The proven benefits of practising gratitude

At first I found this topic rather vague. What is gratitude? It doesn’t help that the definition varies. I am partial to the definition found in Psychology Today: “the expression of appreciation for what one has.”1 Switching to “glass half full” thinking? This subject certainly gets a lot of attention and the word is thrown into conversation by people who genuinely seem happy. But can one measure this objectively in a RCT? Apparently, you can, and people have. For this I am grateful—otherwise I wouldn’t have an article to write. Let us skip ahead to recent studies. In a randomized intervention study, subjects who journaled about gratitude experienced reduced levels of stress and maintained gratitude after one month.2 During the COVID-19 pandemic, this study followed a control group, an expressive writing group and a gratitude writing group for one month. During this online writing intervention, various self-reported physical, mental health and gratitude state scores were tracked. The gratitude group was asked to write for 5-10 minutes a day about things in their life for which they were grateful. Oddly, the gratitude group did not improve in gratitude scores using the three-item Gratitude Adjective Checklist (GAS), but the other two groups experienced a decrease in gratitude scores. Of interest was that the gratitude group demonstrated decreased levels of stress after one week, but no further improvement at the one-month mark. The other two groups showed no change in self-reported stress scores. In summary, writing about gratitude doesn’t necessarily make you more grateful but it does reduce your self-perceived stress levels after one week. Also the title of this journal (The Journal of Happiness Studies) brought me joy. Another study, reported in Current Psychology also followed psychological stress during COVID-19. This study occurred during strict lock-down (April 19-May 2, 2020) and followed 655 respondents to an on-line survey.3 These respondents were screened for symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as for coping strategies. For those with higher scores on a gratitude questionnaire, their feeling of gratitude was found to be a protective factor against psychological stress. Other protective factors included the presence of social supports and a higher Life Orientation Test (LOT) score. A LOT is a self-reported questionnaire used to determine optimism; the “glass half full” idea I mentioned earlier. A nice review of the LOT can be found here.4 The take-away here: a mindset of gratitude can be protective against psychological stress. So can having good friends and being optimistic. One last study involves a simple gratitude intervention that our family adopted as a practice. In this RCT, 1337 subjects were asked to fill out an online survey for 10-15 minutes daily for 14 days.5 Subjects were grouped and asked to list either five items that hassled or annoyed them, neutral events that affected them or things that they were grateful for. Various subjective, self-reported mental health scales were completed at day zero and day 14 of the study. These five scales included satisfaction with life, subjective happiness, depression and positive and negative affect. Overall, the gratitude group experienced an increase in positive affect, subjective happiness and life satisfaction, while also experiencing a reduction in negative affect and depression symptoms compared to the hassle group. Of interest, similar results were seen in the neutral group, except for the positive affect. None of these differences reached statistical significance, except for positive affect at day 7. The researchers noted that the lists from the neutral group tended to be positive in nature which may have explained the similar improvements. Also of note, the hassle group remarked that they did not like to recall all the negative things that happened during the day. The researchers summarized that a gratitude list was a “simple, cheap, easy and pleasant intervention to perform” and rarely contraindicated. So, if it’s proven that gratitude can increase resilience and be good for your mental health, how does one start? Like all things, there is an app for that. PositivePsychology.com has a nice curated list.6 I am a fan of Presently. If you wish to go analogue and free, follow the 5-item list intervention with scrap paper at work. One of the activities our family did was to create a gratitude board. Every day we added one new thing we were grateful for. After a few weeks the list got a little weak; our cat Luigi made the list several times. The Canadian Mental Health Association has a few online courses through the Recovery College based in Lethbridge7. You might also want to search the continuing education courses at your local University or College; University of Victoria has a few suitable courses. SkillShare also has courses on gratitude. I am grateful that there are no shortage of options for growing a mindset of gratitude. REFERENCES Psychology Today. Gratitude. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/gratitude Accessed March 12,2022. Fekete EM, Deichert NT. A Brief Gratitude Writing Intervention Decreased Stress and Negative Affect During the COVID-19 Pandemic [published online ahead of print, 2022 Feb 24]. J Happiness Stud. 2022;1-22. doi:10.1007/s10902-022-00505-6 Oryan Z, Avinir A, Levy S, Kodesh E, Elkana O. Risk and protective factors for psychological distress during COVID-19 in Israel [published online ahead of print, 2021 Jul 5]. Curr Psychol. 2021;1-12. doi:10.1007/s12144-021-02031-9 Positive Psychology.com. What is the Life Orientation Test and How to use it? (LOT-R) https://positivepsychology.com/life-orientation-test-revised/ Accessed March 22,2022 Cunha LF, Pellanda LC and Reppold CT (2019) Positive Psychology and Gratitude Interventions: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Front. Psychol. 10:584. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00584 PositivePsychology.com. 7 Best Gratitude Apps to Increase your Wellbeing. https://positivepsychology.com/gratitude-apps/ Accessed March 22,2022 Recovery College. Gratitude: Single Session On-line Class. https://recoverycollegecentralalberta.ca/course/gratitude-on-line-class/ Accessed March 22,2022

The proven benefits of practising gratitude

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Ian Lloyd