From Emotion Beliefs to Regulatory Behavior: Gratitude Journaling Initiation and Outcomes

• Published in: Journal of happiness studies Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 57 - 78
• Main Authors: Yu, Chen-Wei, Chang, Yen-Ping, Li, Cheng-Hsien, Wu, Hsiang-Yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavior; Economics; Emotional regulation; Emotions; Happiness; Locus of control; Personality and Social Psychology; Philosophy; Positive Psychology; Quality of Life Research; Research Paper; Social Sciences; Writing; gratitude journal; emotion regulation; positive affect; positive intervention; beliefs about emotion
• ISSN: 1389-4978; 1573-7780
• DOI: 10.1007/s10902-022-00584-5

Writing a gratitude journal is an effective way to boost positive affect. However, little is known about what factors drive people to engage in this activity and whether such factors are related to the outcomes of the activity. This investigation attempted to answer these two questions. We proposed that two beliefs about emotion—desirability of happiness and uncontrollability of negative emotion—motivate people’s engagement in a gratitude journal. We recruited 311 participants online and examined whether and via what paths people’s beliefs about emotion translated to their voluntary initiation of a gratitude journal. We further tested (among those who initiated a journal) whether the emotional outcomes of writing a journal could be predicted by their beliefs about emotion (n = 101). The results showed that the desirability of happiness belief predicted the initiation of a gratitude journal via both the attitude-intention and the subjective norm-intention paths. Furthermore, this belief was positively related to the change in people’s ideal positive affect after writing the journal. In contrast, the uncontrollability of negative emotion belief did not predict journal initiation because the negative effect through the perceived behavioral control-intention path and the positive effect through the intention-only path canceled each other out. Furthermore, this belief was positively related to the change in people’s actual positive affect after writing the journal. Together, the findings delineate an emotion belief-to-emotion regulation behavior link and the consequences of such behavior. Implications for the design of gratitude journals specifically and positivity activity interventions generally are discussed.