Neste trabalho, nos dedicamos ao estudo da generosidade, investigando, em um contexto psicogenético, os juízos morais das crianças relativos aos seguintes temas: a generosidade em contraposição à justiça (para consigo mesmo) e generosidade e gratidão. Participaram desta pesquisa 60 alunos de uma escola particular da cidade do Rio de Janeiro RJ, com 6, 9 e 12 anos, igualmente divididos quanto ao sexo e à idade. Realizamos entrevistas individuais baseadas em histórias sobre os temas em questão. Dos resultados encontrados, destacamos que, diante de um conflito entre a generosidade e a justiça (para consigo mesmo), os juízos das crianças de 6 anos nos remetem mais à generosidade, e os critérios utilizados pelos mais velhos, para hierarquizar as duas dimensões morais, estão atrelados a uma noção geral de justiça. No que diz respeito ao tema da generosidade e gratidão, verificamos que a maioria das crianças de todas as idades pesquisadas não atribui obrigatoriedade ao agradecimento e/ ou à retribuição a uma manifestação de generosidade. Embora desprovida de obrigatoriedade, a retribuição é indicada e admirada, nas suas variadas formas, pelos participantes. Essa indicação e admiração, todavia, não fazem da retribuição um critério que os leve a agir generosamente, nos mostrando, assim, sinais de autonomia nos juízos relacionados à generosidade desde a mais tenra infância. Ao indicarem um agradecimento ou uma retribuição à ação generosa, as crianças mais novas ora ressaltam o aspecto concreto da recompensa, ora se referem à materialidade das regras da polidez, ainda exteriores à consciência. Dessa forma, ora visualizamos a incipiência de suas ferramentas intelectuais, ora nos deparamos com características da heteronomia infantil em seus juízos sobre o tema. A recompensa com uma ação concreta predomina nas sugestões espontâneas de agradecimento e/ ou retribuição das crianças de 9 e 12 anos, e a demonstração verbal de reconhecimento prevalece entre os mais velhos quando comparada exclusivamente à recompensa material. Tal reconhecimento pressupõe uma avaliação das intenções daquele que agiu generosamente, imprescindível na manifestação da gratidão. Como as crianças mais novas ainda conferem maior importância aos efeitos de um ato do que à intenção de seu autor, parece-nos válido afirmar que não é a gratidão propriamente dita que comparece em seus discursos, mas uma concepção mais elementar da virtude, o que nos leva a admitir um desenvolvimento da mesma ao longo da infância. Nossos resultados também confirmam a íntima relação do sentimento de simpatia com a generosidade, já apontada por outras pesquisas da área. Uma comoção com o sofrimento alheio comparece nas argumentações das crianças que decidiram pela ação generosa para com o outro. Com porcentagens altas em todas as faixas etárias pesquisadas, esse argumento predomina na menor idade e decresce nas idades seguintes. Tal resultado nos mostra que é mesmo a simpatia que inspira as crianças pequenas a decidirem pela manifestação da virtude. Essa sensibilidade para com outrem também interfere nos juízos dos participantes mais velhos, mas, no transcurso do desenvolvimento, princípios de reciprocidade e justiça também passam a regular decisões que culminam na generosidade / In this work, we dedicate ourselves to the study of generosity, investigating, in a psychogenetic context, children\'s moral judgment relating to the following themes: generosity as opposed to justice (for oneself) and generosity and gratitude. Participated in this survey, 60 pupils from a private school in the city of Rio de Janeiro - RJ, with 6, 9 and 12 years of age, equally divided as to sex and age. We conducted one-on-one interviews based on stories about the themes in question. Of the results found, we highlighted that, faced with a conflict between generosity and justice (to oneself), the judgment of 6 year old children refer to generosity, and the criteria used by the older ones, to organize into a hierarchy the two moral dimensions, are tied to a general notion of justice. On the subject of generosity and gratitude, we find that the majority of children of all ages surveyed do not assign an obligation as to what concerns gratitude and/or consideration as a reciprocation to an expression of generosity. Although devoid of obligation, reciprocation is indicated and admired, in its various forms, by the participants. This indication and admiration, however, does not make reciprocation a criterion that makes them act generously, thus showing us signs of autonomy in judgments related to generosity from an early childhood. When indicating an appreciation or a reciprocation to the generous action, younger children either point out the specific aspects of reward, or refer to the materiality of the rules of politeness, still exterior from their consciousness. In this way, we see how incipient are their intellectual tools, or we are faced with characteristics of infant heteronomy on their judgment of the theme. Rewards with a concrete action predominates in spontaneous suggestions of gratitude and/or reciprocation in children of 9 and 12 years old, and a verbal demonstration of gratitude prevails among the elderly when compared exclusively to material reward. Such recognition requires an evaluation of the intentions of that who acted generously, essential in the expressions of gratitude. As younger children still attach great importance to the effects of an act than to the intention of its author, it is valid to say that it is not gratitude itself that appears on their speech, but a more elementary conception of virtue, which leads us to admit its development throughout childhood. Our results also confirm the close relationship of the feeling of sympathy with generosity, already pointed out by other researches in this area. A commotion with the suffering of others appears in the arguments of children who decided for the generous action with each other. With high percentages in all age groups surveyed, this argument predominates in the lowest age and decreases in the following ages. This result shows that it is sympathy that inspires the young children to decide for the manifestation of virtue. This sensitivity to others also interferes in the judgment of the older participants, but, in the course of the development, principles of reciprocity and justice also regulate decisions that culminate in generosity

Background: Gratitude is an orientation towards the positive in life that increasingly is shown to have relevance for physical health. Less is known about how gratitude relates to health behaviours. The self-regulation resource model (SRRM) posits that future-orientation is a resource that promotes selfregulation of health behaviours. Accordingly, we meta-analytically tested whether gratitude was associated with the practice of health-promoting behaviours, and if future-orientation explained the association. Methods: Data from 14 samples (N = 4,111) from our labs were included in the meta-analysis as there was no published data. All samples completed measures of state or trait gratitude, and a measure of health behaviour frequency; six samples completed a measure of future orientation/self-continuity. Random effects metaanalysis was conducted on the correlations of gratitude with health behaviours, with subgroup analyses. Indirect effects through FO were tested and meta-analysed. Findings: Across all 14 samples, gratitude was significantly associated with more frequent health behaviours, avg. r = .261, [.22, .31]. The effects did not vary significantly across sample type (student/community), or gratitude measure (state/trait). Mediation analyses revealed significant indirect effects of gratitude on health behaviours through future-orientation in the six samples tested (N = 2,828), with an average index of mediation of beta = .068 [.05, .08]. The direct effects remained significant. Discussion: Findings are consistent with the SRRM and demonstrate that gratitude is associated with the practice of health-promoting behaviours, due in part to future-orientation. Further research is warranted to more fully investigate the potential of gratitude for promoting health behaviours.

Purpose: Despite a growing literature on the benefits of gratitude for adjustment to chronic illness, little is known about gratitude in medical populations compared to healthy populations, or the degree to which potential deficits in gratitude might impact quality of life. The purpose of the present study was to (1) examine levels of gratitude and quality of life in fibromyalgia patients and healthy controls and (2) consider the role of gratitude in explaining quality of life differences between fibromyalgia patients and healthy controls. Methods: Participants were 173 fibromyalgia patients and 81 healthy controls. All participants completed measures of gratitude, quality of life, and socio-demographics. Results: Although gratitude was positively associated with quality of life, levels of gratitude and quality of life were lower in the fibromyalgia sample relative to the healthy controls. This difference in gratitude partially mediated differences in quality of life between the two groups after controlling for socio-demographic variables. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that gratitude is a valuable positive psychological trait for quality of life in people with fibromyalgia. Interventions to improve gratitude in this patient population may also bring enhancement in quality of life.

Social connection is important to one's health and longevity. However, not only do people need others to survive, we need others to thrive. Researchers call for deeper examination of the functions and processes through which our social partners help us to prosper and thrive, such as through increased physical health and well-being. Over three studies, I examined phenomena theorized to contribute to long-term thriving including positive emotions (i.e., gratitude and positive affect fluctuation), responsive support, affectionate touch, and physical health (i.e., sleep) within the context of nursing work (Study 1) and military relationships (Study 2 & 3). Study 1 provides support for the benefits of received gratitude expressions, an understudied component of gratitude interactions. Specifically, nurses receiving more thanks within their work week were associated with feeling more satisfied with their patient care and in turn positive physical health outcomes including higher sleep quality, for example. Thus, not only is feeling grateful important to well-being but receiving thanks from others benefits one's physical health as well. Study 2 extended research describing the impact of the dynamic and fluctuating nature of emotion and physical health to close relationships by examining how positive affect variability (intra-individual standard deviation) and instability (differences between each successive day's mood) promotes or hinders intimacy. The second study found that greater fluctuations in positive affect over time were associated with greater reports of closeness within military couples. Recent research indicates that variability in positive and negative mood contributes to reduced psychological and physical well-being; however, when applied to the study of close relationships, Study 2 suggests that variation in positive mood may instead benefit military couples. Finally, Study 3 investigated the degree to which affectionate touch enhances the interrelationships among negative event support, gratitude, and sleep within Veterans and their partners over time. Results offer limited support; however, one key finding indicates that Veteran daily reports of affectionate touch were associated with increased sleep quality for their spouses. In addition, Veteran reports of affectionate touch strengthened the degree to which spouses' perceived responsive support predicted Veteran grateful mood. Study 3 supports research showing that positive interactions with one's partner, such as physical touch and responsive support, contribute to sleep and positive relationship maintenance emotions, such as gratitude. Taken together, these studies offer support for the integral role our social connections play in thriving, particularly within the contexts of nursing and military relationships.

This dissertation examines the potential for two forms of corporate philanthropy, donations of time and money, to have differential effects on consumers' response to corporate giving. Drawing upon indirect-reciprocity theory I show that corporate donations of time compared to money elicit a greater desire to reciprocate on the part of consumers. It is found that the influence of corporate donations on consumers' desire to reciprocate occurs through serial mediation, whereby donations of time are perceived as being more effortful than monetary donations. This in turn leads to more altruistic motive attributions, and ultimately greater admiration towards the firm and a stronger desire to reciprocate on the part of consumers. I find that consumers' desire to reciprocate is strengthened when the relative cost to the firm for making a donation is higher. Additionally, this research advances the emotion gratitude as a mechanism through which corporate giving leads to a desire to reciprocate and more broadly, a catalyst through which indirect reciprocity occurs. Finally, the influence of consumers' personality traits on their response to corporate philanthropy is examined. Corporate donations of time and money lead to stronger feelings of gratitude and a greater approval of a company's philanthropic actions when consumers possess higher levels of empathetic concern. Conversely, consumers who embody narcissistic traits are significantly less inclined to experience feelings of gratitude or approve of a company's philanthropy.

The relationship between positive emotions and school satisfaction was studied in 19 adolescents aged 13,57 to 15,17 years (M=14,45, SD=0,446), of these 50% were female. The subjects were all Caucasian native Swedish speakers. Schools satisfaction, life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect and gratitude was measured at the beginning of the study and again fourteen days later. During the fourteen days, the subjects were given a task to carry out each day. The control condition was asked to list up to five things that had affected them during the last day. The experimental condition was asked to list up to five things they were grateful for in the last day. The results did not show any relationship between positive affect and school satisfaction. It is suggested that the results might be caused by either too little time for the intervention to cause a significant effect, by the subjects failing to carry out the given task each day or by too few subjects to rule out random effects.

John Milton begins his Second Defence of the English People by stressing the universal importance of gratitude: "In the whole life and estate of man the first duty is to be grateful to God." Peter Medine has shown the prominence of gratitude in Paradise Lost, but scholars have not fully appreciated the role of this virtue elsewhere in Milton's writing. This thesis is an attempt to redress that oversight with reference to A Mask and Paradise Regained, while also answering a question that Medine raises but does not satisfactorily resolve: Why gratitude? Both texts have been read as responses to the early modern debate about the doctrine of things indifferent, or adiaphora, and I argue that this context helps explain Milton's interest in gratitude. The first section of this thesis accordingly reviews the historical and theological context of the adiaphora controversy, while the second examines Milton's more direct treatment of things indifferent and gratitude, primarily in De Doctrina Christiana. In the remaining sections, historical and literary analysis of A Mask and Paradise Regained illuminates how Milton addresses tensions in the doctrine of things indifferent by emphasizing gratitude. Of the commonly recognized criteria for directing the use of adiaphora—the rule of faith, the rule of charity, and the glorification of God, often through gratitude—gratitude toward God frequently receives less thorough attention, yet Milton gives it a prominent role in A Mask and allows it to overshadow the other guidelines in Paradise Regained. Although gratitude is itself sometimes subject to manipulation in these texts, both A Mask and Paradise Regained suggest that the requirement of God-ward gratitude can serve as a check against subtle distortions of the other guidelines. The effectiveness of this strategy stems from the fact that the vices gratitude guards against—self-indulgent ingratitude, stoical ingratitude, and idolatry—are the vices that underlie licentiousness and superstition, the primary abuses of the doctrine of things indifferent. Milton's privileging of gratitude thus provides a way of cross-checking appeals to the more contested criteria of faith and love, protecting the doctrine of things indifferent from perversions that would undermine Christian liberty.

Guided by positive psychology and broaden-and-build theoretical frameworks, this study utilized a correlational research design to explore the relationships between gratitude and adolescents' psychological, social, and academic well-being in a diverse sample of 499 high school students. Results of multiple regression analyses that controlled for potential effects of student demographic features on outcomes showed that higher levels of gratitude predicted more life satisfaction (β=.63, sr2=.40) , less internalizing symptoms (β= -.44, sr2= .19), more social support from parents (β=.50, sr2=.25), teachers (β=.28, sr2=.08), and peers (β=.34, sr2=.12), higher grades (β=.12, sr2=.014), and better academic self-perceptions (β=.30, sr2=.09). These relationships were generally the same for boys and girls, with the exception that the inverse link between gratitude and internalizing symptoms of psychopathology was stronger for girls than for boys. Social support from parents partially mediated the relationship between gratitude and life satisfaction, fully mediated the relationship between gratitude and internalizing symptoms for boys, and partially mediated the relationship between gratitude and internalizing symptoms for girls. Teacher support partially mediated the relationship between gratitude and students' academic self-perceptions. These mediator effects provide support for Frederickson's (2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions in that gratitude builds and strengthens student's supportive social network, which in turn leads to better psychological and academic functioning. Implications of findings for school psychology practice and future directions for research are discussed.

This thesis explores negotiations of belonging among unaccompanied young refugees in Sweden. The thesis further aims to shed light on methodological aspects of bringing out their voices. The analysis draws on postcolonial and poststructuralist approaches to belonging and relates belonging to the concepts of home, place, racialization and notions of “Swedishness”. The thesis analyses qualitative interviews with 17 young people, who arrived in Sweden as unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors and have been granted permanent residency. The interviews are complemented with walk-alongs and photography-based interviews. Paper 1 gives an overview and discussion of research on unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors. I argue that there is a lack of their voices in the research, and that their own agency and perspectives are not addressed due to a focus on vulnerability and emotional health (or lack thereof). Paper II, which is delimited to participants in a rural village, shows that they negotiate belonging and a sense of home related to places but that othering is constraining. In paper II and III I suggest that the participants’ belongings and position in Sweden can be understood as conditional due to othering and racialization. In paper III, I argue that expressing gratitude can be understood as a form of impression management and, thus be a strategy to negotiate their position in the interview setting as in the host country. I finally argue that in order to understand the participants’ negotiations of belonging attention has to be paid to their agency as well as the conditioning of belonging in discourses and in interactions on the local level.

Este estudo investigou, em uma perspectiva construtivista, se existe desenvolvimento das relações entre gratidão e humildade na infância. Participaram 28 crianças, distribuídas em três grupos etários (6, 9 e 12 anos), pareadas por sexo. Utilizaram-se duas histórias: em uma delas, o benfeitor foi humilde; na outra, o benfeitor não foi humilde. Cada história foi seguida de uma entrevista semiestruturada. Evidenciou-se que o sentimento de obrigatoriedade de retribuir um favor apresentou variações dependendo do tipo de benfeitor (humilde ou não-humilde). Houve uma maior tendência das crianças mais velhas levarem em conta a humildade e a falta dessa virtude quando comparadas com as crianças mais novas. Ao explicitar-se a diferença entre as histórias, a frequência deste tipo de resposta aumentou em todas as idades, além de ter surgido o tema da generosidade. Os resultados sugeriram que existe um desenvolvimento das relações entre gratidão e humildade na infância. / Based on a constructivist approach, this study examined whether the relations between gratitude and humility develop over childhood. Twenty-eight children, divided into three age groups (6, 9 and 12 years old), participated in this research. We used two vignettes: in one of them, the benefactor was humble; in the other one, the benefactor was not humble. Each story was followed by a semi-structured interview. The feeling of obligation to return a favor showed variations depending on the type of benefactor (humble or not humble). There was a greater tendency for older children to take into account the benefactor’s humility and the lack of this virtue when compared to younger children. When the differences between the vignettes were made explicit, the frequency of this type of response increased in all ages and the theme of generosity appeared. Results showed that the relations between gratitude and humility develop over childhood.