The Effects of a Character Strength Focused Positive Psychology Course on Undergraduate Happiness and Well-Being

• Published in: Journal of happiness studies 2021-01, Vol.22 (1), p.343-362
• Main Authors: Smith, Bruce W., Ford, C. Graham, Erickson, Kelly, Guzman, Anne
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: College students; Economics; Emotions; Happiness; Hypotheses; Loneliness; Personality and Social Psychology; Philosophy; Positive Psychology; Quality of Life Research; Research Paper; Social Sciences; Students; Undergraduate students; Well being
• ISSN: 1389-4978; 1573-7780
• DOI: 10.1007/s10902-020-00233-9

This study investigated the effects of a character strength focused positive psychology course on student well-being. The Values in Action character strengths were each presented as ways to increase both individual and community well-being. There were 112 undergraduate students in the positive psychology course and a comparison group of 176 undergraduates who took other psychology courses. They all completed the PERMA - Profiler (Butler and Kern in Int J Wellbeing 6:1–48, 2016) during the first and last week of the semester. This questionnaire assessed the five elements of positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment (PERMA) plus happiness, health, loneliness, and negative emotion. The hypotheses were that (1) the positive psychology students would have significant improvements in each of the measures during the semester and (2) these changes would be significantly greater in the desired direction than the changes for the students in other psychology courses. The first hypothesis was supported in that the positive psychology students had significant improvements in all of the measures, including the total PERMA score. The second hypothesis was also strongly supported in that these improvements were significantly greater relative to the students taking other psychology courses. The effect sizes for the difference between the groups were large for the total PERMA score ( d  = .846) and the element of meaning; medium-to-large for positive emotion and relationships; medium for happiness, accomplishment, and negative emotion (decrease); and small-to-medium for engagement, health, and loneliness (decrease).