Positive psychology interventions in people aged 50–79 years: long-term effects of placebo-controlled online interventions on well-being and depression

Abstract

Objectives: Various positive psychology interventions have been experimentally tested, but only few studies addressed the effects of such activities in participants aged 50 and above.

Method: We tested the impact of four self-administered positive psychology interventions in an online setting (i.e., gratitude visit, three good things, three funny things, and using signature strengths in a new way) on happiness and depressive symptoms in comparison with a placebo control exercise (i.e., early memories). A total of 163 females aged 50–79 tried the assigned interventions or the placebo control exercise for one week and completed measures on happiness and depressive symptoms at five times (pre- and post-test, 1, 3, and 6 months).

Results: Three out of the four interventions (i.e., gratitude visit, three good things, and using signature strengths in a new way) increased happiness, whereas two interventions (three funny things and using signature strengths in a new way) led to a reduction of depressive symptoms on at one post-measure.

Conclusion: Positive psychology interventions yield similar results for people aged 50 and above as for younger people. The dissemination of such interventions via the Internet offers a valuable opportunity for older age groups as well.

Keywords:

• depression
• older adults
• happiness
• positive interventions
• well-being

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr Frank A. Rodden for proofreading the manuscript.

Notes

1. Given space restrictions we paraphrase the original instructions here only. We give the core instructions. In our studies we use these instructions plus some further explanations on how to conduct the study and give some examples to make it easier following the instructions. We also provide a working sheet for download that can be used by the participants for the practical completion of the intervention (e.g., giving space for completion of an intervention on Day 1, Day 2, and so forth). The full instructions are available from the authors.

2. A table with all F-scores for the comparisons has been uploaded as supplemental material (Table 2).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation [grant number 100014_132512] (awarded to René T. Proyer and Willibald Ruch).