BEHV1010 Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness, Resilience, and Wellbeing

Assignment 2A: Reflection report 1

Team/Individual task: Individual

Word/time limit: 1000 words

Weighting: 25%

Due date: 5pm AEST Monday 7 July 2025 (Week 8)

After you have read this information, go to the Assignment 2A Q&A discussion board to ask any questions and see what your peers are saying about this assignment.

Assignment overview

This assignment is a mandatory submission, which means that in order to pass this subject of study, you must submit this assignment. 

This assignment is comprised of a series of daily gratitude exercises that you are to complete over the course of 7 days and a Reflection Report that will be based on your experiences in completing these daily reflections. You will begin your reflections as part of 5.10 Activity 2: Reflection report 1 – 7 days of gratefulness.

While you will not be marked on these daily activities, you will be required to upload proof of completion of these activities. The 7 Days of Gratefulness activities are a crucial element of the 1000-word Reflection Report that you will be submitting in Week 8 as this requires you to reflect on the process of completing these activities.

Download Assignment Template for reflection reports (DOCX 36 KB) to familiarise yourself with the expectations for this report. It is highly recommended that you undertake these daily activities at the recommended pace and within the set timeframe of one week.

Remember in 4.6 Activity 2: Developing gratitude awareness you practised identifying overt and subtle aspects of gratitude. The aim of this activity was to encourage you to critically engage with the ‘things’ that an individual can be grateful for (i.e. ‘overt aspect’ = surface level analysis and ‘subtle aspect’ = deeper critical analysis).

This specific style of critical analysis is relevant for anyone working as a mental health professional as a client may need support to notice the beneficial elements of their own life. Identifying the positive impact that beneficial elements are having in that client’s life can impact the client’s wellbeing. By engaging in hands-on Positive Psychology Intervention (PPI) experiences followed by reflection, you should be better able to connect theories and knowledge learned in the subject to real-world situations.

Note: We would like to acknowledge the work of Wing Hong Fu who co-created the first versions of this task.

This assignment supports Subject Learning Outcomes 2, 3, 4 and 5. 

Use of generative artificial intelligence

Ethical use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is permitted in this assessment task. Any use of content from generative AI tools must be acknowledged. See advice on acknowledging the use of generative AI on the Library How do I reference content from ChatGPT and other AI tools (Western Sydney University Library, 2023) web page. Be aware that the output from generative AI tools may be incorrect, incomplete or biased.

If your studies have been adversely affected by circumstances beyond your control, you may request an extension using the following options.

Note: A request must be made within 48 hours of the assignment due date.

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Assignment details

Read through the following steps to understand and meet the requirements of this assignment:

Step 1: Complete the Pre-wellbeing quiz

Before you begin the 7 Days of Gratefulness component of this assignment, complete the Pre-Assignment Wellbeing survey. This should take you five minutes to finish. You will be answering this survey at the beginning of this activity, and a corresponding Post-Assignment Wellbeing survey at its completion.

The information that you provide in this survey will only be used to measure the group's wellbeing before and after this assignment activity. You will be asked to provide your student ID and name for the sole purpose of linking the pre-assignment and post-assignment data together when the results are analysed.   

Step 2: Complete the 7 Days of Gratefulness activities

Starting with 5.10 Activity 2: Reflection report 1 – 7 days of gratefulness you will be completing a series of daily reflection activities that you will draw upon to complete the 1000 word Reflection Report component of this assignment. Each activity will take you approximately 10 minutes to complete.  

You are highly encouraged to complete these daily activities during the recommended course of 7 days, in keeping with the set daily pace on the schedule. Practising these daily gratitude activities will allow you to personally experience the effects a gratitude intervention can have on your own life. This will deepen your understanding of the process and its outcomes, and will help you in completing the Reflection Report that is based on your experiences of the 7 Days of Gratefulness.

Ensure that you export and save your answers to these daily activities so that you may refer to them as you write your Reflection Report. Note: You must upload your completed daily activities to their individual submission point as proof of completion.

7 Days of Gratefulness Daily Activities

7 Days of Gratefulness Daily Activities (2025) created by Western Sydney University Online

Step 3: Write your Reflection Report on the 7 Days of Gratefulness activities

The 1000-word Reflection Report relates to your ability to critically reflect on your experiences of the 7 Days of Gratefulness. Download Assignment Template for reflection reports (DOCX 36 KB) to familiarise yourself with the expectations for this report. Then consider the following questions as you think back on your experiences and responses:

▢ What does science say about gratefulness positive psychology interventions (PPIs)?

▢ What was your subjective experience, and personal impact, of completing the 7 Days of Gratefulness? Was it positive, neutral, or negative? Why? Did you have a favourite gratefulness activity?

▢ Did you observe the 7 Days of Gratefulness having a noticeable effect in your own life?

▢ How does your experience compare to the experience of the student cohort?*

▢ How does your experience relate to both theory and empirical evidence of gratitude interventions?

▢ If your experience was positive, apply one of Alkozei et al.’s (2017) frameworks (Cognitive or Psycho-Social) that you believe is best suited to explain your experience. Read Gratitude and Subjective Wellbeing: A Proposal of Two Causal Frameworks to understand these frameworks.

▢ If your experience was negative, identify aspects of Lyubomirsky and Layous’s (2013) positive-activity model’s features (Activity or Person) that you believe are best suited to explain your experience. Read How Do Simple Positive Activities Increase Well-Being? to understand this model's features.

▢ Appraise your journal submissions. Did you notice a certain concept or theme reoccurring? What were some overt and subtle aspects? What was that theme, and what meaning can you take from that?

*Keep an eye on Announcements, where we will share the average results from the student cohort on the outcome measure tools.

Note: The reference list is not included in the word count.

Step 4: Post-assignment Wellbeing survey

Once you have completed all 7 Days of Gratefulness activities, fill out the Post-Assignment Wellbeing survey. The information that you provide will be used to measure the group's wellbeing upon completion of the assignment activity.

Step 5: Submit your Assignment 2A: Reflection report 1

After proof-reading your assignment and reading through the assignment marking guide to ensure that you have addressed all aspects of the reflection report, ensure that you append your 7 Days of Gratefulness activities to your assignment as these will be reviewed as proof of completion of the activities.

Follow the instructions in the Submission Details Overview section to submit your assignment document. 

Assignment tips

You must use the Assignment Template for reflection reports (DOCX 36 KB) Download Assignment Template for reflection reports (DOCX 36 KB).

You must use APA 7 style.

You must include references to scientific literature. Please note: The reference list is not included in the word count. 

You must also complete and submit the AI use checklist included at the end of the template. Have a look at that template before you get started.  

The 1000-word limit is an upper limit, with no +10% leeway on the word limit.

Your reflection report should be written in full paragraphs and without the use of subheadings or questions (since you will not have the word count to include the questions or subheadings).

Look closely at the marking rubric at all the things the markers will be looking for.

E.g. Your title should indicate if your experience was positive, negative or neutral.

Look at how many marks are awarded in each section, as an indication of how many words or how much depth you should dedicate to that section.

Answer every one of the questions. It will be helpful to follow the order the questions are asked so the marker can see you have answered every question well.

Make sure to have a clear structure to your paragraphs and flow to your writing. If you gave your reflection to a parent or sibling, could they easily read and understand it?