Therapeutic treatment has enjoyed a lessening of stigma over the last decade. During the 2019 COVID pandemic crisis, mental health concerns have been especially highlighted, and an increased effort has been made to address how individuals cope with negative emotions and build resilience (Li, et al. 2021). Many self-help apps have become popularized, and focus on techniques such as stress journaling, mood journaling, gratitude practices, meditation, and telehealth counseling (Harvard Health 2015).

Many of these apps focus on positive psychology techniques as opposed to treatment for psychological abnormalities. Positive psychology is the identification and study of positive human emotions, virtues, and character strengths (Seligman, 2005). Peterson and Seligman (2005) defined human strengths into six virtues: wisdom and knowledge, which includes cognitive strengths such as creativity; courage, including emotional strengths such as persistence; humanity, encompassing interpersonal strengths such as altruism; justice, comprising of civic strengths such as leadership; temperance, including strengths of self-regulation such as modesty; and transcendence, involving strengths of spirituality such as mindfulness. Seligman (2005) found that interventions where participants engaged in activities that emphasized one of the aforementioned virtues were significantly happier and experienced decreased depression symptoms over a period of six months. But how can these virtues be easily accessed? Seligman (2005) also examined the use of internet-based interventions as a method for delivering positive psychology techniques and practices.

Seligman (2005) established internet-based interventions as a legitimate method of delivery and found that participants benefited greatly from them. Even when the numbers of interventions increased it appeared that participants rose to the challenge. Torniainen-Holm (2016) verified that participants did not become overwhelmed by multiple internet-based interventions but tended to complete more interventions as the number sent increased (Torniainen-Holm, 2016). In addition to overall happiness, Crookston found that the use of self-help apps increased overall feelings of “motivation, desire to set goals, confidence, control, and intentions to be mentally and emotionally healthy” (Crookston, 2017). Social support was not significantly affected by the use of self-help in the Crookston study, which is what this paper intends to examine. If self-help apps can have such a strong effect on so many positive psychology virtues, it might be possible to evoke that same effect on feelings of social support if the right intervention is utilized. This is where the practice of gratitude becomes significant.

There is some evidence that gratitude interventions positively influence social behaviors and relationships. Wood (2010) discusses the range of social outcomes and traits associated with gratitude, including self-reported perceived quality of relationships. Additionally, in a study where Chu (2020) examined the application of positive psychology techniques to increase student engagement, Chu showed increased feelings of connectedness to the instructor as well as other students in their group after gratitude practice. In another study on gratitude and how it might affect social support and perceived feelings thereof, O’Connell et al. (2018) discusses how gratitude exercises increase quality of friendships and life satisfaction.

With evidence that gratitude strongly influences social feelings and behaviors, gratitude practice in addition to a stress journal will have a significant positive effect on mood as opposed to just journaling alone. Additionally, sharing this gratitude exercise with a trusted relation will have an effect of increased feelings of social connection. This means that there will be a significant main effect of increased feelings of gratitude and overall mental wellness, as well as a decrease of feelings of stress. Additionally, the sharing gratitude group will differ from the journal and gratitude only groups by having significantly higher increased feelings of social support.