The Kindness Project Paper

KiRosemary Keefer The Kindness Project Intro to Psychology 1100 The Kindness Project is a project that helped me understand the facial feedback hypothesis and mood contagion theories. My audience or subjects happen to be at the hospital on a vascular, renal, telemetry unit. For the most part these patients are not happy to be in the hospital due to not feeling well at all. In this paper I will explain how the day began, what the day was like and relate what concepts were used. The morning began for me with the alarm buzzing loudly in my ear to get up and start the twelve hour shift for this day. It was still dark outside and it was five in the morning. I started the day like
I would normally, but in the back of
my head thinking of ways to use my facial expressions and my mood contagious to all that I come in contact with during this Monday morning.
The first person I encountered was a stranger on the elevator and I turned and smiled to this person not a smile where one might be able to see the whites of my teeth, but still a smile. The smile was not returned to me at this time. I realized that maybe they had a lot gone on and this should not make me change my plan on making others relax and reciprocate my happy day. The next person I came across was a co-worker who was not as happy about being at work on a Monday morning. I smiled to to my co-worker with the whites of my teeth showing this time and said if you need any help today I am here for you. This made my co-worker smile back and say to me you know the day is better since I know you are here. The real test would be the patient. I had several patients on this particular day. I greeted each with a smile and took my time to make sure that they had everything they needed, so that they would have a great stay in this unit. Just doing a simple smile and being positive seemed to make other people reciprocate the treatment or attitude in return. My reaction to this project is one of happiness. I learned that if you want others to behave in
a certain way you must convey that as I did with a simple smile. It seemed to make the other person relax and pass on the attitude given. I truly believe that facial expressions and mood contagion go together. This was the best Monday I had in a long time.

Page 2 Looking back at the day when the project started I did not think that those who were having a bad day could change their attitude with a positive reinforcements like the mood contagion, or even the facial expressions.
Not all people did react positive, but those who did outweighed the negative reaction to the project. I am convinced that the facial feedback hypothesis can impact others when they are in need of feeling happy. A prime example is the patients at the hospital. They are not happy to be in the hospital they feel awful and just not in the mood to put on a happy face unless they have someone who can make them relax and forget about the reason they are at this facility. After my shift was just about complete, I had a patient actually call my boss to tell them that I was a guardian angel to them, and this patient could not say enough nice things about my attitude. To be honest, I most likely would not have gotten this reaction, if my mental set would have been not to go out of my way to be nice, and uplift this patient in this manner. Instead I set out to change my behavior and be happy, smile and try to make others have this same behavior. In closing this project showed me just how simple it
is to change others attitudes. This project has left a lasting impression on me. I helped to make others attitudes positive with facial expressions and mood contagion. I am a proud owner of angel wings from
The Kindness Project. I am sitting here with a big smile on my face as I end this paper.