Abstract
Positive psychology interventions have long been used in the West to increase the overall happiness or subjective well-being of individuals (Mendelsohn, 2008) and have also found to be effective however; this form of treatment has largely been neglected in the East reference. The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of positive psychology interventions on the subjective well-being of institutionalized abandoned and orphaned females. It was hypothesized that positive psychology interventions would increase the subjective well-being of institutionalized, abandoned and orphaned females. The participants of the study included N=30 orphaned and abandoned females who were approached through convenient purposive sampling technique from two private orphanages of Karachi. The age range of the participants was from 13-19 (M=14.15) years and their stay at the institute was 5-7 (M=5.7) years long. In a pre-post quasi experimental design, the participants received pre-test followed by 6 group sessions of positive psychology interventions then a post-test. The pre-posttests were conducted to test the efficacy of the interventions, which were comprised of the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience. The findings of the paired samples t-test revealed that positive psychology interventions are significantly effective in increasing the subjective well-being of institutionalized abandoned and orphaned females. The current study has significant implications in the field of clinical, developmental and positive psychology in the indigenous context.