Exam 9: Stability and Change

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The overall message is that positive interventions can work, but this does not mean that we have strong evidence for every individual tool in the collection. For example, the technique of using active-constructive responding is frequently mentioned in reviews (based on encouraging nonintervention research; see Chapter 8), but the only two studies that tested it as an intervention produced inconclusive results (Schueller, 2010; Woods, Lambert, Brown, Fincham, & May, 2015).
Additionally, when the results of many intervention studies are averaged, the degree of well-being change is relatively small, compared to control conditions. The potential upsides of widespread use and the relatively low cost of these interventions mean that reliable but small effects could still produce tremendous benefits. Still, dramatic boosts in happiness are not the norm.
Moreover, as more time passes between the initial intervention and the follow-up tests, we see fewer studies, and among the studies that do exist, the size of the happiness boosts gets smaller. For example, writing a gratitude letter today is unlikely to make you happy a year from now. This may seem obvious; yet, the ultimate goal for positive interventions is to foster lasting gains in well-being. The more intensive interventions, such as those that involve direct contact with a counsellor and that involve weeks of (group) therapy, tend to produce larger and longer lasting results. Such interventions are not the prototypical positive activities, but they are usually included in the meta-analyses that conclude successful well-being increases. We must be careful to avoid ascribing the effects of intensive interventions to trivial activities.