Positive Psychology Course and Its Relationship to Well-Being, Depression, and Stress

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of a positive psychology course on student well-being, depressive symptoms, and stress in a repeated measure, nonequivalent control design. As hypothesized, the positive psychology students reported higher overall happiness, life satisfaction, routes to happiness, and lower depressive symptoms and stress compared to students in the control course. These findings replicate previous research on the benefits of positive psychology courses on well-being and extend previous research by showing that the benefits generalize to other reliable and multidimensional measures of happiness as well as measures of depression and stress. Our results indicate that a positive psychology course may be one way to improve students’ mental health.

El afecto positivo como factor protector del comportamiento de rechazo a la escuela

“…En conclusión, y pese a las limitaciones encontradas, el presente estudio aporta los primeros hallazgos acerca de la relación entre el AP y el rechazo a la escuela. Además, se enmarca dentro de una línea de interés creciente en la actualidad como es la Psicología Positiva, centrada en el estudio de las emociones positivas y su influencia en el bienestar de la persona (Goodmon, Middleditch, Childs & Pietrasiuk, 2016;Leiva, George, Squicciarini, Simonsohn & Guzmán, 2016;Shoshani, Steinmetz & Kanat-Maymon, 2016).…”

Positive Psychology Course: A Way to Improve Well-Being

“…Results of the study showed that after taking the positive psychology course students reported improvements in several aspects of wellbeing including; mindfulness, selfactualization, hope and subjective happiness. Another study assessing the potential benefits of positive psychology course on students was conducted by Goodmon et al (2016). In that study, authors compared students who took positive psychology course to the students who took social psychology course.…”

The Gratitude visit: Student reflections on a positive psychology experiential learning exercise

“…Prior research has documented the psychological and subjective well-being benefits of taking a positive psychology course that includes positive psychology experiential learning exercises, such as writing a letter of gratitude to someone whom one had not formally thanked and writing down three good things that bring joy, pleasure, or meaning in life every day (Goodmon, Middleditch, Childs, & Pietrasiuk, 2016;Maybury, 2013;Seligman et al, 2009). As a replication of an earlier study of positive psychology course outcomes (Maybury, 2013), Goodmon et al (2016) found that increased happiness and life satisfaction, lower depression, and lower stress were reported by students in a positive psychology course, which included experiential exercises relevant to gratitude, character strengths, altruism, forgiveness, and savoring, compared to students enrolled in a control course. As positive psychological experiential exercises hold promise for promoting well-being in the classroom, further understanding of how students engage with such course exercises is necessary.…”