The Effects of Manipulating Expectations in a Gratitude Intervention

Overview: Potential participants will be recruited from an undergraduate psychology class. Participants will have one week after initial study advertisement to read the consent form and decide if they wish to participate. When participants turn in a signed consent form, they will be officially enrolled in the study and issued a personal identification (PI) number to use throughout the study. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: gratitude + expectations, gratitude, or an everyday events control condition. Participants will be emailed six different times, once every two days, with a link to an anonymous Google form. Each Google form will instruct participants to type either a short gratitude list (for gratitude + expectations and gratitude conditions) or an events list (for everyday events control), and will have a section for participants to enter their personal identification numbers. Additionally, the first form will include a demographics questionnaire and the first and sixth forms will include questionnaires assessing all outcomes of interest.The primary outcome of interest is well‐being. The secondary outcomes of interest are sleep, state gratitude, healthcare self‐efficacy, stress, and depressive symptoms. Participants in the gratitude + expectations condition will have a statement at the top of their Google form about the benefits of gratitude. Examples of these statements are: "Practicing gratitude may increase social connectedness" and "Cultivating gratitude was shown to improve school satisfaction in a sample of students". By the end of the study, participants will have completed six gratitude or everyday events lists and two questionnaires. Interventions: 1. Gratitude + No Expectations: Participants in the gratitude condition will practice a counting your blessings intervention for two weeks. Participants will be instructed to list up to five things they are grateful for every two days for the two weeks of the intervention (six times total). 2. Gratitude + expectations: Participants in this condition will be given the same instructions as the gratitude condition and will also be given the regular reminders of the benefits of gratitude. 3. Everyday events: Participants will be instructed to list up to five details about their day, such as activities they engaged in, or conversations they had. Participants will make these lists every two days for two weeks (six times total). Questionnaires: Self‐report questionnaires with high test‐retest reliability and internal validity will be administered at baseline and post intervention to access changes in outcomes of interest, such as well‐being, depressive symptoms, and anxiety. Questionnaires administered only at baseline: Communication and Attitudinal Self‐Efficacy Scale (CASE) and demographic questionnaire Questionnaires administered pre‐ and post‐intervention: Mental Health Continuum‐Short Form, Patient‐Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Sleep Disturbance Scale, Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) duration items, Modified Differential Emotions Scale, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES‐D), Perceived Stress Scale 4