Beyond Reciprocity: Gratitude and Relationships in Everyday Life the Present Study

The emotion of gratitude is thought to have social effects, but empirical studies of such effects have focused largely on the repaying of kind gestures. The current research focused on the relational antecedents of gratitude and its implications for relationship formation. The authors examined the role of naturally occurring gratitude in college sororities during a week of gift-giving from older members to new members. New members recorded reactions to benefits received during the week. At the end of the week and 1 month later, the new and old members rated their interactions and their relationships. Perceptions of benefactor responsiveness predicted gratitude for benefits, and gratitude during the week predicted future relationship outcomes. Gratitude may function to promote relationship formation and maintenance.

[1]  J. Harvey,et al.  New Directions in Attribution Research , 2018 .

[2]  L. Pessoa,et al.  Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought‐action repertoires , 2005, Cognition & emotion.

[3]  E. Higgins,et al.  Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles. , 1996 .

[4]  W. Robinson,et al.  Determinants of Gratitude Expressions in England , 1997 .

[5]  N. Sanders,et al.  Journal of behavioral decision making: "The need for contextual and technical knowledge in judgmental forecasting", 5 (1992) 39-52 , 1992 .

[6]  J. Lerner,et al.  Portrait of The Angry Decision Maker: How Appraisal Tendencies Shape Anger's Influence on Cognition. , 2006 .

[7]  G. Clore,et al.  Feelings and phenomenal experiences , 1996 .

[8]  D. Keltner,et al.  Social Functions of Emotions at Four Levels of Analysis , 1999 .

[9]  D. DeSteno,et al.  Gratitude and Prosocial Behavior , 2006, Psychological science.

[10]  Lindsey J. Powell,et al.  It's the Thought That Counts , 2006, Psychological science.

[11]  Debra Mashek,et al.  Handbook of closeness and intimacy , 2004 .

[12]  Arie W. Kruglanski,et al.  Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles, 2nd ed. , 2007 .

[13]  Jonathan Haidt,et al.  Witnessing excellence in action: the ‘other-praising’ emotions of elevation, gratitude, and admiration , 2009, The journal of positive psychology.

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

[15]  Russell L. Kolts,et al.  The debt of gratitude: Dissociating gratitude and indebtedness , 2006 .

[16]  Michael A. Becker.  Social Psychology: Handbook of Basic Principles , 1998 .

[17]  Francis J. Flynn,et al.  It’s the Thought That Counts: On Perceiving How Helpers Decide to Lend a Hand , 2003, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[18]  E. Berscheid,et al.  Emotional Experience in Close Relationships , 2007 .

[19]  J. G. Holmes,et al.  Perceived Partner Responsiveness as an Organizing Construct in the Study of Intimacy and Closeness , 2004 .

[20]  A. Tesser,et al.  Some determinants of gratitude. , 1968, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[21]  N. Anderson,et al.  Integration of intention and outcome in moral judgment , 1976, Memory & cognition.

[22]  Andrew Ortony,et al.  The Cognitive Structure of Emotions , 1988 .

[23]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[24]  Jo-Ann Tsang,et al.  Gratitude for small and large favors: A behavioral test , 2007 .

[25]  Daniel W. Russell,et al.  The cognition–emotion process in achievement-related contexts. , 1979 .