cad a22 4500 390148091 20181203053344.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161201s2016 xx s 000 0 eng 10.5167/uzh-128346 doi 10.1016/j.paid.2016.02.056 doi (ZORA)oai:www.zora.uzh.ch:128346 150 ddc Wellenzohn Sara How do positive psychology interventions work? A short-term placebo-controlled humor-based study on the role of the time focus [Elektronische Daten] [Sara Wellenzohn, René T Proyer, Willibald Ruch] openAccess eu-repo The past years have seen a growing interest in the study of positive psychology interventions. Meta-analytic ev- idence suggests that they are effective in enhancing happiness and ameliorating depression. However, far less is known on why and how they work. We test two proposed working mechanisms: An attentional shift to the pos- itive, and savoring positive emotions. The proposed mechanisms are tested by manipulating the time focus (past, present, or future) in the instruction of a one-week online humor-based positive intervention (three funny things). A sample of 695 adults was randomly assigned to one of the intervention condition or a placebo control condition. All three variants were effective in enhancing happiness and ameliorating depressive symptoms from pre- to post-intervention compared to the placebo control condition. As expected, the present variant was asso- ciated with both mechanisms, while the past variant was more strongly associated with the savoring mechanism, and the future variant more strongly with the attentional shift mechanism. This initial study provides first sup- port for the potential working mechanisms of effective positive interventions. Institute of Psychology zora DoktoratPsych Erstautor zora Proyer René T. joint author Ruch Willibald joint author Personality and Individual Differences 96:1-6 https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/128346/1/WellenzohnProyerRuch_HowPPIwork_2016.pdf text/html WWW-Backlink auf das Repository 1 Journal Article PeerReviewed zora ZORA 856 40 https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/128346/1/WellenzohnProyerRuch_HowPPIwork_2016.pdf text/html WWW-Backlink auf das Repository ZORA 100 1- Wellenzohn Sara ZORA 700 1- Proyer René T. joint author ZORA 700 1- Ruch Willibald joint author ZORA 773 0- Personality and Individual Differences 96:1-6 BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 ZORA ZORA ZORA Journal Article openAccess