Positive psychology intervention (PPI) coaching: an experimental application of coaching to improve the effectiveness of a gratitude intervention

Abstract

Combining positive psychology with coaching is a complex matter. While most positive psychology coaching research promotes the use of positive psychology interventions in a coaching practice, the current study attempted to turn it on its head, and use coaching to amplify the effect of positive psychology interventions. In one-week-long randomised controlled trial with 45 participants, 24 (wait/control group) of them completed a gratitude-only intervention, whilst the remaining 21 (experimental group) engaged in a gratitude-and-coaching intervention. Three measures were used to identify the wellbeing differences of wait/control and experimental groups pre-intervention and immediately after the intervention. Paired-sample t-test results showed that participants in the gratitude-only intervention enhanced aspects of their subjective wellbeing, whereas those in the gratitude-and-coaching intervention increased an aspect of their eudaimonic wellbeing and dispositional gratitude. The study provided preliminary evidence that coaching can be used to amplify the effect of positive psychology interventions. The implications of the study are discussed along with the recommendations for future research.