Anxiety, Awe, Compassion
Conditions
Keywords
Awe, Compassion, Anxiety, Positive emotions, Aging
Brief summary
Awe is a powerful positive emotion that offsets negative emotion and fosters prosocial behavior. This study examined the effects of awe on health and well-being in healthy older adults. Half of the participants took a weekly awe walk while the other half took a weekly walk with no further instructions.
Detailed description
Awe fosters well-being and positive emotions that promote social relationships. Awe shifts attention from ourselves to the outside world and is associated with diminished self-focused attention. We aimed to increase awe in healthy older adults to test whether greater awe experience would lead to gains in other types of positive emotional experience and reductions in negative emotional experience.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALAwe Walk
To examine the effect of weekly awe walks in cognitively healthy older adults.
BEHAVIORALControl Walk
To examine the effect of weekly walks in cognitively healthy older adults.
Sponsors
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, San Francisco
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
40 Years to 90 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Stable medical condition for 3 months prior to screening * Reliant informant with frequent contact with participant who is available to provide observations of participant * Fluent in English or Spanish * Age: 40 and above * Able to complete baseline assessments * Education or work history sufficient to exclude mental retardation * Physically acceptable for this study as confirmed by medical history, physical exam, neurological exam and clinical tests
Exclusion criteria
* Major memory concerns/diagnosed memory condition * Korsakoff encephalopathy * Active substance abuse * Brain tumor * Active neoplastic disease (skin tumors other than melanoma are not exclusionary) * Parkinson's disease * Multiple sclerosis (untreated) * Sleep apnea * History of clinically significant stroke * Current evidence or history in the past 2 years of epilepsy, focal brain lesion, cancer, steroid use, or DSM-IV criteria for any major psychiatric disorder including psychosis, major depression, bipolar disorder, alcohol or substance abuse * Blindness, deafness, language difficulties or any other disability which may prevent the participant from participating or cooperating in the protocol
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Daily awe experience questionnaire | 8 weeks | Increase in awe experience |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Daily compassion experience questionnaire | 8 weeks | Increase in daily compassion experience |
| Daily negative emotional experience questionnaire | 8 weeks | Decrease in daily negative emotional experience |
| Generalized Anxiety Disorder- 7 Item Scale | 8 weeks | Decrease in anxiety |
| Satisfaction With Life Scale | 8 weeks | Increase in well-being |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed