A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Human Sciences

LIBRARY

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

EFFECTS OF AN ISLAMIC-BASED GRATITUDE STRATEGY ON MUSLIM STUDENTS' LEVEL OF

HAPPINESS BY

ALI YOUSSEF ALSEHEEL

A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Human Sciences

(Psychology)

Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences

International Islamic University Malaysia

August 2012

ABSTRACT

In spite of the extensive evidence indicating that Positive Psychology Interventions (PPI) can increase people's happiness and consequently have beneficial life outcomes, no study so far has investigated the possible effective way to increase Muslims' happiness. This study was intended to examine the effects of an Islamic-based expressive gratitude strategy, in comparison to a Western-based expressive gratitude strategy, in enhancing Muslims' level of happiness by emphasising on the spiritual aspects of human being (based on the Islamic understanding of human nature). It was hypothesised that practicing the Islamic-based gratitude exercise (by associating blessings with Allah) would result in higher happiness level over time, compared to the happiness level of Muslim participants practicing the Western-based gratitude exercise (without specific association). A 16-day experimental study examined the happiness outcomes of regularly practicing two gratitude exercises over time; Islamic- based and W estem-based gratitude. In a control exercise, participants attended to the details of their daily life. Muslim undergraduates (N=60) performed one of three exercises over the experimental time period and were assessed for pre and post happiness measures. Results generally supported the hypothesis, and suggest that the Islamic-based gratitude may be the most beneficial for raising Muslim participants' happiness level because it fits with their beliefs and values by emphasising on both the spiritual and bodily aspects of human being. The results of including Islamic-oriented intervention to promote Muslim happiness and their implications are discussed.

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APPROVAL PAGE

I certify that I have supervised and read this study and that in my opinion it conforms to acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a dissertation fur the degree of Master of~"""'". Sci"."ces (Psychology).

N~:~-~ ...

Supervisor

I certify that I have read this study and that in my opinion it conforms to acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a dissertation for the degree of Master of Human Sciences (Psychology).

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Mardiana Mohamad Examiner

This dissertation was submitted to the Department of Psychology and is accepted as a fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Human Sciences (Psychology).

~~ ...

Harris Shah Abd.Hamid

Head, Department of Psychology

This dissertation was submitted to the Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences and is accepted as a fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Human Sciences (Psychology).

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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this dissertation is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently submitted as a whole for any other degrees at IIUM or other institutions.

Ali Youssef Al-Seheel

Sigmrture~.· ... .. Date ...

~~-~:.~~~-

V

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

DECLARATION OF COPYRIGHT AND AFFIRMATION OF FAIR USE OF UNPUBLISHED RESEARCH

Copyright© 2012 by Ali Youssef AI-Seheel. All rights reserved.

EFFECTS OF AN ISLAMIC-BASED GRATITUDE STRATEGY ON MUSLIM STUDENTS' LEVEL OF HAPPINESS

No part of this unpublished research may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder except as provided below.

1. Any material contained in or derived from this unpublished research may only be used by others in their writings with due acknowledgement.

2. HUM or its library will have the right to make and transmit copies (print or electronic) for institutional and academic purposes.

3. The HUM Library will have the right to make, store in a retrieval system and supply copies of this unpublished research if requested by other universities or research libraries.

Affirmed by Ali Youssef AI-Seheel

(e· .. /~.~.,.. .. ?.:~~?:-

Signature Date

vi

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In the name of Allah, The All- Beneficent, The All-Merciful. All praise is due to Allah (SWT) the Lord of mankind and universe. The source of all goodness, knowledge, and ultimate happiness. All Prayers and Blessings of Allah (SWT) be upon his messenger, our greatest educator, our master, and the best of human being; the Prophet Muhammad (SAWS).

First and foremost, I thank Allah (SWn for endowing me with strength, patience, and knowledge to complete this work. Words are bound and knowledge is limited to praise Allah for His mercy and compassion, whose bounteous blessings and exaltation flourished my thoughts and thrived my ambition to have the cherished fruit of my modest efforts through this work. Deepest gratitude to Allah for His blessing for giving me the power to believe in myself and pursue my dreams despite all obstacles.

I could never have done this without the faith I have in Allah, the Almighty.

Special appreciation and deepest gratitude goes to my esteemed supervisor Prof.

Noraini Mohd. Noor, for her kindness, patience, sincerity, untiring efforts and continuous guidance and encouragements throughout the course of my research. I thank her for the dedication, emotional support, valuable comments, knowledge and experience she has provided me. I would have been lost without her guidance. In addition, I deem it a great honour to express my deepest sense of gratitude to Prof.

Malik Badri, for setting an inspiring model to follow and as living example of a true Muslim Psychologist. Also, special thanks go to Prof. Stephen Jambunathan, for the generous knowledge that he provided, kindness, compassion, an inspiring example of a therapist devoting most of his time to relives others sufferings and living psychology in every details of life.

Most importantly, I would have not gone any far without the sincere love, support, and prayers of my mother. No words can describe my profound gratitude to you Mom.

Deepest gratitude goes to my father for his wisdom, perseverance and hardwork that have always been an inspiration for me. Humble veneration to my parents. I also extend my profound gratefulness to my wife for her continuous help, patience, understanding, and support.

I do find it obligatory also to express my innermost gratitude to my best friend Omar Al-Hashash. Without his support and insights during the difficult days, I would not be in this position. Many deep thanks go to my dear brother Ezhar Bin Ibrahim for his friendship, generous help and support since my first days in Malaysia. Many thanks to my dear brothers; Ibrahim Bouzidani, Zhafry Hakim, and Salami Mutiu for their friendship as well and their continuous support. Without these blessed friends, life would be difficult indeed.

Finally, I offer my special thanks to everyone who contributed in a way or another to complete this work. May Allah grant all of the above cited personalities with the best rewards and happiness in this life and the Hereafter.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ... ii

Abstract in Arabic ... iii

Approval Page ... iv

Declaration Page ... v

Declaration of Copyright ...

~!

Acknowledgments ... vn List of Tables ... xi

List of Figures ... xii

CHAP'fER 1: INTRODUCTION ... 1

Statement of the Problem ... 3

Objective of the Study ... 6

Justification of the Study ... 6

Conceptual and Operational Definitions ... 8

Happiness ... 8

Gratitude ... 9

CHAP'fER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ... 10

Introduction . ... ... ... .. ... ... ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... . 10

Early Barriers to Increase Happiness ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... . 10

Overcoming Past Research Barriers ... 11

Gratitude and Happiness ... 13

Religion, Gratitude and Happiness ... 14

Gratitude in Islam ... 18

Past Studies on Gratitude as a Means of Fostering Happiness ... 20

Summary ... 25

Conceptual Framework ... 27

Hypotheses ... 29

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ... 30

Introduction ... 30

Participants ... 31

Procedure (Intervention) ... 33

Measures ... 35

Study Design ... 35

Data Analyses ... 35

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CHAPTER 4: RESULTS ... 40

Descriptive Analyses ... 40

Hypotheses Testing: Group by Time on Happiness ... .42

Additional Analysis on Gratitude ... .48

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION ... 52

Overview ... 52

Islamic-based Gratitude as an Effective Mean to Foster Happiness .... 53

Islamic-based Gratitude vs. Western-based Gratitude ... 55

Happiness Reduction in the Control Group ... 56

Effects of Experimental Interventions on Gratitude ... 57

Theoretical Implications of the Findings ... 59

Practical Implications of the Findings ... 60

Limitations of the study ... 61

Future Directions ... 62

Conclusion ... 63

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 65

APPENDIX I: THE SCALE OF POSITNE AND NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE (SPANE) ... 72

APPENDIX II: SATISFACTION WITH LIFE SCALE (SWLS) ... 73

APPENDIX III: THE GRATITUDE QUESTIONNAIRE - SIX ITEM FORM (GQ-6) ... 74

APPENDIX IV: EXERCISES SHEETS ... 75

X

LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Page No.

3.1

Subjectl)emographics

32

4.1

Means (SI)) for happiness by exercise condition over the treatment time

42

4.2

Results of mixed design analysis of variance on happiness

44

4.3

Post-hoc pairwise multiple comparisons using Turkey HSDtest

46

4.4

Simple effect of time for Islamic-based group

47

4.5

Simple effect of time for Western-based group

47

4.6

Simple effect of time for Life-details control group

48

4.7

Means (SD) for gratitude by exercise condition over the treatment time

50

4.8

Results of mixed design analysis of variance on gratitude

50

xi

Figure No.

2.1

2.2

4.1

4.2

LIST OF FIGURES

The Theoretical Framework

The Conceptual Framework

Effects of treatment groups on change in happiness, relative to the control group, over the two time periods

Effects of treatment groups on change in gratitude, relative to the control group, over the two time periods

xii

Page No.

13

29

44

51

CHAPTERONE INTRODUCTION

For more than a century, psychological sciences and specifically psychotherapies have focused on exploring and recovering what is wrong with people, human deficits, and negatives (Seligman, Rashid & Parks, 2006). Nevertheless, examining and improving human strength, flourishing and positives have largely been overlooked and neglected (Seligman, Rashid & Parks, 2006). This emphasis on human negatives and problems has been successful in alleviating several psychological disorders and easing their symptoms, but has seriously fallen behind in promoting human strength and satisfaction (Seligman, Rashid & Parks, 2006). Human positives and strength have been viewed as by-products of alleviating negative symptoms and psychotherapies (Seligman, Rashid & Parks, 2006). However, easing human sufferings does not necessarily mean enhancing human well-being and happiness (Rashid, 2009).

Even though many people around the world reported positive levels of well- being (Diener & Diener, 1996), many tend to not be satisfied with their lives. Yet, they are not clinically diagnosed with any mental illnesses (Fredrickson, 2008).

Therefore, attaining greater happiness has been noted to be the ultimate goal for many nations and people around the world (Diener & Diener, 1996).

Over the past decade, research in the field of positive psychology has emerged to answer and guide scientists towards questions of human thriving; especially the concept of human well-being (Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009). According to Ryan and Deci (2001), human well-being (WB) can be defined through two principle approaches: hedonic, which focuses on happiness and defines well-being in terms of

pleasure attainment and pain avoidance; and eudaemonic, which focuses on meaning and self-realization, and defines well-being in terms of the degree to which a person is fully functioning. However, many scientists have adapted the hedonic approach, to conduct empirical research on well-being, typically by inquiring into the personal experiences of Subjective Well-Being (SWB) or happiness.

The field of positive psychology focuses mainly on studying positive behaviours (e.g., the act of kindness), positive cognitions (e.g., gratitude), and positive emotions (e.g., joy, contentment, serenity, interest, vitality, and pride), which are all hallmarks of happiness (Diener, Sandvik & Pavot, 1991). Gratitude as amain theme in positive psychology can be seen as a cognitive assessment of achievement followed by judgment that such achievement is from someone else (Solomon, 1977).

Emotionally, gratitude is a state that is often a function of being able to recognise that someone has obtained a positive outcome, and that there is an external source responsible for this positive outcome or gain (Weiner, 1985). The benefit, positive outcome, or gain might be concrete or abstract (e.g., emotional or spiritual), and more importantly, the object of gratitude is other-directed such as human or nonhuman intentional agents (e.g., God; Solomon, 1977). In addition, a certain number of researchers agree that these positive attitudes of gratitude foster more constructive cognitive judgments of life-satisfaction and overall well-being (Buss, 2000; Suh, Diener, Oishi & Triandis, 1998) where the ability to express these emotions have been revealed to further improve a sense of happiness (Fredrickson & Joiner, 2002).

Overall, these positive qualities that positive psychology focuses on have appeared to be beneficial during the process of recovery from negative events, and hold numerous social, intellectual, and physical benefits for an individual (Fredrickson, 2001;

Fredrickson, 2008). Therefore, studying the causes and the mechanisms behind the

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processes to increase happiness is considered to be one of the central aims of positive psychology (Lyubomirsky & Dickrhoof, 2010).

Recently, many promising approaches have been formulated to increase happiness, which is generally known as Positive Psychology Interventions (PPI), and is defined as treatments, methods, or intentional activities that aim to cultivate positive feelings, behaviours, or cognitions (Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009). PPI strategies have been shown in several studies to increase well-being in non-clinical samples ( e.g., Fordyce, 1977; Ruini et al., 2006), as well as boosting positive affects in a diverse range of mental illnesses (e.g., depression; Seligman, Rashid & Parks, 2006). They can specifically be beneficial for treating low positive affect, engagement, and life meaning that typically characterises depression (Seligman, Rashid & Parks, 2006).

1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The study of the concept of happiness is considered to be one of the greatest scientific challenges since it is an important yet exceptionally subjective construct (Diener, 1984). Moreover, studying happiness is in great demand nowadays. Despite the current increase on wealth in many nations worldwide, and advancements in technology, medicine, and scientific knowledge, these elements have not substantially impacted human happiness positively (Diener & Seligman, 2004). Gradually, many studies in the field of positive psychology have emerged to address the topic of happiness and how it can improve human functioning.

Rashid (2009) argues that traditional psychotherapy has to be re-evaluated, and not as a therapy where merely problems are discussed and symptoms are reduced, but also where strengths are discovered, positive affects are cultivated and positive cognition and behaviours are fostered. Moreover, the basis of this philosophy or the

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fundamental assumptions about human nature in the West that drives psychology in general, and psychotherapy specifically, are facing a lot ofrecent criticisms within the scientific field itself (Seligman, 2003).

The Western view of human nature in the psychological scientific tradition falls mainly into two schools of thought. The first school considers human nature as basically negative, sinful, and originally sick (Badri, 2003; Linley & Joseph, 2004).

Sigmund Freud, who is considered by many psychologists as the father of modem psychotherapy (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2004), represents this view in many of his main thoughts and theories. That was adapted from the concept of the original sin in Christian's theology (Linley & Joseph, 2004). This view has dominated mainstream psychology and psychotherapy for decades (Badri, 1979).

The second school perceives human nature as ultimately good, self-free, and self-determinant, without any influence from any superior power or God (Ali, 1995).

Carl Rogers (1959), one of the founders of humanistic psychology (the field regarded as the predecessor of positive psychology; Resnick, Warmoth & Selin, 2001), proposed that:

This is the inherent tendency of the organism to develop all its capacities in ways which serve to maintain or enhance the organism. It involves, not only the tendency to meet what Maslow terms 'deficiency needs' for air, food, water, and the like, but also more generalized activities . . . It is development towards autonomy and away from heteronomy, or control by external forces (196).

These assumptions, that are either distorted and undermine the good side of man (such as from a Freudian perspective), or are secular humanistic and undermine the existence of God and the spiritual aspect of man (such as from a Rogerian perspective), are largely in contrast with Islamic principles and the understanding of human nature. Increasingly, all human science mainstream schools of thought have

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focused on the material entity of man, with less emphasis on the spiritual aspect and the role of God, except when seen as a human invention (Ragab, 1997).

Islamic revealed knowledge provides a drastically different view of human nature that involves all essential components of man, both material and spiritual.

According to Ragab (1997), human nature from an Islamic perspective includes the following propositions; human beings are unique and dignified vicegerents of God, with a free will, and yet, their submission to God remains a priority. Human beings are creatures created by an omnipotent, omniscient, and most merciful one God. Thus, all human behaviours, cognitions, and intentions, have to submit to the dominant God;

"Say: Truly, my prayer and my service of sacrifice, my life and my death, are (all) for Allah, the Cherisher of the Worlds" (Qur'an, al-An'am: 162).

To summarise, works on happiness that are based on the Western perception of human nature in the psychological scientific tradition, need to be re-evaluated for Muslims. This is in order to resolve the deficient spiritual aspect of man in its theories and practice, and the misconception about human nature and free will. More specifically, in spite of the emerging research investigating the link between gratitude and happiness, the vast majority of the research adapted Western psychological perspective of human nature with less emphasis on human spiritual aspect. More importantly, none of the past research adopted an Islamic understanding of happiness to develop an Islamic-oriented strategy that suits Muslims beliefs and exploring its effects in enhancing Muslims happiness compared to strategies developed in the West as well as exploring the effective way to promote Muslims happiness. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of an Islamic-based happiness inducing strategy of counting and expressing gratitude towards Almighty Allah in daily life to promote happiness in Muslim participants.

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1.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study was to examine the effects of an Islamic-based expressive gratitude strategy, as compared to a Western-based expressive gratitude strategy, in enhancing Muslim students' level of happiness.

1.3 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY

Past research in the field of happiness has highlighted the importance of studying happiness mainly due to its scientific-based beneficial life outcomes. Happy individuals are not just people who have good feelings; research shows that happy people are healthier, productive, successful, socially engaged, and live a happier marital life (Lyubomirsky, King & Diener, 2005a; Pressman & Cohen, 2005).

Furthermore, happiness relieves depression, broadens mind-sets, and facilitates flourishing (Fredrickson, 2009). Therefore, scientists have in many ways considered that increasing individual happiness is the ultimate goal in the field of positive psychology (Seligman, Steen, Park & Peterson, 2005). Therefore, it is vital to understand the aspects of happiness and how to promote human well-being, for the good of individuals and societies in general.

However, most previous research on happiness have adopted a secular stance that undermines the spiritual aspect of man in promoting happiness. In contrast, the Islamic understanding of human nature provides a balanced stance in which the material and the spiritual entity of human beings are emphasised in a balanced manner to achieve happiness. Ragab (1997) argues that it would be impossible to comprehend any study of human suffering and mental illnesses without basing the study on a clear and genuine understanding of what is human nature. Contrary to the Western understanding of human nature in which the source of knowledge is confined only to

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human intellects and senses, a Muslim's source of genuine understanding of human nature is derived from the revealed knowledge of the Creator of man: "Then seest thou such a one as takes as his god his own vain desire (his ego)? Allah has, knowing (him as such), left him astray, and sealed his hearing and his heart (and understanding), and put a cover on his sight. Who, then, will guide him after Allah (has withdrawn Guidance)? Will ye not then contemplate?" (Qur'an, al-Jathiya: 23), "Can He who has created not know (His creation)? He is all-penetrating, all-aware" (Qur'an, al-Mulk:

14), "and We have sent down to thee the Book explaining all things, a Guide, a Mercy, and Glad Tidings for those who have submitted themselves (to Allah as Muslims)" (Qur'an, An-Nahl: 89).

Accordingly, the components of happiness in Islam are represented in the following verse: "Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer - We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward [in the Hereafter] according to the best of what they used to do" (Qur'an, al-Mulk: 97). Namely, Allah has predetermined that whoever sincerely becomes faithful (spiritual aspect) and consequently does good in life and obeys His commandments (bodily aspect), they will invariably lead to a good life (happiness) in this world and in the hereafter. Hence, the need for both components must be achieved in a balanced manner. Otherwise, a person will eventually Jive a life full of worries and frustrations, and be vulnerable to mental illnesses (Ragab, 1997). What is more, happiness in Islam is not defined in terms of worldly achievement alone; it identifies the hereafter as a life that ultimately counts (AI-Attas, 1993).

Therefore, this study adapts the happiness-inducing strategy of counting and expressing gratitude in daily life (bodily component), and Jinks it to the blessings of Almighty Allah ( spiritual component). This is in order to include the essential

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components of man, based on the Islamic understanding of genuine happiness and human nature that is represented in the previous Qur'anic verses. Such an endeavour to improve a Muslim's happiness will contribute greatly to the overall well-being of Muslim individuals and societies. It will also guide Muslim mental health practitioners in providing an Islamic-based positive intervention that can be used to alleviate an individual's sufferings and regain a more balanced and happier life.

1.4 CONCEPTUAL AND OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS Two variables were measured in the present study, and they are:

1- Happiness

a. Conceptual Definition

Happiness or subjective well-being (SWB; as a broader definition of the construct happiness that has been typically referred in the literature; Lyubomirsky &

Lepper, 1999) is defined as the balance between frequent positive affect, infrequent negative affect, and a high level of life satisfaction (Diener, 1984). It should be noted that the constructs happiness and subjective well-being were used interchangeably in this study.

b. Operational Definition

Happiness was defined as the global score obtained by the participants from the following two scales; first, the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) which includes six items to assess positive feelings and six items to assess negative feelings. For both the positive and negative items, three of the items are general ( e.g., positive, negative) and three per subscale are more specific ( e.g., joyful, sad). Positive or negative feelings scores can vary from 6 (lowest possible) to 30

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(highest feelings score) (Diener, Wirtz, Tov, Kim-Prieto, Choi, Oishi & Biswas- Diener, 2009). Second, Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) in which participants rate five items on a seven point Likert scale, ranging from (1) "strongly disagree", to (4) "neither agree nor disagree", to (7) "strongly agree". Total score can range from 5 that indicates an individual is extremely dissatisfied with life to 35 that indicates extreme satisfaction with life (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985).

The three variables - positive and negative affect/experience obtained from the SPANE, and life satisfaction obtained from the SWLS - form the core of the happiness construct (Diener, 1984).

2- Gratitude

a. Conceptual Definition

Gratitude is defined as a sense of appreciation, thankfulness, and a sense of wonder (Emmons & Shelton, 2002).

b. Operational Definition

Gratitude was defined as the global score obtained by the participants in the Gratitude Questionnaire-Six Item Form (GQ-6) (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2001). Participants answer 6 items on a 1 to 7 scale (1

=

"strongly disagree", 7

=

"strongly agree") and higher score on a scale indicates that the participant is more likely to experience gratitude. Moreover, participants who scored a 35 out of 42 on the GQ-6 scored higher than 25% of the people who took it in previous studies (25%

Percentile).

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2.0 INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

In the first part of the literature review, early empirical barriers to improve happiness levels are addressed, followed by a section discussing a model to overcome these barriers and gain sustainable happiness. This model was used as the theoretical framework of this study. The review then proceeds to examine some aspects of gratitude as a variable to increase people's happiness, followed by a section discussing the relationship between religiosity, gratitude and· happiness, as well as a section describing the importance of gratitude in Islam. Finally, an overview of past studies on gratitude that provided evidence for the said model and the effectiveness of the gratitude acts in enhancing happiness is presented.

2.1 EARLY BARRIERS TO INCREASE HAPPINESS

In the early days of research on happiness, researchers faced various obstacles in investigating the process of enhancing people's happiness. Due to past empirical data, researchers were pessimistic about studying the concept of happiness. This pessimism came from three scientific facts (Lyubomirsky, Sheldon & Schkade, 2005b). First, the fact that happiness has a set point that is genetically determined. This can be explained by the tendency of every person to keep returning to his happiness baseline level overtime, following an increase or decrease in his happiness level (Diener, Suh, Lucas

& Smith, 1999). Second, the fact that enduring neuroticism and extraversion personality traits are closely related to happiness, which suggests that personality traits predetermine a stable happiness level (Diener & Lucas, 1999). The third and the

10

strongest obstacle is the "hedonic treadmill," or hedonic adaptation theory, which is the gradual lessening of emotional responses to positive or negative stimuli over time (Tversky & Griffin, 1991 ). Hence, these empirical data imply that scientists cannot do much to make people happier. Apparently, trying to become happier may be as futile as trying to become taller (Lykken & Tellegen, 1996).

2.2 OVERCOMING PAST RESEARCH BARRIERS

Despite this pessimism regarding attempts to elevate levels of well-being, Lyubornirsky and her colleagues (2005b) proposed the Sustainable Happiness Model (SHM) as an attempt to overcome these barriers and to increase happiness level. This model states that happiness is causally affected by three factors that have been supported by research on well-being. First, the genetic or heredity factor (Lykken &

Tellegen, 1996), which is the original set-point that a person returns to, after the process of hedonic adaptation. It accounts for 50% of the population's variation (i.e.

the percentage of the variance that each of the three factors accounts for in cross- sectional well-being). Second, the life circumstances factor (Diener et al., 1999), which is the constant reality for any person, such as the personal history of past trauma or a financial status and it accounts for 10% of the population's variation. This leaves as much as 40% of the variance for the third factor, namely the intentional activities factor (e.g., act of gratitude or kindness), which supports the idea that volitional efforts offer a promising possible route to longitudinal increases in happiness (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005b; Fordyce, 1977).

The Sustainable Happiness Model (SHM) argues that increasing one's set- point and changing one's life circumstances are unfruitful, since they are typically stable. However, most people trying to attain happiness tend to focus on changing

11

their circumstances, which is either considerably uncontrollable at one end, or leads to a minor improvement (10% only) in their happiness level at the other end (Sheldon &

Lyubomirsky, 2006a).

In contrast, the model argues that intentional activities are the most promising means, not only to attain happiness, but a sustainable degree of happiness (i.e. by overcoming the hedonic adaptation phenomenon). This is because intentional daily activities account for a considerable percentage (40%) of individual differences.

Moreover, their scope and application are very broad, which make them less vulnerable to the adaptation treadmill (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006a). The model proposed that intentional activities can be cognitive (such as holding a grateful outlook to one's life), behavioural (such as writing a letter of gratitude to a loved one), or motivational (such as pursuing a goal) (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2004). These activities allow people to act on their circumstances (i.e., make it better), rather than simply reacting to them when they are often uncontrollable.

In summary, the model proposed that intentional activity factors are by definition, under the control of individuals rather than are genetic, demographic, and most life circumstances factors. Thus, intentional activity appears to offer the best prospects for increasing and sustaining happiness. Hence, this present study will adopt the Sustainable Happiness Model as its theoretical framework (Figure 2.1 ).

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