EDUC10057 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Long Term Ecological Research Network, Barometer, Multilevel Model
13 Jun 2018
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Lecture 8: Gratitude
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others
The active and conscious practice of giving thanks
Acknowledgement that we have received something of value from others
Two steps of gratitude:
1. Acknowledge goodness in one’s life
2. Recognize that the source of goodness lies at least partially outside oneself
Some believe you cannot be grateful for yourself
Involves: effort, motivation, cognition
“Gratitude is not a spectator sport” - not something that we let happen to us, involves effort, we need to go out and pursue
it
Gratitude was always be other directed; one can be grateful to people, animals, nature, or god - but not to oneself
Gratitude, we have found, maximizes the enjoyment of the good - our enjoyment of others, of God, of our lives
State (or mood)
Trait (or a virtue)
Temporary
En emotion which occurs after people receive aid which is
perceived as costly valuable, and altruistic
Stems from the perception of experiencing a positive
outcome intentionally provided
Stable
Long term disposition
Life orientation towards noticing and appreciating the
positive in life
Cultivated even when conditions are painful
We can sharpen our capacity to focus on the good in life more often - we can actively practice gratitude
Correlational studies: the importance of gratitude
●Park, Peterson and Seligman (2004) found that gratitude was in the top three predictors of life satisfaction together
with hope & zest
●Around 18.5% of individual differences in people's happiness is predicted by the amount of gratitude they feel
●The practice of gratitude can increase happiness levels by around 25%
Health benefits of gratitude
●Decreasing levels of stress over time
●Improvement in hours of sleep and refreshment in waking up (sleep quality)
●Self-reported health symptoms
Psychological benefits of gratitude
●Robustly related to mood & life satisfaction
●A key factor in Post Traumatic Growth
●Correlates with autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, purpose in life, self-acceptance, authentic
living/low self-alienation
●Religiously oriented thankfulness predicted lower risk of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and body image
Gratitude is theorized to filter the way we see the world
Social benefits of gratitude
●Promotes relationship formation, connection & satisfaction
●Willingness to forgive (related to absence of psychopathic traits)
●Adolescents report greater peer and family support
●Lower narcissism
When gratitude is missing
●Kant viewed ingratitude as “the essence of vileness and wickedness”
●“Ingratitude is the most abominable of sins.. For it is a forgetting of the graces, blessing, and benefits received. As
such, it is the cause, beginning, and origin or all sins and misfortunes”
A moral emotion: motivate prosocial behaviour by causing people to identify with the needs of others
Other moral emotions:
●Empathy
●Sympathy
●Guilt - motivates people to engage in repetitive actions when they feel that they have damaged another person’s
interests
●Gratitude?
Gratitude serves three functions that are morally relevant:
1. Moral barometer - is is felt in response to the perception that one is the beneficiary of another agent’s moral actions
2. Moral motive function - motivates grateful person to act prosocially towards benefactor and others
3. Moral reinforcer function - when expressed, prompts benefactors to behave morally in the future
Studies: Counting blessings vs hassles
Studies 1 & 2:
Document Summary
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. The active and conscious practice of giving thanks. Acknowledgement that we have received something of value from others. Two steps of gratitude: acknowledge goodness in one"s life, recognize that the source of goodness lies at least partially outside oneself. Some believe you cannot be grateful for yourself. Involves: e ort, motivation, cognition (cid:873)gratitude is not a spectator sport(cid:874) - not something that we let happen to us, involves e ort, we need to go out and pursue it. Gratitude was always be other directed; one can be grateful to people, animals, nature, or god - but not to oneself. Gratitude, we have found, maximi es the enjoyment of the good - our enjoyment of others, of god, of our lives. En emotion which occurs after people receive aid which is perceived as costly valuable, and altruistic.
