An intervention study of the relations of positive affect to the coping strategy of ‘finding positive meaning’ and health

Abstract

This study examined the relations of positive affect (PA) to the coping strategy of ‘finding positive meaning’ and to health. Participants in the intervention group (29 university students) wrote about a happy event once a week in an experimental room and noted happy events each day as homework for four consecutive weeks. In addition, they received a small present each time they left the room after writing. Participants in the control group (29 university students) wrote about and noted trivial neutral events instead of happy events, and they did not receive any small presents. Results showed that PA induced by this manipulation did not significantly enhance coping but did significantly improve health status on several self-report scales.

Keywords:

• positive affect
• coping strategy of ‘finding positive meaning’
• intervention
• health status

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by a grant from the Japan Society of the Promotion of Science (No. 17530510).