“The
Happiness Project: An Investigation into the effect of a Positive Psychology
campaign on students and teachers at Arklow Community College”
by Maciek Smyk , Maedbh Murphy and John Naik (2nd Year students)
We all strive to be happy but sometimes negative
thinking can get in the way of us feeling good about ourselves and life. The
World Health Organisation (2004) is predicting that depression alone will be
one of the greatest health problems worldwide by the year 2020. Did you know? Research has found that about 11% of
teenagers have a depressive disorder by the age of 18. (National Institute of
Mental Health)
The idea for this project came to us, as we were
preparing for our annual “Mental Health week” in our school. People are very
good at looking after their physical health and we began to think that maybe people
do not pay as much attention to their mental health. In this project our aim is
to find out the current state of happiness of students and teachers in our
school and to promote positive mental habits in our school via “The Happiness
Project” Campaign. In this project we will carry out the following:
1.
Research
We
will research the science of happiness. What happens in our brain when we are
happy? What is positive psychology and mindfulness and how can it help us
change how we feel? What are the benefits of meditation? Does feeling gratitude
help us be happier about ourselves? Can changing how you think really change
how you feel about yourself?
2.
School
Survey on the Happiness of students and teachers in our school
We
will create an online survey to measure the happiness of people (300) in our
school, and analyse the factors that affect their happiness. This survey will
help us uncover the overall mood of our school.
3.
“The
Happiness Project” Campaign
In
this 6 week campaign we will promote a number of positive actions . We will measure their effectiveness on students
and teachers by carrying out a pre-test and post-test on all actions.
·
Gratitude
Journals: It has been scientifically proven that
one of the greatest contributing factors to overall happiness in your life is
how much gratitude you show. 25 students and 10 teachers will actively use a
gratitude journal daily, noting at least 5 things they are grateful for each
day.
·
Meditation:
We will introduce 25 students to 5 minutes of mediation per day, using relaxing
music. We will also invite any student in our school to a 10 minute lunch time
meditation session in the library over this 6 week period.
·
Mindfulness
Workshops:
Mindfulness
is a technique involving living in the present moment. 25 students will take
part in an 8 mindfulness workshops in our school.
·
What
I like about you….. Certificate
We
all have positive characteristics about ourselves but we don’t always hear it
said to us. In this part of the project, 50 students are invited to write
positive comments only about each student in their class. This list of comments
will be presented back to the student in a certificate form. We will ask 25 teachers
and staff to do the same.
·
Random
Acts of Kindness
50
students in our school will commit to carry out 3 random acts of kindness per
week. We will ask all students how it made them feel to do this and how it made
the other person feel.
·
Positive
Quotation Posters
We
will create positive affirmation posters and display them on the doors of all
toilets in the school and on the walls.
4.
“The
Happiness Project” Website:
We
will create a website to promote positive thinking and show our progress and
results of our campaign.
If
how we think has an effect on how we feel, then it is really important that
teenagers learn the skills of using positive psychology in school, to help them
be mentally healthy and happy.
