The Impact of a Gratitude Intervention on Health: a Psychophysiological Approach

Abstract

Gratitude has been shown to be beneficial for self-reported positive health measures in previous research (Aghababaei, & Farahani, 2011; Algoe & Stanton, 2012; Emmons & Stern, 2013; Hill & Allemand, 2011; Hill, Allemand, & Roberts, 2013; Hyland, Whalley, & Geraghty, 2007; Lin, 2014; Lin & Yeh, 2014). However, previous research had not evaluated a gratitude intervention in conjunction with physiology. The current study attempted to evaluate the impact of a 14-day gratitude intervention on self-reported health measures, positive emotions, and heart rate and pNN50 in a sample of undergraduate college students. Self-reported health measures were taken before and after the intervention with mood being assessed during an ambulatory period. Physiological measures were recorded during the same ambulatory period and also in a laboratory setting. The results indicated non-significant differences between gratitude and control on physiology, self-reported positive health and mood, seemingly due to a lack of a successful manipulation.