Writing Activities and Emotions

NCT ID: NCT04539756

Last Updated: 2021-07-02

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 250 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2020-09-08
• Study Completion Date: 2020-11-20

Brief Summary

The current study aims to test whether an online two-week positive psychological intervention can increase positive affect in college students. Participants will be recruited from the University of Pittsburgh undergraduate subject pool. Students will be ineligible if they are under the age of 18; currently prescribed medications for cardiac arrythmias; have a history of heart surgery, heart attack, or stroke; are currently pregnant; or currently have symptoms consistent with COVID-19. This study includes an active control arm and an intervention arm. Both arms will be required to complete writing activities every other day for two weeks. Participants in the control arm will list their daily activities, while participants in the intervention arm will complete various positive psychology activities. Questionnaires assessing mood, emotional well-being, social functioning and a few health behaviors will be administered pre- and post-intervention. The investigators aim to recruit 250 undergraduate students with the hope that at least 50 participants per group will complete the entire study.

Conditions

Healthy

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Active control condition

Participants in the active control condition will receive the same number of text message reminders and will complete the same number of writing activities as the intervention group. The writing activity for the active control condition will ask them to list their activities for that day.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Active control condition

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will be asked to complete the same writing activity each day, which will ask them to list their daily activities. Participants will be encouraged to process their daily activities superficially by the receiving the following instructions: (1) list each activity in brief, incomplete sentences, (2) document only facts about performing the activities, and (3) to not provide any information about emotional responses to performing the activities. By following these instructions, participants are presumably deriving less meaning from their activities, which may minimize gains in positive affect in the active control condition

Positive psychological intervention

Participants will be asked to complete writing activities every other day. They will choose which activity they would like to complete each day, from a menu of six different activities. Each activity is a different positive psychology exercise.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

positive psychological intervention

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will be asked to complete writing activities every other day. They will choose which activity they would like to complete each day, from a menu of six different activities. Each activity is a different positive psychology exercise.

Interventions

positive psychological intervention

Participants will be asked to complete writing activities every other day. They will choose which activity they would like to complete each day, from a menu of six different activities. Each activity is a different positive psychology exercise.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Active control condition

Participants will be asked to complete the same writing activity each day, which will ask them to list their daily activities. Participants will be encouraged to process their daily activities superficially by the receiving the following instructions: (1) list each activity in brief, incomplete sentences, (2) document only facts about performing the activities, and (3) to not provide any information about emotional responses to performing the activities. By following these instructions, participants are presumably deriving less meaning from their activities, which may minimize gains in positive affect in the active control condition

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Other Intervention Names

Positive psychology exercises; placebo

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Must be an undergraduate student at the University of Pittsburgh that is currently taking Introduction to Psychology.
• Must be at least 18 years old
• Not currently prescribed medications for cardiac arrythmias
• Report no history of heart surgery, heart attack, or stroke
• Not currently pregnant
• Must deny having current symptoms consistent with COVID-19.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Pittsburgh

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Caitlin M. DuPont

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Caitlin M DuPont, MS

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Pittsburgh

Locations

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

STUDY20060287

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id