A Preliminary Study of New Positive Psychology Interventions: Neurofeedback-Aided Meditation Therapy and Modified Positive Psychotherapy

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of new Positive Psychology Interventions (PPIs) - NeuroFeedBack-aided meditation therapy (NFB meditation therapy) and modified Positive Psychotherapy (mPPT). For NFB meditation therapy, it includes using NFB apparatus that can effectively lead to and monitor meditation state depending on brain waves. For mPPT, we modified original PPT because a number of new single positive psychology exercises can make original PPT more robust than before. The dependent variables used in this study were psychosocial flourishing (The Flourishing Scale, FS) and affect (The Scale of Positive and Negative Experience, SPANE). They were measured at baseline, post-test, and follow-up test. Finally, total twenty-four participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: no treatment (n = 8), NFB meditation therapy (n = 8), and mPPT group (n = 8). At post-test, both treatment groups showed significant positive effects on psychosocial flourishing (for NFB meditation therapy, F(1, 14) = 4.33, p < .10, η2 = .24; for mPPT, F(1, 14) = 6.94, p < .05, η2 = .33)), positive affect (for NFB meditation therapy, F(1, 14) = 2.18; for mPPT, F(1, 14) = 2.00, p < .10, η2 = .13), and negative affect (for NFB meditation therapy, F(1, 14) = 5.97, p < .05, η2 = .30; for mPPT, F(1, 14) = 7.95, p < .01, η2 = .36) compared to the no treatment group. At follow-up study, both treatment groups still showed significant positive effects on psychosocial flourishing and affect compared to the baseline condition. The NFB meditation therapy showed a greater increase in subjective well-being compared to the mPPT, while the mPPT showed a greater increase in psychosocial well-being compared to the NFB meditation therapy. As a preliminary study, it is expected that our findings could help future research to design better PPIs for human well-being.