1. 15/07/2014 1 Positive Psychotherapy: Use of Positive Interventions and the Moderating Role of Personality European Conference for Positive Psychology July 2, 2014 Weiting Ng SIM University

2. 15/07/2014 2 Importance and benefits of SWB Subjective well-being (SWB)/happiness Life satisfaction Affect component: positive affect (PA) & negative affect (NA) (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999) Higher well-being is linked to more successful life outcomes (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005) Happiness Better outcomes in the work, social, and health domains Positive affect leads to success-enhancing behaviors Examples: sociability, better conflict resolution, more effective coping

3. 15/07/2014 3 Importance and benefits of SWB Benefits of positive affect: Broaden-and-build model Build physical, intellectual, and social resources Broaden scope of attention, cognition, and behavior Undo detrimental physiological effects of NA Improve psychological resilience Benefits on physical health ( Fredrickson, 1998; Isen, 2008; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004)

4. 15/07/2014 4 Positive interventions & well-being Positive interventions: activities that promote positive feelings, behaviors, or cognitions Positive activities enhance well-being Practicing gratitude; performing acts of kindness; visualizing best possible selves Higher life satisfaction; increased PA; reduced NA (Emmons & McCullough, 2003; Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005; Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006) Happiness-enhancing benefits of positive interventions endure (Cohn & Fredrickson, 2010) Increased happiness & decreased depressive symptoms even after 6 months (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005)

5. 15/07/2014 5 Positive interventions & well-being Positive psychotherapy Positive interventions are effective in treating clinical populations Build up positive psychological resources that can boost well-being instead of focusing on alleviating and eliminating negative mood symptoms Group positive psychotherapy reduced depressive symptoms and increased life satisfaction (Seligman, Rashid, & Parks, 2006) Meta-analysis: Positive psychology interventions were effective in alleviating depression (Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009)

6. 15/07/2014 6 Moderating role of personality on efficacy of positive interventions? Do positive interventions successfully enhance well-being for everyone? Would personality moderate the efficacy of positive interventions? Positive interventions Personality traits (e.g., neuroticism) Boost well-being (e.g., improve life (e.g., practicing gratitude, visualizing best possible selves) satisfaction, increase PA, reduce depressive symptoms)

7. 15/07/2014 7 Personality and well-being Neuroticism (N) is associated with lower happiness; Extraversion (E) is associated with greater happiness (Cheng & Furnham, 2003; DeNeve & Cooper, 1998; Hayes & Joseph, 2003) N is linked to higher negative affect; E is linked to higher PA (e.g., Costa & McCrae, 1980; Larsen & Ketelaar, 1989, 1991; Lucas & Fujita, 2000) Heritable differences in SWB accounted for by genetic influences from N, E, and C (Weiss, Bates, & Luciano, 2008)

8. 15/07/2014 8 Moderating influence of neuroticism on affect Personality differences in well-being Neuroticism moderates the effectiveness of regulation and coping strategies on mood repair Coping strategies are effective for low- but not high-N in alleviating depression (Bolger & Zuckerman, 1995) High N unable to use reappraisal successfully to reduce negative emotions (Ng & Diener, 2009) High N more susceptible to detrimental effects of maladaptive strategies on positive emotions (Ng, 2012) Does moderating influence of neuroticism extend to effects of positive activities on well-being?

9. 15/07/2014 9 Moderating role of personality on efficacy of positive interventions Extraversion and Openness Moderated impact of positive interventions on happiness and depressive symptoms (Senf & Liau, 2013) Greater benefits for those higher on extraversion & openness Neuroticism Moderated sustainability of positive intervention effects (Ng, 2014) Low-neuroticism individuals who exercised gratitude or kindness reported higher happiness compared to controls, a week after they stopped performing the activities (But no beneficial effect for high N) Beneficial effects on behavioral choice, however, endured

10. 15/07/2014 10 Factors that moderate efficacy of positive interventions Many other factors that moderate efficacy of positive interventions Motivation & effort; depression status; culture; features of activity (e.g., Sin & Lyubomisky, 2009) Only participants who were motivated and invested effort experienced enhanced well-being (Lyubomirsky, Dickerhoof, Boehm, & Sheldon, 2011) How to overcome moderating influences that weaken beneficial impact of positive interventions?

11. 15/07/2014 11 Maximizing success of positive interventions Practice Improves effectiveness of regulation strategies (Ng & Diener, 2013) Inform participants about the potential happiness-enhancing benefits of positive interventions Participants who were led to believe that visualizing best possible selves effectively improved well-being showed greater increases in PA than those who performed the same activity (Layous, Nelson, & Lyubomirsky, 2013)

12. 15/07/2014 12 Maximizing success of positive interventions Activities should vary in content and timing (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2007) Variety of positive activities Timing Methods of implementing positive psychology interventions Technological developments (e.g., smartphone applications) (Parks et al., 2012) Online self-administered positive interventions are as effective as those administered in-person (Layous et al., 2013)

13. 15/07/2014 13 Conclusions Positive interventions are effective Enhance well-being; reduce depressive symptoms (Emmons & McCullough, 2003; Lyubomirsky et al., 2005; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009) More effective than traditional psychotherapy/ antidepressant medication (Seligman et al., 2006) Moderating factors (e.g., personality) Eg: Neuroticism may moderate efficacy and durability of positive interventions Customize positive intervention treatment

14. 15/07/2014 14 Thank you