline levels of resources and well-being are low.

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“…Given these considerations, mediational investigations could offer an alternative approach to increasing PA: targeting the processes that mediate the relation between extraverted behaviors and PA states. For example, if the link between perceived social contribution and PA is found to be causal, and if there are several non-extraverted ways to enhance these perceptions (e.g., Aknin, Dunn, Whillans, Grant, & Norton, 2013), this EXTRAVERSION AND SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION 41 could potentially empower introverted individuals with additional pathways for increasing their PA in ways that best align with their preferences (Lyubomirsky & Layous, 2013).…”

Section: Strengths Limitations and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pleasure of making a difference: Perceived social contribution explains the relation between extraverted behavior and positive affect.

Sun¹,

Stevenson²,

Kabbani³

et al. 2017

Emotion

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In all three studies, multiple-mediator models showed that social contribution, but not power, independently mediated the relations that trait and state extraversion had with positive affect. This suggests that perceptions of positive influence-more so than a general sense of power-help to explain why extraverts and extraverted moments are happier. We link these findings to emerging trends in the study of personality dynamics and the potential benefits of acting "out of character". Extraversion is one of five basic trait domains that describe the structure of personality (John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008), and can be defined as the tendency to be talkative, assertive, and sociable at the high end of the continuum, and quiet, passive, and reserved at the opposite ("introverted") end. The tendency for extraverts to experience higher levels of positive affect (PA) is often described as one of the most robust findings in personality psychology (Lucas & Fujita, 2000;Smillie, DeYoung, & Hall, 2015;Steel, Schmidt, & Shultz, 2008), and holds across several cultures (Lucas, Diener, Grob, Suh, & Shao, 2000). This relation is strongest when PA is defined, in line with Watson and Tellegen's (1985) factor model of affect, as the combination of pleasant valence and high activation (e.g., lively, excited; see Smillie, DeYoung, & Hall, 2015). Therefore, extraverts tend to be "happier"-a term we use as short-hand-in the sense that they experience higher levels of PA.The extraversion-PA relation also holds at the state level: individuals feel happier in the moments in which they behave in a more talkative and sociable way. Several experimental studies have provided causal evidence that participants who are instructed to act extraverted (e.g., talkative, bold, assertive) report higher levels of PA than those instructed to act introverted (e.g., quiet, passive, reserved) during interactive activities in the lab (Gallagher, Fleeson, & Hoyle, 2011;McNiel & Fleeson, 2006;McNiel, Lowman, & Fleeson, 2010;Smillie, Wilt, Kabbani, Garratt, & Revelle, 2015;Zelenski et al., 2013;Zelenski, Santoro, & Whelan, 2012) (Keyes, 1998) explained 32% of the relation between trait extraversion and PA. Of the five subscales, social contribution (believing that one has something valuable to give, and does give, to society) was the strongest mediator, independently explaining 29% of the trait extraversion-PA relation. To bolster this correlational study with experimental evidence, Smillie, Wilt, and colleagues (Study 2) then investigated whether state measures of social well-being and social contribution mediated the relation between enacted extraversion and increased PA. As a state measure of social contribution, participants reported the percentage to which they "contributed to the discussion tasks", relative to the other two participants. Mirroring the trait-level findings, single-mediator models showed that social well-being and social contribution both helped to explain the effect of acting extraverted on PA. However, social contribution again emerged as ...

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How Do Simple Positive Activities Increase Well-Being?

Cited by 951 publications

References 32 publications

Effects of a Strengths Intervention on General and Work-Related Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Positive Affect

Effects of a Strengths Intervention on General and Work-Related Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Positive Affect

Promoting personal resources and reducing exhaustion through positive work reflection among caregivers.

The pleasure of making a difference: Perceived social contribution explains the relation between extraverted behavior and positive affect.

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