The current dissertation employed a multi-method approach to examine gratitude as a mediator of the well-established relation between agreeableness and relationship quality. Study 1 examined this hypothesis in a sample of 158 same-sex best friend pair recruited from the Introductory Psychology subject pool at the University of Toronto, Mississauga. Each friend made self- and informant ratings of agreeableness and dispositional gratitude. Friends also made self-ratings of friendship quality. Structural equation model analyses with latent factors revealed that dispositional gratitude fully mediated the effects of agreeableness on friendship support, intimacy, and affection. Study 2 extended the findings of Study 1 by examining whether frequency of grateful affect was a more proximal mediator of the relation between agreeableness and marital quality. One hundred and ninety-seven family triads (student, mother and father) were recruited from the Introductory Psychology subject pools at the University of Toronto, St. George and Mississauga. Each member of the triad made self- and informant ratings of agreeableness, dispositional gratitude, frequency of grateful affect, and relationship quality. Structural equation model analyses with latent factors showed that frequency of spouses’ grateful affect fully mediated the effects of spouses’ agreeableness on marital support and intimacy and partially mediated the effect of agreeableness on marital companionship and affection. In sum, the findings of the current dissertation suggest that gratitude is one way in which agreeable individuals maintain good quality friendships and marital relationships. The implications of these results for current theories of gratitude as well as relationship research are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/31966 |
| Date | 11 January 2012 |
| Creators | Walker, Simone Shonte |
| Contributors | Schimmack, Ulrich |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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