Mental Health in the Developing World: Using Positive Psychology to Improve Psychological Well-being

We conduct a randomized experiment to evaluate a light-touch psychological intervention in a developing-country setting. Numerous psychological studies suggest that simple, light-touch interventions are effective in improving psychological well-being, particularly in sub-clinical populations. However, little is known about the effectiveness of such interventions in developing-country populations. These populations are of particular interest because poor mental health is thought to be a barrier to development. Residents of an informal settlement in Kenya were randomly assigned to either a control condition, or an experimental condition in which they participated in a combination of psychological exercises aimed at improving psychological well-being over the course of two weeks. The psychological interventions consisted of a "Count Your Blessings" exercise encouraging participants to recall three good things about their life every day, a "self-affirmation" exercise in which participants wrote about their talents, and an "aspirations" exercise in which they were encouraged to think about their life goals. This document outlines the outcome variables and econometric methods we will use to assess the effect of the intervention on psychological well-being, aspirations, cognitive control, and decision-making.