Positive Psychology

Gratitude is defined by its ability to create a sense of wonder, thankfulness and a general appreciation for life. So it makes sense that feeling happier, more energetic, helpful and more empathetic after practicing gratitude. Highly gracious people experience positive impacts within social relationships and the ability to cope in stressful situations. I am particularly interested in the correlation between gratitude and sleep. Disrupted sleep is a major predictor in neuroticism as well as informs its treatment. Considering the fact that gratitude is positively related to sleep quality, duration and daytime functioning, it may also be useful within interventions or even helpful hints for those seeking treatment. For example, if a client is going through a particularly stressful time and they complain about not being able to sleep or is feeling unrested throughout the day one suggestion may be to practice gratitude.

There are many ways to practiced gratitude, whether writing down five things you are thankful (grateful) for a couple times a week or even every day. For this particular example, I would recommend doing this exercise every night before he\she goes to bed; this way it will directly interact with pre-sleep cognitions. Gratitude reduces hedonic adaptations so at best this exercise could help increase the amount of time spent savoring thus bolstering self-esteem and inhibiting comparisons. At worst, it will make them feel worse if they struggle in completing the exercise, which is possible depending on their level of depression or anxiety at that time.

When asked, optimistic people report experiencing positive events more frequently than negative, as well as believe it is more likely that they will experience a positive event over a bad event. People also experience pleasant stimuli as a ‘bigger’ experience and are better able to accurately recall these positive events. Someone’s generalized belief that good things will be more frequent is measured by the Life Orientation Test (LOTR) and is called dispositional style of optimism. This style can also be considered big optimism which is based on less specific expectations and biological tendencies. Big optimism has been found to mediate health outcomes. Optimism also has an explanatory style. Individuals with a high explanatory style of optimism generally believe that negative events are cause by external, specific and unstable factors. This can be measured with the Attributional Styles Questionnaire. The concept of an explanatory style of optimism is originated in the theory of learned helplessness and thus oppositely correlated with learned hopefulness. This style of optimism can also be considered little optimism which is based on learning history with specific expectations. For example, if someone is told they have bad health, someone with ‘little optimism’ would attribute this to specific and concrete health choices they have made. On the other hand, someone with ‘big optimism’ will attribute their health to their general immune system. This is important when determining possible causes of stress. It is important to identify the thought process(s) that is(are) creating tension in order to begin inhibiting that tension.

Though being optimistic has a lot of possible benefits, one must be careful to avoid unrealistic optimism. This is optimism that undermines the seriousness of a situation or illness. It is important to maintain flexible or complex optimism. It is also necessary to recognize that not everyone will benefit in the same way from optimism, and in fact, can be harmful. Someone who functions better when utilizing defensive pessimism will perform worse if asked to approach a goal with optimism. For these individuals, telling themselves they will fail keeps them from losing the motivation they need to succeed. The same is true for individuals who practice strategic optimism. From this information, an example is insufficient when considering possible intervention strategies. For implementation purposes, it is important to recognize that everyone functions best through different strategies and the key is to find your ‘sweet spot’, when practicing optimism. If you can find the right balance, optimism can help you accomplish your goals as well as increasing your coping strategies.