Thanks, but I'm used to better: a relative rank model of gratitude.

We argue that more help does not necessarily lead to more gratitude. Rather, gratitude depends on how a given instance of help compares with the help that a person is used to receiving. Participants read vignettes detailing an event in which 11 different friends either lent them varying amounts of money or spent varying amounts of time providing help. The amount of gratitude elicited by a given amount of help (e.g., a loan of £36 [about $56] or 49 min help) differed substantially depending on how this amount ranked among the help they were getting from their other friends. Comparison across four experimental conditions suggested that these judgments operated via the same general cognitive mechanisms used to judge other social events and psychophysical stimuli (as outlined by range frequency theory). Although more help does lead to more gratitude, people appear to be sensitive to how that help compares with what others are providing, and experienced gratitude depends on these relative judgments.

[1]  Stephen Joseph,et al.  The role of gratitude in the development of social support, stress, and depression : two longitudinal studies , 2008 .

[2]  Douglas H. Wedell,et al.  Reducing the dependence of clinical judgment on the immediate context: effects of number of categories and type of anchors. , 1990 .

[3]  M. McCullough,et al.  Is gratitude a moral affect? , 2001, Psychological bulletin.

[4]  A. Geraghty,et al.  Gratitude and well-being: a review and theoretical integration. , 2010, Clinical psychology review.

[5]  Jo-Ann Tsang,et al.  BRIEF REPORT Gratitude and prosocial behaviour: An experimental test of gratitude , 2006 .

[6]  A. Parducci.  Category judgment: a range-frequency model. , 1965, Psychological review.

[7]  M. Hyland,et al.  Attrition from self-directed interventions: investigating the relationship between psychological predictors, intervention content and dropout from a body dissatisfaction intervention. , 2010, Social science & medicine.

[8]  Douglas H. Wedell,et al.  Contextual Contrast in Evaluative Judgments: A Test of Pre- Versus Postintegration Models of Contrast , 1994 .

[9]  Stephen Joseph,et al.  Positive psychology: Past, present, and (possible) future , 2006 .

[10]  Douglas H. Wedell,et al.  The Thick and the Thin of It: Contextual Effects in Body Perception , 2005 .

[11]  Barbara A. Mellers,et al.  Equity judgment: A revision of Aristotelian views. , 1982 .

[12]  H. Helson.  Adaptation-level as frame of reference for prediction of psychophysical data. , 1947, The American journal of psychology.

[13]  R. H. Smith,et al.  Intrapersonal and social comparison determinants of happiness: a range-frequency analysis. , 1989, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[14]  A. Oswald,et al.  Does Wage Rank Affect Employees Well-Being? , 2005 .

[15]  A. Wood,et al.  Coping style as a psychological resource of grateful people. , 2007 .

[16]  Michael H. Birnbaum,et al.  Contextual effects in social judgment , 1983 .

[17]  D. H. Wedell,et al.  A formal analysis of ratings of physical attractiveness: Successive contrast and simultaneous assimilation , 1987 .

[18]  A. Wood,et al.  Gratitude - Parent of all virtues. , 2007 .

[19]  B. Mellers.  ' Fair " Allocations of Salaries and Taxes , 2004 .

[20]  A Parducci,et al.  The category effect in social judgment: experimental ratings of happiness. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[21]  Jonathan Haidt,et al.  Beyond Reciprocity: Gratitude and Relationships in Everyday Life the Present Study , 2008 .

[22]  Nicholas Tarrier,et al.  Positive Clinical Psychology: a new vision and strategy for integrated research and practice. , 2010, Clinical psychology review.

[23]  Neil Stewart,et al.  A social-cognitive model of trait and state levels of gratitude. , 2008, Emotion.

[24]  Michael E. Hyland,et al.  Dissociating the facets of hope: Agency and pathways predict dropout from unguided self-help therapy in opposite directions , 2010 .

[25]  Stephen Joseph,et al.  Gratitude uniquely predicts satisfaction with life: Incremental validity above the domains and facets of the five factor model , 2008 .

[26]  Timothy D. Wilson,et al.  Explaining Away: A Model of Affective Adaptation , 2008, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[27]  Neil Stewart,et al.  Conceptualizing gratitude and appreciation as a unitary personality trait , 2008 .

[28]  Gordon D. A. Brown,et al.  Decision by sampling , 2006, Cognitive Psychology.

[29]  Jo-Ann Tsang,et al.  The grateful disposition: a conceptual and empirical topography. , 2002, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[30]  Stephen Joseph,et al.  Gratitude predicts psychological well-being above the Big Five facets , 2009 .