A systematic review of the strength of evidence for the most commonly recommended happiness strategies in mainstream media

Folk, Dunigan; Dunn, Elizabeth W.

doi:10.1038/s41562-023-01651-4

Cited by 20 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…Our study also strengthens this growing area of research interest by adhering to preregistration, making data openly available and looking at the longer-term benefits of psychoeducational courses. This is important because a recent systematic review of popular positive psychology interventions found that most studies did not adhere to pre-registration which undermined the credibility of the field (Folk & Dunn, 2023a), though it should be noted that the bulk of work was conducted at a time when such practices were not common (Folk & Dunn, 2023b). We agree that there needs to be rigorous methodological approaches when evaluating positive psychology.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term analysis of a psychoeducational course on university students’ mental well-being

Hobbs,

Jelbert,

Santos

et al. 2024

High Educ

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Although many higher educational institute (HEI) psychoeducational courses teaching positive psychology interventions report benefits to mental well-being upon completion, they have not typically addressed whether such beneficial effects are sustained long-term beyond the period of the courses. Here, we report a pre-registered follow-up of 228 undergraduate students, from a variety of disciplines, who took a positive psychology course 1 or 2 years previously. Overall, group analysis revealed that students who had taken the course did not continue to show the originally reported benefits at follow-up. Students who had taken the course scored higher on mental well-being than other students tested using a university-wide survey, but they were also higher at baseline 1–2 years earlier indicating a sampling bias. An exploratory analysis, however, revealed that 115 students (51% of the group) who had continued to practice the recommended activities taught during the course maintained their increased mental well-being over the period of follow-up. We therefore suggest that continued engagement is a key factor in sustaining the long-term benefits of positive psychology courses. Implementation of such courses should therefore include provision and mechanisms for maintaining future student engagement.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term analysis of a psychoeducational course on university students’ mental well-being

Hobbs,

Jelbert,

Santos

et al. 2024

High Educ

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“…Second, one primary focus includes individual-level interventions, such as PAIs. Although several meta-analyses suggest that these interventions improve individual well-being (e.g., Bolier et al, 2013;Carr et al, 2023;Sin and Lyubomirsky, 2009), a recent critique highlighted that most PAI studies are underpowered and lack pre-registered hypotheses (Folk & Dunn, 2023). Historically, researchers have used metaanalysis to integrate a large number of small studies to more accurately gauge effect sizes, but some scholars have recently argued that such an approach may amplify false positives (Simonsohn et al, 2022).…”

Section: Strengths Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Worker Well-Being: A Continuous Improvement Framework

Walsh,

Montemayor-Dominguez,

Horton

et al. 2023

Applied Research Quality Life

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Cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental research demonstrates that subjective well-being (e.g., positive emotions, life satisfaction) relates to, precedes, and leads to employee success on numerous work-related outcomes. We extend these findings by considering how organizations might improve worker well-being. Accordingly, we propose the Worker Well-Being Continuous Improvement Framework with three phases: (1) an initial phase with a pretest assessment of worker well-being; (2) a test phase, where a specific positive change to improve worker well-being is implemented; and (3) a concluding phase that administers a posttest assessment to examine the effectiveness of the change. We also discuss three important considerations to address when implementing the framework: (1) measuring employee well-being, (2) building thriving work cultures, and (3) deploying positive activity interventions. Consequently, organizations can rapidly test evidence-based practices to select the most relevant and effective positive changes for their employees.

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“…Integrative data analysis (IDA) of combined participant data facilitates such questions with greater power (Curran & Hussong, 2009). As Folk and Dunn (2023) Of course, IDA inherits any limitations of its constituent data sets. Using only high-quality preregistered studies is preferred, but judicious analysis of heterogeneous studies with transparency regarding limitations can still advance knowledge.…”

Section: Investigating Heterogeneity Through Integrative Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Leveraging Integrative Analyses to Advance the Science of Happiness

Ong,

Wilcox

2023

Preprint

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A recent review by Folk and Dunn (2023) in Nature Human Behaviour examinedevidence for commonly recommended strategies to increase happiness. They concluded that, contrary to popular portrayals, the empirical basis for many such strategies is weak as most supporting studies were neither preregistered nor adequately powered. The authors rightly call for more rigorous, confirmatory research—specifically large-scale, preregistered randomized controlled trials—to definitively establish the efficacy. However, while awaiting rigorous, large-scale studies, we need not dismiss existing research entirely. Valuable signals, which could inform future investigations, may remain despite study limitations. With careful application, quantitative synthesis methods, including meta-analysis (MA) and integrative data analysis (IDA), may yield insights from current imperfect studies. By integrating rigorous emerging evidence, we can build a more nuancedcumulative science of well-being.

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A systematic review of the strength of evidence for the most commonly recommended happiness strategies in mainstream media

Cited by 20 publications

References 96 publications

Long-term analysis of a psychoeducational course on university students’ mental well-being

Long-term analysis of a psychoeducational course on university students’ mental well-being

Worker Well-Being: A Continuous Improvement Framework

Leveraging Integrative Analyses to Advance the Science of Happiness

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