The aim of art-of-living is to help people achieve happiness, satisfaction and well-being. Art-of-living can be enhanced by various interventions. Therefore, a diary-based application for smartphones was developed, which is intended to increase art-of-living and well-being through self-monitoring (SM), art-of-living exercises and graphical feedback. In addition to a general examination of the effectiveness of the various interventions, combinations of these are also examined and compared experimentally.
The effectiveness of the application was tested with 99 participants which were randomly assigned to three test conditions: (1) SM, (2) SM and exercises of positive psychology and (3) SM, exercises and graphical feedback. The validated online diary included a questionnaire on art-of-living and SWLS. Before and twice after the 28-day diary intervention, participants completed questionnaires on art-of-living, SWLS and PERMA.
The results of a MANOVA to compare the three points of measurement showed that the use of the app significantly increased well-being, art-of-living and flourishing (Pillai’s trace V = 0.37, F(9,97) = 5.69, p <.001). Trend analyses on the diary period were performed.
Results and limitations are discussed with regard to further applications to enhance well-being additionally the usage of different feedback types are discussed by regarding difference series of the test conditions.