Opening To Life Energy: Life in a Group
New Research Suggests Key to Happiness is Gratitude—and Men May be Locked Out
Mar. 12, 2009
Media Contact: Tara Laskowski, tlaskows@gmu.edu 703-993-8815
FAIRFAX, Va.—With Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and high school and college graduations upcoming, there will be plenty of gift-giving and well wishes. When those start pouring in, let yourself be grateful—it’s the best way to achieve happiness according to several new studies conducted by Todd Kashdan, associate professor of psychology at George Mason University.
Gratitude, the emotion of thankfulness and joy in response to receiving a gift, is one of the essential ingredients for living a good life, Kashdan says. Kashdan’s most recent paper, which was published online this week at the Journal of Personality, reveals that when it comes to achieving well-being, gender plays a role. He found that men are much less likely to feel and express gratitude than women.
“Previous studies on gratitude have suggested that there might be a difference in gender, and so we wanted to explore this further—and find out why. Even if it is a small effect, it could make a huge difference in the long run,” says Kashdan.
In one study, Kashdan interviewed college-aged students and older adults, asking them to describe and evaluate a recent episode in which they received a gift. He found that women compared with men reported feeling less burden and obligation and greater levels of gratitude when presented with gifts. In addition, older men reported greater negative emotions when the gift giver was another man.
“The way that we get socialized as children affects what we do with our emotions as adults,” says Kashdan. “Because men are generally taught to control and conceal their softer emotions, this may be limiting their well-being.”
As director of the Laboratory for the Study of Social Anxiety, Character Strengths, and Related Phenomena at Mason, Kashdan is interested in the assessment and cultivation of well-being, curiosity, gratitude and meaning and purpose in life. He has been active in the positive psychology movement since 2000, when he taught one of the first college courses on the science of happiness.
Kashdan says that if he had to name three elements that are essential for creating happiness and meaning in life it would be meaningful relationships, gratitude, and living in the present moment with an attitude of openness and curiosity. His book “Curious?,” which outlines ways people can enhance and maintain the various shades of well-being, is scheduled for release in April 2009 with HarperCollins.
Group-taught meditation is as effective as staying on drug treatments for stopping people slipping back into depression, say UK scientists.
Compared to one-to-one sessions, or medication, "mindfulness-based cognitive therapy" (MBCT) is cheaper for the NHS, they say.
The trial of 123 people found similar relapse rates in those having group therapy and those taking drugs.
Recent years have seen much more evidence that so-called "talking therapies" can be as effective as drugs in alleviating mild to moderate depression, and health secretary Alan Johnson recently announced millions in new funding for the treatments.
However, this is the first time, according to its authors, that a group therapy has been shown as an alternative to a prescription.
The study, funded by the Medical Research Council, found MBCT, developed in 2002 by a team of psychologists from Canada, Oxford, and Cambridge, was actually more effective than medication in improving patients' quality of life.
The sessions involve the teaching of meditation techniques based on some found in Buddhism.
The aim is to teach skills which help patients recognise and cope with their tendency towards depression.
GP alternative
Di Cowan, from East Devon, had suffered from depression since his late teens.
The 53-year-old said: "It's helped me immensely - it's given me the ability to come up against something that would have previously thrown me, think it through, come up with a solution and then move on.
"My view of the world has changed and I look at life in a new light."
One of those championing the technique is Professor Willem Kuyken, of the Mood Disorders Centre at the University of Exeter.
He said: "Our results suggest MBCT may be a viable alternative for some of the 3.5 million people in the UK known to be suffering from this debilitating condition.
"I think we have the basis for offering patients and GPs an alternative to long-term antidepressant medication."
Marjorie Wallace, the chief executive of mental health charity SANE, said the charity would be helping to fund future research into how "ancient meditative techniques" could work together with modern psychotherapy in people with long-term depression.
She said: "We are delighted that this study shows the potential of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy as an alternative for the treatment of severe and recurring depression.
"Just one in five depressed callers to our helpline report that they are receiving any kind of talking therapy, which is recommended as a first line of treatment."
