Content area
Full text
Contents
- Abstract
- On the Meaning of Gratitude
- Gratitude, Happiness, and Well-Being: Mechanisms of Association
- Savoring the Positive Circumstances of Life
- Gratitude and Well-Being: Correlation or Causality?
- Purpose of the Present Studies
- Study 1
- Method
- Participants
- Procedure
- Well-Being Ratings
- Physical symptoms
- Reactions to aid
- Global appraisals
- Results
- Data Reduction
- Manipulation Check
- Global Appraisals and Health Measures
- Reactions to Aid
- Discussion
- Study 2
- Method
- Participants
- Procedure
- Conditions
- Health Behaviors
- Prosocial Behaviors
- Results
- Data Reduction
- Manipulation Check
- Gratitude as a Mediator of the Interventions' Effects on Positive Affect
- Health Outcomes
- Prosocial Behaviors
- Discussion
- Study 3
- Method
- Participants
- Procedure
- Conditions
- Daily Experience Form
- Daily affect
- Subjective well-being
- Health behaviors
- Activities of daily living
- Observer reports of well-being
- Results
- Data Reduction
- Manipulation Check
- Group Differences on Positive and Negative Affect
- Gratitude as a Mediator of the Interventions' Effects on Positive Affect
- Effects on Subjective Well-Being
- Subjective appraisals
- Effects on Health Measures
- Observer Reports of Well-Being
- Discussion
- General Discussion
- Strengths and Limitations
- Relative Magnitude of the Effect Sizes
- Alternative Explanations
- Gratitude and Well-Being: An Upward Spiral?
- Directions for Future Research
Figures and Tables
Abstract
The effect of a grateful outlook on psychological and physical well-being was examined. In Studies 1 and 2, participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 experimental conditions (hassles, gratitude listing, and either neutral life events or social comparison); they then kept weekly (Study 1) or daily (Study 2) records of their moods, coping behaviors, health behaviors, physical symptoms, and overall life appraisals. In a 3rd study, persons with neuromuscular disease were randomly assigned to either the gratitude condition or to a control condition. The gratitude-outlook groups exhibited heightened well-being across several, though not all, of the outcome measures across the 3 studies, relative to the comparison groups. The effect on positive affect appeared to be the most robust finding. Results suggest that a conscious focus on blessings may have emotional and interpersonal benefits.
Reflect on your present blessings, on which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
—Charles Dickens (M. Dickens, 1897, p. 45)
The construct of gratitude has inspired considerable interest in the general public. The prevalence of books targeted to...