"Dear Diary." Exploring the Experience of Gratitude among Oncology Patients
"Throughout history philosophers considered happiness to be the highest good and ultimate motivation for human action.Yet fordecades psychologists largely ignored positive subjective well being, although human unhappiness was explored in depth" (Diener, 1984)Traditionally, human behaviour was studied by the social and health sciences from a pathological paradigm, which, according to Stumpfer (2005) focuses on human functioning within a "problem oriented framework" He described the purpose of this paradigm as "finding out why people fall ill and, in the specific, why they develop particular disease entities" A science that has largely devoted its focus on healing, for many years neglected the possibility of focussing on identifying and enhancing the strengths of individuals. This would later prove to be an important aspect of major therapeutic schools (Seligman, 2002).With the emergence of Positive Psychology as an independent branch of psychology in 1979, attempts were made to study positive emotions, traits, and abilities(Seligman, Steen, Park Peterson, 2005) According to Keyes and Haidt (2003) the aim of positive psychology is to "better understand how individuals can negotiate, resolve, and grow in the face of life's stressors and challenges" This also helped change focus from a preoccupation with repairing the worst things in life to a more positive approach of building the best qualities in life (Seligman Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).At the subjective level, positive psychology is all about positive subjective experience: well being and satisfaction of the past and flow, joy, the sensual pleasures, and happiness (present) and constructive cognitions about the future optimism, hope, and faith. At the individual level, it is about positive individual traits such as the capacity for love, to have courage, good interpersonal skills, the ability to forgive another, be original, posessing wisdom etc.(Seligman Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Gillham Seligman, 1999; Peseschkian Tritt, 1998).Therapy often encourages focus on negative events and emotions rather than on the positive experiences. A few therapies have incorporated positive psychology techniques into their framework, where techniques are used to pay more attention to positive aspects of life. Well being therapy for example, is a modern approach that involves the patient maintaining a daily journal of positive events, the ultimate goal being to identify and change negative ways of thinking, eventually enabling positive events to have more of an impact on the patient's life (Moeenizadeh Salagame,2010).Positive Psychotherapy is rooted in the philosophy of a "build what's strong" approach and Positive Psychology if recognized and honed will become an effective approach to psychotherapy and augment the "fix what's wrong" approach of more traditional forms of therapy) Duckworth, Steen Seligman, 2004) Building on the tenets of humanistic psychology, it encompasses a number of techniques that helps people identify and further develop their own positive experiences and emotions. If incorporated, Positive Psychology can come to understand and build those factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies not to just endure and survive, but also flourish. This perspective is also supported by the Broaden and Build theory of positive emotion (Fredrickson,2004).Gratitude is one positive psychological characteristic that is connected to well being. Literature shows that it is integral to well being (Sansone Sansone, 2010; Wood Maltby, 2009; Toussaint Friedman, 2009; Emmons Crumpler, 2000) It is an others directed emotion Emmons Stern,2013) an attitude, a coping response that is not necessarily deserved or earned, but is due to the actions of others (Emmons, 2003) Research has been quite extensive in the area pertaining to gratitude and well being and has yielded mixed results.