More cutting edge research is being reported at the APA convention, this time it is the finding that being grateful is good for you. Or something like that. The APA press release on the presentation can be read here: http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2012/08/health-benefits.aspx
And the presentation is: Presentation: “Searching for the Developmental Role of Gratitude: A 4-year Longitudinal Analysis,” Giacomo Bono, PhD, Symposium Session 4151, noon to 1:50 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 5, Room W104B, Level 1, Orange County Convention Center. NOTE: it is important to remember that people who write press releases are not necessarily researchers or have research background which means that they may not see problems in research designs, raise questions about how or why certain things were done, and may create confusion because they leave out details while focusing on creating snappy, interesting copy that will be picked up the national news services (e.g., the "Stop Lying" research I posted about yesterday has made it to the national newspaper and, I believe, the USA Today might even have it on the first page). Here are some points about the "Gratefulness" study: (1) Quoting from the press release, here is the design: |“Gratitude played an important role in many areas of positive mental |health of the teens in our study,” said lead author Giacomo Bono, PhD, |psychology professor at California State University. “Increases in |gratitude over a four-year period were significantly related to improvements |in life satisfaction, happiness, positive attitudes and hope.” | |To measure the development of gratefulness, researchers asked 700 |students ages 10 to 14 to complete questionnaires in their classroom |at the beginning of the study and four years later to provide comparison |data. When comparing the results of the least grateful 20 percent of the |students with the most grateful 20 percent, they found that teens with |the most gratitude by the end of the four-year period had: The above text is unclear: is an extreme groups design being used and compared at Year 4 (top 20% in Year 1 vs bottom 20% in Year 1) or is the focus on change in gratitude score between Year 1 and Year 4? (2) It would be remarkable if the 700 students measured in Year 1 were still in the same school at Year 4, so, either they had great research assistants who hunted down those students 4 years later or there was a larger sample used in Year 1 and the attrition rate needs to be known to determine how representative the final sample is. (3) It is unclear but I think that they used students with the most extreme 20% gratefulness scores in Year 1 and the two groups were compared on other measures in Year 4. But a well-known problem with such extreme-groups design is that regression to the mean will cause a number of students who are extreme in Year 1 not be extreme in Year 4. But there is no information about what portion of the initial 20% remain high or low in gratefulness 4 years later. (4) There is not much information about how the most extreme 20% differed outside of their gratefulness scores. One would want to know if there were differences in SES status, parents education, health status, and any number of other background variables that may be correlated with gratefulness and would serves as rival hypotheses to "gratefulness" as a causal factor in producing beneficial effects. There is this that was said: |For the purposes of the study, the authors defined grateful teens |as having a disposition and moods that enabled them to respond |positively to the good people and things in their lives, Bono said. |The four-year study took place in New York with a sample that |was 54 percent girls, 67 percent white, 11 percent Asian-American, |10 percent African-American, 1.4 percent Hispanic, 9 percent other |and 1.6 percent no response. Perhaps the researchers are assuming some sort of genetically based predisposition for being "grateful" which will remain very stable from Time 1 to Time 2 and/or throughout one's lifetime regardless of one's experiences. But if this is so, is it fair to infer that those with low gratefulness are doomed to negative outcomes? Or is it best to think of the situation as an interaction between gratefulness measured at one time and the degree and/or magnitude of negative life experiences which might reduce one's degree of gratefulness beyond that predicted by regression to the mean. Well, I guess we'll have to wait until the study is published in a peer-reviewed journal before we have these and other details. In the meantime, don't be surprised if the popular media picks up on this story and touts that benefits of being "grateful". -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] P.S. Anyone else wondering if one of the co-authors has a last name of "Edge"? ;-) --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=19509 or send a blank email to leave-19509-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
