RESUMO
Gratitude can be understood in two ways: as a state of being grateful for things and people, and as a disposition. Research suggests that focusing on reasons for being grateful promotes various aspects of well-being. The present study examined the effectiveness of a gratitude intervention for women with breast cancer. Each day for 2 weeks, 42 women with breast cancer described their psychological well-being, social support, and coping strategies. Women in the intervention condition reported the reasons why they felt grateful that day. Moreover, all participants took part in a pre-test session where trait measures were taken to control for dispositional differences. Listing the reasons for gratitude led to higher levels of daily psychological functioning, greater perceived support, and greater use of adaptive coping strategies. These results suggest that gratitude interventions may improve the lives of oncological patients.
RESUMO
Participants in the study were recreational runners (N = 244) who maintained online diaries. Once a week for approximately 3 months they indicated how far they had run each day that week, and at the end of the week, they provided measures of their psychological well-being. A series of multilevel modeling analyses (weeks nested within persons) found that well-being, measured in terms of self-esteem, life satisfaction, self-efficacy, meaning in life, and affect, was positively related to how many days people ran each week and how far they ran each week. Satisfaction with one's progress mediated relationships between well-being and the amount of running, suggesting that increases in running lead to increases in satisfaction with progress, which lead to increased well-being. These results complement and extend existing research on the psychological benefits of exercise.
