Well-being in practice:What practical actions could

improve personal and community well-being?

Dr Ilona BoniwellProgramme Leader, MSc Applied Positive Psychology

i.boniwell@uel.ac.uk

Positive coping

Motivation & goal theories

Applied pos. psychology

Strengths & virtues

Emotions

Happiness & well-being

Positive Psychology

Creativity

Emotional intelligence

Humour

Positive emotions

Hedonic approaches

Flow

Eudaimonic approaches

Psychological well-being

Psychology of time

Positive therapy Coaching

Positive education

Positive business

Wisdom & knowledge

Positive ageingResilience

Love & humanity Strengths of

temperance

Strengths of courage

Strengths of justice

Strengths of transcendence

Post-traumatic growth

Coping with

choice

What is well-being?

• Subjective/hedonic well-being = happiness

• Satisfaction with life + high positive affect + low negative affect

• Well-researched• Sound evidence on

what does and does not increase subjective well-being

Satisfaction with Life Scale (Ed Diener)

SWB is related to: SWB is not really related to:

Optimism Age (older people are sometimes happier than younger ones)

Extraversion Physical attractiveness

Social connections, i.e. close friendships

Money (once the basic needs are met, the difference between the very rich & alright is negligible)

Being married (marriage still scores better than cohabiting)

Gender (women are more often depressed but also more joyful)

Having engaging work Education level

Religion or spirituality Having children

Leisure Moving to a sunnier climate

Good sleep & exercise Crime prevention

Social class (through lifestyle differences & coping methods)

Housing

Subjective health Objective health

“The happiness formula”

H = S (50%) + C (10%) + V (40%)

H – happiness

S – set point

C – circumstances

V – factors under voluntary control

Great! I can affect 40% of my happiness but what do I do?

Focus beyond self – perform random acts of kindness

Don’t compare yourself with media stars and personalities

Practice gratitude. Stop occasionally to “count your blessings”

Treat yourself to a special day, and savor the experience

Stop & think. May be there is meaning in life after all..

Consciously choose your activities, rather than going along

Look for new ways to do something usual to avoid being bored

Give priority to close relationships. It’s not the quantity, it’s the quality that counts

Join a “movement” movement. A sound mind resides in a sound body

Enhancing hedonic well-beingHaving as manypleasures as possible and learning the skills to amplify the intensity and duration of them.

Sweet Dreams

Before going to bed, write down three things that went well on that day. These can be simple occurrences; for example, "My 8-year-old daughter picked up her clothes from the floor in her room and put them in the laundry basket without being told to do so." Next to each positive event, answer the question, "Why did this good thing happen?" Select one good event you would like to dream about. Positive dreams increase life satisfaction and consolidate the memories of good events

Good Things in LifeWrite down three good things that happen each day. For each item, ask, "what did I have to do with it?" Eventually, seeing the bright side of everyday incidents becomes easier. It also becomes harder to discount one's positive contribution to events.

More interventions for hedonic well-being

• Positive portfolioCollection of cards, objects, questions, memories.

• Gratitude visit

Appreciation and giving thanks.

• Apology letter

Write and send a one-page apology letter to a person you have wronged. Describe what you did and the effect you

imagine it had. Apologize. Offer to recompense.

Positive psychology interventions

What's missing is the question of whether psychologists can make people lastingly happier. … I'm interested … not to take people from -8 to -5, but to take people from +2 to +6. My great ambition for psychology … is that in the next 10 to 15 years ... psychology and maybe psychiatry will increase the tonnage of happiness in the world (Martin Seligman)

A little bit of data

• Placebo control exercise: Early memories– Participants were asked to write about their early memories

every night for one week.

• Gratitude visit– Participants were given one week to write and then deliver a

letter of gratitude in person to someone who had been especially kind to them but had never been properly thanked.

• Three good things in life– Participants were asked to write down three things that went

well each day and their causes every night for one week. In addition, they were asked to provide a causal explanation for each good thing.

• You at your best– Participants were asked to write about a time when they were at their best

and then to reflect on the personal strengths displayed in the story. They were told to review their story once every day for a week and to reflect on the strengths they had identified.

• Using signature strengths in a new way– Participants were asked to take our inventory of character strengths online

at www.authentichappiness.org and to receive individualized feedback about their top five (“signature”) strengths (Peterson et al., 2005a). They were then asked to use one of these top strengths in a new and different way every day for one week.

• Identifying signature strengths– This exercise was a truncated version of the one just described, without the

instruction to use signature strengths in new ways. Participants were asked to take the survey, to note their five highest strengths, and to use them more often during the next week.

A little bit of data cont.

Results• In an internet study of 411

volunteers, two of the exercises—using signature strengths in a new way and three good things—increased happiness and decreased depressive symptoms for six months.

• Another exercise, the gratitude visit, caused large positive changes for one month

Is there more to well-being than feeling good?

• It all starts with Aristotle…• “I would rather wake up

feeling unhappy than wake up without meaning in my life”

• Eudaimonic well-being = developing the best in oneself + belonging to and serving institutions larger than oneself

Enhancing eudaimonic well-being

Strengths Exercises

• Positive introductions

• Make a beautiful day using your strengths

• “Pulling on strengths” in a challenging situation

Giving the Gift

of Time

Your Legacy Grandchild writes

obituary

Your Vision of Positive Human

Future

Longcuts vs. Shortcuts Spending extra time on a routine activity (card, talking to a friend)

How much well-being can we create with the wealth that we

have?

South Tyneside Council

• Positive parenting and parenting support

• Promoting emotional resilience amongst 11 to 13 years olds

• Guaranteed apprenticeships

• Reducing isolation of older people

• Neighbourhood and community well-being

(the concept of “place”)

Further Information

• Boniwell, I. (2006). Positive Psychology in a Nutshell. London: PWBC. Purchase at www.practicalpsychology.org

• Carr, A. (2004). Positive Psychology, Brunner-Routledge, Hove and New York

• Linley, P.A. & Joseph, S. (2004). Positive Psychology in Practice, John Wiley & Sons: New Jersey.

• Snyder, C.R. & Lopez, S.J. (Eds.) (2002). Handbook of Positive Psychology, Oxford University Press: New York

Web resources

• www.positivepsychology.org (Literature)

• www.psych.upenn.edu/seligman (Literature) www.reflectivehappiness.com (Interventions)

• www.authentichappiness.org (Questionnaires)

• www.authentichappinesscoaching.com

The End