New Research on the Cultivation, Causes, and Consequences of Gratitude — ASN Events
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  3. New Research on the Cultivation, Causes, and Consequences of Gratitude

New Research on the Cultivation, Causes, and Consequences of Gratitude (#100)

Don E. Davis 1 , Liz Gulliford 2 , Philip Watkins 3 , Giacomo Bono 4
  1. Psychology, Georia State University, Athens, Georgia, United States
  2. Psychology, University of North Hampton, North Hampton, England
  3. Eastern Washington University, Spokane, WASHINGTON, United States
  4. Psychology, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, California, United States

Symposium Summary: 

In this symposium, four noted gratitude scholars present cutting edge research on gratitude and virtue development. Recently, positive psychology interventions for relational virtues such as gratitude have been incorporated into psychotherapy. In the first paper, Davis and associates show how these virtues must be assessed in a way that can map changes in these virtues over the course of therapy. They present data supporting the construct validity of these new measures. In the second paper, Gulliford presents two cautions regarding gratitude interventions. First, in educational settings gratitude treatments should be administered in a sensitive manner, acknowledging differences in how the treatment might impact different people. Second, she argues that gratitude treatments should be most effective when participants are motivated to cultivate the virtue of gratitude, rather than simply to boost their subjective wellbeing. Watkins and colleagues will then present an experiment demonstrating the importance of interpretation to gratitude. In this study, they found that how one interpreted the COVID-19 pandemic affects gratitude. Finally, Bono and associates will describe three studies showing how gratitude impacts resilience in youth, showing that gratitude is more advantageous to under-resourced youth. This presentation will make suggestions for engaging youth of lower versus higher socioeconomic status effectively in gratitude practices. These presentations show the importance of cultivating gratitude as a virtue, critical characteristics of this virtue, and offer future directions for gratitude science.

Symposium Presentation 1: Integrating Relational Virtues into Psychotherapy Process Research

Presenter: Don E. Davis

Abstract: Research on relational virtues (i.e., gratitude, forgiveness, and humility) has flourished over the past two decades. These virtues have been linked to benefits in physiological and mental health, relationships, and spirituality. Accordingly, scholars have launched highly successful efforts to promote interventions that strengthen these virtues (Davis et al., 2016; Wade et al., 2014; Wolfteich et al., 2019). Despite this scientific progress, relational virtues have not been widely integrated into the day-to-day practice of psychotherapy (for a review, see Jankowski et al., 2020). Part of the problem is that most measures gauge global self-assessments of virtues based on the personality trait tradition. Yet, to integrate into psychotherapy, clinicians will want to align virtue interventions with the particularity of their client’s cultural understanding of these virtues. To assess virtue interventions as an important process of psychotherapy, we need measures that will pick up on week-to-week changes in the virtues, to the degree that clients are focused on working on virtues. Recent work employing experience sampling methods to study virtues can address this need. That is the purpose of this presentation. We present preliminary data establishing the factor structure of a brief measures in relational virtues of gratitude, forgiveness, and humility within daily life. After establishing the factor structure, we move on to testing evidence of construct validity across several samples (currently a five-study package).

Symposium Presentation 2: Interpretation Matters to Gratitude: Learning from the Pandemic Creates More Gratitude

Presenter: Philip C. Watkins

Abstract: Research has shown that interpretation style is critical to the virtue of gratitude (Watkins, 2014; Watkins et al., 2021). In this talk we describe a study where we sought to investigate how one’s interpretations of the COVID-19 pandemic impacts general gratitude (GG), gratitude to humans (GTH), and gratitude to God (GTG). During the pandemic, participants (n=266) were randomly allocated to one of three writing conditions. They were either encouraged to write about the events of their day, their “experience of the COVID-19 pandemic”, or “what you have learned and how you have grown through your experience of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Participants then reported several positive and negative emotions, including GG, GTH, and GTG, followed by responding to pandemic relevant appraisals. We found that GG and GTG were enhanced in the pandemic learning condition, but GTH was not. Also, the writing intervention significantly impacted appraisals such that non-spiritual and spiritual benefit appraisals were enhanced in the pandemic learning condition. Mediation analyses showed that spiritual and secular benefit appraisals mediated the effect of writing condition on GG and GTG. We conclude that how people interpreted the pandemic affects gratitude, and spiritual appraisals are unique to gratitude to God.

Symposium Presentation 3: Gratitude’s Resilience Function in Adolescents and Young Adults

Presenter: Giacomo Bono

Abstract: This talk examines the virtue of gratitude’s and its role in resilience among adolescents and emerging adults across 3 studies. In Study 1 the developmental trajectories of gratitude among adolescents were examined. Youth completed measures of gratitude and various well-being and protective factors twice, once the year before high school and again 4 years later. Comparison of the high vs. low gratitude development trajectories (n = 189) showed that high gratitude developers were higher in many resilience assets than low gratitude developers. Study 2 examined gratitude and resilience in urban university students (n = 86) during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020. To examine if gratitude exhibits a greater resilience function (i.e., for students who are under-resourced), hierarchical linear regressions were conducted testing if trait gratitude before the pandemic predicted coping with the pandemic, psychological impact from the pandemic, and resilient responding to the pandemic separately for first generation (FG) vs. continuing generation (CG) students during the onset of the pandemic. Trait gratitude before the pandemic predicted less psychological harm from the pandemic, better coping with the pandemic, and more resilient responding to the pandemic two months later for FG students, but not for CG students. Finally, Study 3 examined if these same divergent predictions of gratitude emerged during the height of the pandemic (the 2021-2022 academic year) and found support for gratitude protecting the coping and mental health of FG, but not CG, students. However, gratitude predicted improved resilience in the CG, but not FG students. Thus, gratitude does appear to help college students more if they are under-resourced. Implications for how gratitude facilitates resilience in development will be discussed.

  1. Davis, D. E., Choe, E., Meyers, J., Wade, N., Varjas, K., Gifford, A., Quinn, A., Hook, J. N., Van Tongeren, D. R., Griffin, B. J., & Worthington, E. L., Jr. (2016). Thankful for the little things: A meta-analysis of gratitude interventions. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(1), 20–31.
  2. Jankowski, P. J., Sandage, S. J., Bell, C. A., Davis, D. E., Porter, E., Jessen, M., Motzny, C. L., Ross, K. V., & Owen, J. (2020). Virtue, flourishing, and positive psychology in psychotherapy: An overview and research prospectus. Psychotherapy, 57(3), 291–309.
  3. Morgan, B., Gulliford, L., & Carr, D. (2015). Educating gratitude: Some conceptual and moral misgivings. Journal of Moral Education, 44(1), 97–111.
  4. Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410–421.
  5. Navarro, J. L., & Tudge, J. R. H. (2020). What is gratitude? Ingratitude provides the answer. Human Development, 64(2), 83–96.
  6. Gulliford, L. (2018). Can I tell you about gratitude? London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
  7. Carr, D., Morgan, B. & Gulliford, L. (2015). Learning and teaching virtuous gratitude. Oxford Review of Education, 41 (6), 766-781.
  8. Watkins, P. C. (2014). Gratitude and the good life: Toward a psychology of appreciation. Springer Science + Business Media.
  9. Watkins, P. C., Munger, P., Hutton, B., Elliott, K. & Mathews, A. (2021): Modifying interpretation bias leads to congruent changes in gratitude, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 17(5), 628-638, DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2021.1940
  • Please select up to 3 keywords from the following list to best describe your submission content: Positive emotions, Religion and Spirituality, Strengths
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