Can the
practice of gratitude actually improve mental health?
Many
studies extol the benefits of expressing gratitude. What’s different about this
study by Joel Wong and his colleagues are the participants. All of them were
psychotherapy patients. The research question: Would gratitude writing add
value to psychotherapy?
The patients
All 293 volunteers
were young adults having an average age of 22 and the youngest were age 18. Most
were women (65%). And most identified as “White/European.” They were seeking
psychotherapy services at a university.
The plan
The
researchers randomly assigned the patients to one of three groups.
1. Gratitude
Letter writing and Psychotherapy. In three gratitude sessions, the participants wrote letters of thanks
to people—most wrote to friends, mothers, and fathers. They had the option to
send their letters or not—23% sent a letter.
2.
Expressive Writing and Psychotherapy. In their sessions, the expressive writing
group wrote about the most stressful and upsetting experiences.
3. Psychotherapy
only. These participants
only received psychotherapy and thus served as a comparison group.
The Assessment
Assessment
Times
The participants
completed a measure of mental health at 4 different times.
1. Before
treatment then at intervals after the final writing session-
2. One week
after
3. Four
weeks after
4. Twelve
weeks after
Assessment Measures
1.
Behavioral Health Measure-20. This survey measures wellbeing, clinical symptoms,
and life functioning.
2. Language
analysis. This software (Linguistic Inquiry Word Count) developed by James
Pennebaker and others analyses the language people use. The researchers focused
on words related to mental health thus, expressions of positive and negative
emotions.
What Happened?
At weeks 4
and 12, patients in the gratitude
writing group reported better mental health compared to those in the other
groups.
The
improvement in mental health was better after 12 weeks compared to 4 weeks.
See the
article for details.
Comments
No study is
perfect or universally applicable. The authors addressed limitations in their
article.
As the
authors suggest, psychotherapists may want to consider the value of adding gratitude
letters as homework. Of course, this intervention must be based on the suitability
of a gratitude letter.
We now have
one more study supporting the value of expressing gratitude. It’s noteworthy
that we may benefit from writing a letter even if we do not actually send it. Gratitude
letters may actually bless us! Of course, that can be helpful when writing to someone
whom we cannot locate or who has died. Some people may not even remember us.
I would hypothesize
that religious people who express gratitude to God in prayer may be capturing a
blessing for themselves. Perhaps it is even stronger for those who write their
prayers as if writing a letter to God.
Gratitude- Read More
Count
Your Blessings: A Gratitude Experiment
Grateful
People: The Big 12 – Psychology of Gratitude
Cite this
post (APA)
Sutton, G.
W. (2022, November 13). Gratitude letters and psychological health. Geoff W.
Sutton Blog. Retrieved from https://geoffwsutton.blogspot.com/2022/11/gratitude-letters-and-psychological.html
Sharing ideas
#gratitude #gratitudeletters #positivepsychology
Reference
Wong, Y. J., Owen, J., Gabana, N.T., Brown, J.W. Mcinnis, S.,
Toth, P. & Gilman, L. (2016): Does gratitude writing improve the mental
health of psychotherapy clients? Evidence from a randomized controlled trial, Psychotherapy
Research, 28, (2) 1-11.
Resources
Living
Well: 10 Big Ideas of Faith and a Meaningful Life. Buy on AMAZON
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TWITTER @Geoff.W.Sutton
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