Gratitude and indebtedness are construed as separate constructs in recent research.It is hypothesized by this thesis that self-focused attention affects feelings of gratitude and indebtedness. Focusing less attention on the self, thus turning attention resources outward, may allow for the experience of gratitude, whereas focusing inward may create feelings of indebtedness. Two studies examined how focusing one's attention inward may be related to indebtedness, whereas being focused outward may be related to gratitude. A correlational study showed that people who self-focus tend to feel more indebtedness and less gratitude. An experiment was designed to show that manipulating social anxiety, a specific type of self-focused attention, would increase feelings of indebtedness and decrease feelings of gratitude. However, no significant differences of indebtedness or gratitude were found between the experimental condition and control condition.

Researchers have suggested an increased focus on positive psychological interventions to enhance college students' happiness levels; however, few studies have addressed positive interventions on at-risk college students. Based on the theoretical framework of positive psychology and impact of positive exercises on happiness, this study addressed whether a positive intervention would increase happiness as evidenced by scores on the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). The experimental design included random group assignment and pre- and posttest surveys to collect data from 135 at-risk community college students in Southeast Texas. The experimental group participated in a 1-week intervention consisting of 2 gratitude exercises, and the control group completed early memory journaling. Results indicated significant differences in SWLS and PANAS scores between the two groups with an increase in life satisfaction and positive affect and a decrease in negative affect in the experimental group. Results may be used by institutions seeking positive interventions to increase at-risk college student success and retention.

本研究旨在探討大學生的感恩特質、社會支持、因應型態及幸福感之相互關係，從而建構各變項間可能的影響路徑。研究採問卷調查法，以台灣地區公、私立大學750位大學生為研究對象。研究工具則包含感恩特質量表、社會支持量表、因應型態量表、幸福感量表、GQ-6量表及負向情緒量表等六份量表。本研究採用描述統計、單因子多變量變異數分析及結構方程模式分析資料，研究結果陳述如下： 一、人口變項與感恩特質、社會支持、因應型態、幸福感之關係 （一）不同地區（北、中、南）大學生在感恩特質、社會支持、因應型態及幸福感表現上並無顯著差異存在。 （二）公立學校大學生在感恩特質及社會支持表現上顯著優於私立學校，但在因應型態及幸福感表現上則無顯著差異存在。 （三）不同學院（文、商、理、工、社科、教育、藝術）大學生在感恩特質、社會支持、因應型態及幸福感表現上皆有差異存在。 （四）女大學生在感恩特質、社會支持及因應型態之「情緒取向積極因應」及幸福感得分皆高於男大學生。惟男學大生在因應型態之「問題取向消極因應」得分高於女大學生。 （五）一年級大學生在社會支持之「訊息與實質性支持」得分高於二年級大學生，但在感恩特質、因應型態及幸福感表現上則無顯著的年級差異存在。 （六）不同宗教信仰（無、佛、道、基督/天主、其他）的大學生在感恩特質及社會支持表現上有差異存在，但在因應型態及幸福感表現上則無顯著差異存在。 二、感恩特質與社會支持、因應型態、幸福感之關係 （一）不同感恩特質之大學生在社會支持表現上有差異存在；感恩特質程度較高者，其知覺到「情緒與陪伴性支持」及「訊息與實質性支持」的程度較高。 （二）不同感恩特質之大學生在因應型態表現上有差異存在；感恩特質程度較高者，除較能採取「問題取向積極因應」及「情緒取向積極因應」，亦會較少採取「情緒取向消極因應」。 （三）不同感恩特質之大學生在幸福感表現上有差異存在；感恩特質程度較高者，其知覺到「生活滿意」及「正向情緒」的程度較高。 （四）感恩特質、社會支持及因應型態除對幸福感具正向直接效果，感恩特質也會透過社會支持及因應型態對幸福感產生正向間接效果。此外，社會支持除透過因應型態對幸福感具正向間接效果，因應型態也會透過社會支持對幸福感產生正向間接效果。 最後，根據上述研究結果提出若干意見，以供相關單位與人員在教育及未來研究上之參考。 / The main purposes of this study were to explore the interactive relationships of undergraduates’ gratitude, social support, coping style, and subjective well-being, and further to examine a path model of these variables. The participants in this study were 750 undergraduate students in Taiwan. Moreover, the employed instruments included the Inventory of Gratitude, the Inventory of Social Support, the Inventory of Coping Style, the Inventory of Subjective Well-being, the gratitude questionnaire-6, and the Inventory of Negative Emotion. The collected data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, one-way MANOVA and SEM. The main findings of this study were as follows: 1. The relationships among demographic variables, gratitude, social support, coping style, and subjective well-being. (1) Areas had no effects on the undergraduates’ gratitude, social support, coping style, and subjective well-being. (2) Undergraduate students from public universities had a higher degree of gratitude and social support than those from private universities. However, no differences were found on coping style and subjective well-being between these two groups. (3) College majors had effects on the undergraduates’ degree of gratitude, social support, coping style, and subjective well-being. (4) While the females had a higher degree of gratitude, social support, and emotion-focused positive coping than the males, the males had a higher degree of problem-focused negative coping than the females. (5) The freshmen had a higher level of informational-tangible social support than the sophomores. However, no differences were found on gratitude, coping style, and subjective well-being among the four grade levels. (6) Religious beliefs had effects on the undergraduates’ gratitude and social support, but did not have effects on their coping style and subjective well-being. 2. The relationships among gratitude, social support, coping style, and subjective well-being. (1) Grateful people had a higher degree of emotional-accompanied and informational-tangible social support than less grateful ones. (2) Grateful people tended to utilize more problem-focused positive coping and emotion-focused positive coping than less grateful ones. However, less grateful people tended to utilize more emotion-focused negative coping than more grateful ones. (3) Grateful people had a higher level of life satisfaction and positive emotion than less grateful ones. (4) While gratitude, social support, and coping style positively influenced the undergraduates’ subjective well-being, gratitude positively influenced their subjective well-being via social support and coping style. In addition, while social support positively influenced their subjective well-being via coping style, coping style also positively influenced subjective well-being via social support. Finally, the researcher proposed some suggestions for education and future research.

<p>The interpretation of this qualitative study indicates that individuals, teams and the organisation can benefit through allowing focus of unlocking that which provides a positive stimulus during challenging times in organisational settings. For social scientists, and in particular behavioural scientists, including industrial psychologists that are interested in positive psychology, it is hoped that there is an invitation to grow this area of research further and to gain new insights and direction for what are the enablers to experience positive change and gratitude.</p>

<p>Marketers seek to create and consumers seek to cultivate a variety of positive emotional experiences. Despite their importance to consumer behavior, researchers have lacked a clear understanding of the distinct behavioral consequences of specific positive emotions. My dissertation examines how different positive emotions (e.g., hope, love, and pride) can differentially affect consumers' decisions and behaviors. I find that positive emotions can not only be differentiated but also that specific positive emotions lead to distinctly different patterns of consumption behavior, such as considering more options, donating in different ways, engaging in more effortful actions, or performing more socially conscious consumption behaviors benefiting distant others. I find important differences both with momentary emotional experiences and downstream consequences of chronic emotional experiences. </p><p>Positive emotions differ reliably in the degree to which they create a lens of problem-solving, social connection, and perceived control. For example, I find that positive emotions characterized by a social connection lens (e.g., love and gratitude) lead to increases in socially conscious behaviors benefiting distant others. The tendency to perceive one's environment through a problem-solving lens (which characterizes hope and interest but not love and gratitude) leads to larger consideration sets and engagement in more effortful environmental actions. I also examine how positive emotions characterized by different lenses, such as perceived control (e.g., pride) and social connection (e.g., love), produce distinct behaviors within the same consumption context (e.g., giving in different ways in response to a fundraising appeal). Five studies demonstrate that positive emotions can be characterized in ways that allow prediction of distinct forms of broadening and specific consumption behaviors.</p> / Dissertation

Abstract Positive psychology encourages a focus on identifying and promoting wellness in individuals rather than analyzing psychopathology. Although decades of research shows that mental illness is in part environmental and hereditary, little is known about the relationship between parental levels of positive emotions such as gratitude, life satisfaction, and hope, and their children's levels of the same constructs. This study utilized a past, present, and future framework of positive emotions to explore parental and child levels of gratitude, life satisfaction, and hope. This quantitative study analyzed correlations between self-reported levels of gratitude, life satisfaction, and hope among a sample of 153 fourth and fifth grade students and their parents (143 female caregivers, 119 male caregivers). Findings include statistically significant relationships between (a) mother and child gratitude (but not father and child gratitude) and (b) child life satisfaction with both mothers' and fathers' life satisfaction. No relationships emerged between parental hope and child hope. The study has important implications for school psychologists, including sharing with caregivers' the relationships between parental positive emotions and their children' levels of wellness. Future research is needed to investigate the causes of the links identified in the current study, as well as to explore the relationship between parental and child hope.

<p>The interpretation of this qualitative study indicates that individuals, teams and the organisation can benefit through allowing focus of unlocking that which provides a positive stimulus during challenging times in organisational settings. For social scientists, and in particular behavioural scientists, including industrial psychologists that are interested in positive psychology, it is hoped that there is an invitation to grow this area of research further and to gain new insights and direction for what are the enablers to experience positive change and gratitude.</p>

本研究以幸福感作為成功老化的指標，試圖探究高齡者本身的感恩性情及正向回憶形式對其幸福感的影響。 研究一採「個別差異」的觀點，研究者認為相較於一些隨著老化而改變的生活狀況變項（如，身體健康、日常生活功能、經濟狀況、社交活動等因素），高齡者本身的感恩性情及正向回憶形式應更能影響其自評幸福的程度。研究者主要以調查法的方式，對355名55歲以上的高齡者進行團體或個別形式的量表施測。研究結果顯示，感恩性情及正向回憶形式的確與幸福感有密切的關聯，即使在控制基本人口及生活狀況變項的影響後，感恩性情及正向回憶形式仍有助於提升個體的幸福感（其可增加的預測變異量介於6.0%~9.6%）。研究一也將幸福感的三個成分（生活滿意度、正向情緒及負向情緒）分別做為依變項，進一步探討可能的中介模式，結果發現：（1）「正向回憶形式」能完全中介感恩性情對正、負向情緒的影響，但僅能部分中介感恩性情對生活滿意度的影響。而（2）「感恩情緒」則能完全中介感恩性情對正向情緒的影響，但僅能部分中介感恩性情對生活滿意度的影響，卻完全無法中介感恩性情對負向情緒的影響。此外，正向回憶形式與感恩情緒兩中介變項各有其獨特的中介效果，無法相互取代。 研究二則採取實驗法的方式進行，用以檢視感恩情緒與幸福感的因果關係。受試者為75名參與終身學習的高齡者，研究者嘗試以不同感恩情緒的激發方式，來設計適合於高齡者的幸福感提升方案。有些高齡者被要求聚焦在現在生活中的感恩經驗（日常感恩組），有些則是寫出過去生命裡的感恩事件（人生感恩組），研究者認為當高齡者在回憶書寫這些感恩經驗時，可再經驗及品嚐感恩情緒。另有兩組高齡者則分別被要求書寫現在生活中的重要事件（日常要事組）或僅單純回答問卷、不進行其他書寫（無操弄控制組）來做為對照組。研究者對這些不同組別，分別進行分析，探討這些不同操弄對高齡者幸福感是否有提升的作用。研究結果顯示，經過七週的書寫後，相較於「無操弄控制組」，「日常感恩組」在正向情緒上有提升的現象，但在生活滿意度及負向情緒則未出現明顯差異。進一步分析顯示，幸福感中正向情緒的提升效果完全透過感恩情緒連動正向情緒而得。然而該效果頗為短暫，在研究結束後於一個月所做的追蹤調查就發現該效果已然消失。研究結果也顯示，「人生感恩組」並未能提升幸福感，其可能的原因或許是因為過去人生的感恩經驗已經太過遙遠，因此無法讓高齡者真正再次經驗到感恩情緒，所以也無法有效地提升個體的幸福感。另外，研究者也發現了一個頗為有趣的結果，就是「日常要事組」造成的影響與「日常感恩組」相似，研究者認為之所以會出現這樣的結果，主要是因為「日常要事組」的受試者其所書寫的「要事」多半為正向事件，因此提高了其幸福的感受。 綜合上述兩個研究的結果，研究者認為，感恩及正向回憶形式對高齡者是否能有較佳的幸福感確實有一定程度的影響，且若能引導高齡者多注意其日常生活中值得感恩的事情或是正向事件，將能使其感受到更多的正向情緒，也有助於幸福感的提升。換言之，即使到了老年階段，只要用對了方法，要擁有幸福快樂的銀髮生涯其實並不難！ / This research, adopting positive emotion, negative emotion, and life satisfaction as the criteria of subjective well-being, tried to examine the effects of grateful disposition and the positive type of reminiscence on successful aging. In study1, the researcher proposed that grateful disposition and the positive type of reminiscence, among other life situation variables which changed with age (e.g., health condition, functions of daily life, economic status, and social activities), could predict the well-being of the elderly. Three hundred and thirty five participants who are over the age of 55 were surveyed in groups or individually. The results were as predicted, grateful disposition and the positive type of reminiscence could predict the well-being of the elderly, even after controlling for some basic life situation variables, they still could explain 6.0% and 9.6% of variance respectively. The mediation effects were also examined and results indicated that, (1) "the positive type of reminiscence” could completely mediate the effects of grateful disposition on positive and negative emotion, but only partially mediated the effects of grateful disposition on life satisfaction; (2) “grateful emotion” completely mediated the effect of grateful disposition on positive emotion, and partially mediated the effect of grateful disposition on life satisfaction, but did not mediate the effect of grateful disposition on negative emotion. Furthermore, these two mediator variables, the positive type of reminiscence and grateful emotion, had its own specific mediating effect, and could not replace each other. In Study 2, an experiment was conducted to examine the causal relationship between grateful emotion and well-being of the elderly. Seventy five elders who actively participated in life-long education classes were recruited. They were assigned to one of four different experimental conditions and received different instructions. The first condition was called the daily gratitude condition and participants were told to write down the grateful experience from their current daily lives. The second condition was called the life gratitude condition and participants were asked to recall the grateful events from their past. Participants in the third condition were told to write down their daily important events. In the last condition, which is also the control condition, participants were asked to fill up questionnaires only. The results indicated that, after seven weeks of writing, the elderly in the daily gratitude condition had significant more positive emotion than those who in the control condition. However, the effect was quite short-lived and it disappeared one month later after the writing manipulation. The results also indicated that writing down grateful events from the past did not enhance the subjective well-being, the elderly in the condition showed neither significantly higher positive emotion nor higher life satisfaction than those who in the control condition. It might be because these events were too far away to elicit the present emotion and feeling effectively. In addition, the result also revealed an interesting finding about the daily important events group. The elderly in this condition showed same degree of positive emotion and well-being as those who in the daily gratitude condition. It might be due to the fact that the elders who were asked to write down important daily events did record more positive events than negative events. In summary, it can be concluded that, gratitude and the positive type of reminiscence did have impact on the well-being of the elderly. We can successfully promote the elders’ well-being by leading them to savor their daily grateful events. We believe, even stepping into elderhood, people are still capable of pursuing their own well-being and can live a good life, if only they choose the right way!

Magister Commercii - MCom / The interpretation of this qualitative study indicates that individuals, teams and the organisation can benefit through allowing focus of unlocking that which provides a positive stimulus during challenging times in organisational settings. For social scientists, and in particular behavioural scientists, including industrial psychologists that are interested in positive psychology, it is hoped that there is an invitation to grow this area of research further and to gain new insights and direction for what are the enablers to experience positive change and gratitude. / South Africa

No description available.