Psychol Stud
DOI 10.1007/s12646-016-0377-3
REVIEW ARTICLE
An Exploratory Study About the Buffering Effect of Gratitude
on the Relationship Between Neuroticism and Anhedonic
Depression
Patricia Simon1
Received: 24 March 2016 / Accepted: 24 October 2016
Ó National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) India 2016
Abstract This study explored the interactive and inde-
pendent effects of gratitude and neuroticism on anhedonic
depression. The tripartite theory of affect deems blunted
positive affect to be tantamount to anhedonia (Clark and
Watson in J Abnorm Psychol 100:316–336, 1991); hence,
gratitude as a positive affective trait was posited to be
related to anhedonic depression. A sample of 493 under-
graduate students completed measures of the variables.
Hierarchical regression showed that even though gratitude
did not appear to moderate the relationship between neu-
roticism and anhedonic depression, it had a significant
main effect on the outcome such that those who had higher
gratitude scores exhibited lower levels of anhedonic
depression even after controlling for the effects of both
positive and negative affect. Implications of the findings
regarding gratitude’s utility as a resiliency factor against
anhedonic depression as well as its potential to buffer
against the effects of many risk factors other than neu-
roticism are discussed. Researchers and mental health
practitioners are encouraged to explore the nature of grat-
itude as a possible resource of individuals at risk for
developing psychopathology, as there may be multiple
avenues through which gratitude could be fostered in
psychotherapy and in everyday life.
Keywords Gratitude
Neuroticism
Positive affect

Negative affect
Anhedonia
Anhedonic depression
& Patricia Simon
patricia_simon@dlsu.edu.ph
1
De La Salle University Manila, 2401 Taft Avenue, Malate,
Manila, 1004 Metro Manila, Philippines
Introduction
Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV) are core positive
traits observed to be present in history and across cultures
(Peterson & Seligman, 2004). Despite the growing interest
in the study of character strengths and how they are linked
to healthy and high functioning individuals, their potential
to serve as a buffer against psychopathological conditions
remains to be an under explored area of study. In the
continuing search for personality correlates of psycholog-
ical disorders, the character strength gratitude has gained
considerable attention since previous studies found it to be
a clinically relevant trait (Killen & Macaskill, 2015;
Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005; Wood, Froh, &
Geraghty, 2010). In previous studies, gratitude was found
to attenuate depressive symptoms (Lambert, Fincham, &
Stillman, 2012), and to correlate strongly with resilience
(Gomez, Vincent, & Toussaint, 2013).
For the above reasons, this study presents gratitude as a
viable resiliency factor against psychopathology. Individ-
ual differences in temperament have continuously been
pointed out as vulnerability factors to a wide array of
disorders (Malouff, Thorsteinsson, & Schutte, 2005). Since
the Big Five trait neuroticism has consistently emerged as a
major risk factor to depression across major theories of
temperament traits (Wetter & Hankin, 2009), this study
would like to test whether its effects on anhedonic
depression can be moderated in interaction with a character
strength such as gratitude.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders or DSM-V (American Psychiatric Association,
2013) considers anhedonia, ‘‘diminished interest or plea-
sure in activities’’, (p. 160) as a core feature of major
depressive disorder (MDD). The significance of anhedonia
as a distinguishing feature of depression is highlighted by
123

the fact that this particular symptom of depression is often
present whenever a diagnosis of depression is made. Since
a major portion of individuals diagnosed with MDD
experience clinically significant anhedonia (American
Psychiatric Association, 2013; Pelizza & Ferrari, 2009),
this study’s focus on anhedonic depression is an attempt at
targeting a core symptom of the disorder. Evidence exists
that a high score on a scale that measures anhedonic
depression, the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire
or MASQ (Watson & Clark, 1991), is predictive of the
likelihood of an individual to qualify for a current
depressive disorder (Bredemeier, Spielberg, Levin Silton,
Berenbaum, Heller, & Miller, 2010). Anhedonia is said to
be a particularly difficult symptom to treat (McMakin et al.,
2012; Treadway & Zald, 2010) even by widely used
pharmacological interventions (Price, Cole, & Goodwin,
2009). Therefore, discovering preventive measures against
it should be a priority among researchers and practitioners
alike.
Neuroticism as a Risk Factor to Anhedonic
Depression
The literature has identified many risk factors to
depression (Fried, Nesse, Zivin, Guille, & Sen, 2014),
one of which is neuroticism—a broad and multi-faceted
construct characterized by proneness to depression,
worry, and anxiety. A theoretical model used to explain
the link between temperament and depression is the
vulnerability model, where the basic assumption is that
‘‘temperament predisposes an individual to be at risk for
the development of a disorder’’ (Wetter & Hankin, 2009,
p. 509). In a study that involved various risk factors,
neuroticism emerged as a potent vulnerability factor
since it predicted increases in all depressive symptoms
over time, including anhedonia (Fried et al., 2014).
Researchers have also contended that both the anhedonic
and non-anhedonic type of depression is related to high
neuroticism (Shankman, Katz, DeLizza, Sarapas, Gorka,
& Campbell, 2014). In fact, high levels of neuroticism
appeared to lead to a huge increase in anhedonic
depression over time (Wetter & Hankin, 2009). From
acknowledgement of the increased vulnerability to
depression brought about by predispositions such as
neuroticism, the need to identify protective factors such
as gratitude arises.
Gratitude as a Resiliency Factor to Anhedonic
Depression
Gratitude, defined as a ‘‘habitual focusing on and appre-
ciating the positive aspects of life’’ (Wood et al., 2010,
p. 890), is presented as a characteristic adaptation that an
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Psychol Stud
individual could use to cope with his high neuroticism.
Gratitude was shown to be one of the active ingredients
of resilience, as those individuals who expressed more
gratitude after crises exhibited less depressive symptoms
than those who did not (Fredrickson, Tugade, Waugh, &
Larkin, 2003). Gratitude also appeared to be associated
with fewer depressive symptoms (Lambert et al., 2012)
and was found to be a strong and significant correlate of
resilience (Gomez et al., 2013). Since resilience reflects
high trait positive affectivity and appears to be negatively
correlated with depressive symptoms (Fredrickson et al.,
2003), it can be supposed that grateful individuals might
also exhibit a similar capacity characteristic of resilient
people.
Wood, Maltby, Gillett, Linely, and Joseph (2008a)
showed that higher levels of gratitude lead to ‘‘less
depression, less stress, and more social support during a
life transition’’ (p. 854). Gratitude is said to be positively
related to happiness, optimism, life satisfaction and pos-
itive affect, and negatively linked with negative affect,
anxiety, and depressive symptoms (Emmons & McCul-
lough, 2003; McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002;
Seligman et al., 2005). In this study, gratitude is assumed
to exert its effect against anhedonic depression through
positive affect, an assumption based on the tripartite
theory of affect that conceptualized depression as a dis-
order characterized by low positive affect (Clark &
Watson, 1991; Crawford & Henry, 2004). Gratitude was
also found to be a unique predictor of positive affect
beyond the effects of many personality traits (Wood,
Joseph, & Maltby, 2009). ‘‘The presence of positive
emotions should prevent or attenuate the magnitude of
depression’’ (Lambert et al., 2012, p. 617) through tar-
geting a core feature of the disorder which is anhedonia.
It is possible that the grateful feelings characteristically
experienced by people high in gratitude could predispose
them to think positive thoughts and to engage in con-
structive behaviours that would lead to the experience of
more positive emotions. This makes further sense in light
of the fact that gratitude was shown to be negatively
associated with depressive symptoms through positive
reframing (the tendency to reframe negative circum-
stances in a positive light) and positive emotions (Lam-
bert et al., 2012). A grateful individual is assumed to be
high in positive affectivity, evidenced by the fact that
gratitude correlated most strongly with extraversion’s
positive emotions facet in some studies (Wood, Joseph, &
Maltby, 2008a; Wood et al., 2009). As positive affect
facilitates approach behaviour (Watson, Wiese, Vaidya, &
Tellegen, 1999), it could prompt people to engage more
with their environments and to display adaptive beha-
viours (Fredrickson, 2001) that are largely inconsistent
with an anhedonic state.
Psychol Stud
Neuroticism, Gratitude, and Anhedonic Depression
Findings regarding neuroticism’s relationship to gratitude
had been inconsistent, with some studies finding moderate
to strong negative associations between neuroticism and
gratitude (McComb et al., 2004; McCullough et al., 2002,
Studies 2 and 3; Whitney et al., 2003 as cited in Watkins,
2014), while others showed that the two constructs are not
significantly related (Chen et al., 2009; Neto, 2007; Uhder
& Watkins, 2012 as cited in Watkins, 2014). Since neu-
roticism is characterized by negative affect while gratitude
is characterized by positive affect, the non-significant
relationship between neuroticism and gratitude may be
explained by the fact that negative affect and positive
affect have often been considered as independent dimen-
sions (Crawford & Henry, 2004; Schmukle, Egloff, &
Burns, 2002). Although appearing to be contradictory
traits, one can reasonably infer that neuroticism and grat-
itude can exist on high levels in the same individual, and
that interaction between them may exert a unique effect on
depression different from when they are considered sepa-
rately. To emphasize this point, one study observed an
interaction between negative affect and positive affect in
the prediction of anhedonic depression (Wetter & Hankin,
2009). Specifically, individuals who exhibited high positive
affect displayed relatively low levels of anhedonic
depression despite high negative affect.
In light of the abovementioned results, the present study
sought to examine a model where neuroticism and gratitude
are made to interact to predict anhedonic depression. This
study was also designed to confirm previous findings
regarding gratitude’s and neuroticism’s relationship with
depression, this time with a focus on anhedonic depression, a
type of depression with anhedonia as a salient feature. The
relevance of examining personality factors individually
conferring risk (neuroticism) and resilience (gratitude) on an
important outcome is emphasized by existing evidence about
how people with high levels of negative affect and low levels
of positive affect had the largest increase in anhedonic
depression over time (Wetter & Hankin, 2009). Furthermore,
despite gratitude being considered as a universal trait
(Peterson & Seligman, 2004), local studies that examine the
grateful disposition on Filipino samples remain to be scarce.
Method
Participants
Four hundred and ninety-three undergraduates from two
universities participated in the study. They came from
various colleges and departments, and 477 out of these 493
respondents were included in the data analyses. 57% were
female (N = 272) and 43% were male (N = 205). The
respondents’ ages ranged from 16 to 24 (M = 19.26 years,
SD = 1.38). They were recruited with permission from
their professors, and all gave their informed consent to
participate. No one received payment or class credit for
participating.
Measures
Gratitude Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6)
GQ-6 is a six-item instrument that measures individual differ-
ences in gratitude (McCullough et al., 2002). It is the most
frequently used measure of dispositional gratitude (Gomez
et al., 2013; Lambert et al., 2012; Wood et al., 2008a). It dis-
played good discriminant validity as well as an internal con-
sistency reliability of .82 (McCullough et al., 2002). Evidence
for the adequacy of GQ-6’s psychometric properties was seen
across four studies done by McCullough et al. (2002), as well as
in many other studies. The scale has also been used on a sample
of Filipino adolescents (Datu, 2014). Respondents are asked to
indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with the
statements using a scale of 1 (‘‘Strongly Disagree’’) to 7
(‘‘Strongly Agree’’). Scores can range from 6 to 42, with greater
levels of gratitude indicated by higher scores. Internal consis-
tency of the GQ-6 in the present study, measured using Cron-
bach’s alpha, was .79.
Neuroticism
The 10-item neuroticism subscale of the short English ver-
sion of the Masaklaw na Panukat ng Loob or Mapa ng Loob
(del Pilar, Sio, Cagasan, Siy, & Galang, 2015) was used. It is
a Filipino-developed personality inventory based on the five
factor model of personality (FFM). The neuroticism subscale
had ten items (e.g. ‘‘I worry about what other people think of
me’’) to which the participants indicated their agreement
using a scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly
Agree). The scales of the short form of Mapa ng Loob
showed adequate psychometric properties similar to the
188-item measure (good convergent and discriminant
validity for the domain scales), displaying an internal con-
sistency reliability of .87 on a sample of 331 students from
UP-Diliman (del Pilar et al., 2015). Cronbach alpha of the
Mapa ng Loob in the present study was .77.
Anhedonic Depression (Anhedonic Depression Scale
from the Mini-Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire)
Anhedonic depression was measured using the relevant
subscale from the Mini-Mood and Anxiety Symptoms
Questionnaire or Mini-MASQ (Casillas & Clark, 2000)—
an abbreviated version of the full MASQ’s anhedonic
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depression subscale (Watson & Clark, 1991). The scale had
eight items (e.g. ‘‘felt like nothing was very enjoyable’’),
and respondents were asked to rate how much they have
felt or experienced the given symptoms ‘‘during the past
week, including today’’ using a scale from 1 (not at all) to 5
(extremely). The Mini-MASQ displayed a strong factor
structure, good convergent, discriminant and predictive
validity, and alpha levels in the mid .80 s for each subscale
(Bredemeier et al., 2010; Casillas & Clark, 2000) similar to
the full MASQ (Watson & Clark, 1991). Internal consis-
tency of the scale in the present study was .87.
The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)
PANAS (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) is a 20-item
scale composed of two 10-item mood scales developed to
measure positive affect (e.g. enthusiastic, interested) and
negative affect (e.g. scared, afraid). Respondents were
asked to rate the extent to which they experience each
particular emotion in general using a scale from 1 (very
slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). The PANAS
demonstrated good psychometric properties (Crawford &
Henry, 2004) and is one of the most popular and widely
used affect scales. The internal consistencies of the PA and
NA scales in the present study were .86 and .84,
respectively.
Results
The descriptive statistics for all variables and their cor-
relations are presented in Table 1. Consistent with the
literature, neuroticism is positively correlated with nega-
tive affect and anhedonic depression, and negatively
correlated with positive affect. On the other hand, grati-
tude is positively correlated with positive affect and
negatively correlated with anhedonic depression and
negative affect. Lastly, there is a negative relationship
between neuroticism and gratitude, while positive affect
and negative affect’s relationship turned out to be non-
significant.
Table 1 Descriptive statistics
Variable
for all measures
1. Neuroticism
2. Gratitude
3. Anhedonic depression
4. Positive affect
5. Negative affect
** p \ .01
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Psychol Stud
Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis
A three-step hierarchical multiple regression analysis was
conducted to test the independent and interactive effects of
the variables. In the first step (model 1), three variables
were included: age, gender, and university to control for
their possible effects. These variables did not account for a
significant amount of variance in anhedonic depression,
R2 = .01, F(3, 473) = 2.13, p = .10. In the second step
(model 2), the two major variables (neuroticism and grat-
itude) were entered into the equation. These variables
accounted for a significant amount of variance in anhedo-
nic depression, R2 change = .29, F(5, 471) = 40.68,
p \ .01. For the final step (model 3), the interaction term
between the centred neuroticism and centred gratitude
scores was added to the regression model. Contrary to the
hypothesis, the interaction did not contribute a significant
amount of variance in anhedonic depression, R2
change = .001, F(6, 470) = 33.83, p [ .01. See Table 2
for a summary of this hierarchical regression analysis.
Ancillary Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis
A supplementary analysis was done to examine whether
the individual effects of neuroticism and gratitude on
anhedonic depression would remain after controlling for
the effects of positive and negative affect. The first two
steps of the preceding hierarchical regression analysis was
carried out in a similar manner, but for the final step (model
3), instead of the interaction term between neuroticism and
gratitude, positive affect and negative affect were entered.
These variables accounted for a significant amount of
variance in anhedonic depression, R2 change = .18, F(7,
469) = 61.86, p \ .01. See Table 3 for a summary of this
ancillary hierarchical regression analysis.
Gratitude was a negative predictor of anhedonic
depression for models 2 and 3. Neuroticism, on the other
hand, appeared to be a significant predictor of anhedonic
depression only when positive and negative affect were not
accounted for. For model 3, gratitude remained to be a
negative predictor of anhedonic depression while the
M SD Correlations (r)
2 3 4 5
30.62 6.46 -.23** .37** -.34** .45**
33.67 5.70 – -.45** .31** -.17**
20.83 6.53 – -.59** .25**
33.13 6.81 – -.01
26.06 7.60 –
Psychol Stud

Table 2 Summary of
Variable Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
hierarchical regression analysis
for variables predicting B SE B b B SE B b B SE B b
anhedonic depression: Models
1, 2, and 3 (N = 477) Age .40 .23 .08 .45 .20 .10* .45 .20 .09*
Gender .78 .62 .06 .70 .54 .05 .82 .46 .06
University 1.29 .72 .09 1.96 .61 .13** 1.95 .61 .13**
Neuroticism .28 .04 .27** .28 .04 .28**
Gratitude -.47 .05 -.40** -.46 .05 -.40**
Neuroticism X gratitude -.00 .01 -.01
R2 .01 .29 .29
F for change in R2 2.13 40.68 33.83
* p \ .05; ** p \ .01

Table 3 Summary of ancillary

Variable Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
hierarchical regression analysis
for variables predicting B SE B b B SE B b B SE B b
anhedonic depression: Models
1, 2, and 3 (N = 477) Age .40 .23 .08 .45 .20 .10* .32 .17 .07
Gender .78 .62 .06 .70 .54 .05 .82 .46 .06
University 1.29 .72 .09 1.96 .61 .13** 1.81 .53 .12**
Neuroticism .28 .04 .27** .07 .04 .07
Gratitude -.47 .05 -.40** -.32 .04 -.28**
Positive affect -.45 .04 -.47**
Negative affect .14 .03 .16**
2
R .01 .29 .47
F for change in R2 2.13 40.68 61.86
* p \ .05; ** p \ .01

previous positive relationship between neuroticism and
anhedonic depression became non-significant after positive
and negative affect had been accounted for.
Discussion
An examination of the correlation between the variables
and their individual effects confirmed previous findings
about how neuroticism is related to anhedonic depression
(Shankman et al., 2014; Wetter & Hankin, 2009). In a
previous study, neuroticism, as a potent risk factor to
depression, was able to predict increases in all depressive
symptoms over time, including anhedonia (Fried et al.,
2014). The literature, however, has remained equivocal
about this, and it could be because it is negative affectivity
that characterizes neuroticism while the tripartite theory of
affect points to positive affect as being more specific to
anhedonic depression than negative affect. The observed
non-significant correlation between positive affect and
negative affect in this study may be explained by research
on how positive and negative affectivity are independent
dimensions processed in different parts of the brain
(Davidson, 2001). Positive affect and negative affect as
measured by the PANAS are conceptualized as distinct
constructs that are not meant to correlate (Crawford &
Henry, 2004; Schmukle et al., 2002). There is also litera-
ture saying that when PA and NA do correlate, the corre-
lation between them is very low (Watson et al., 1988). This
may also be the reason why neuroticism and gratitude
displayed only a weak relationship in the present study,
since neuroticism is closely linked to negative affectivity
while gratitude can be considered as a positive affective
trait.
According to the tripartite theory, negative affect is a
component shared by depression and anxiety (Clark &
Watson, 1991), suggestive that neuroticism might be a
better predictor of the type of depression with mixed fea-
tures of anxiety rather than anhedonic depression. Despite
claims in the literature of how both anhedonic depression
and non-anhedonic depression are related to high neuroti-
cism (as depressed individuals in general score higher in
neuroticism relative to healthy individuals), people who
have non-anhedonic depression tend to have higher neu-
roticism scores than people with anhedonic depression
(Shankman et al., 2014). This could partly explain why

123

gratitude did not buffer against the effects of neuroticism
on anhedonic depression. Plausibly, an interaction between
neuroticism and gratitude would better be able to predict a
type of depression with mixed features of anxiety. As some
individuals with depression possibly have a comorbid
anxiety disorder, there is reason to believe that gratitude
may be able to counter the effects of neuroticism on this
type of depression given that gratitude was also shown in
previous studies to be negatively related to anxiety (Em-
mons & McCullough, 2003; McCullough et al., 2002).
It is also possible that the reason why neuroticism and
gratitude did not interact is because gratitude as a character
strength may be targeting aspects of anhedonic depression
different from neuroticism. In fact, neuroticism and grati-
tude only appeared to be weakly related in this study. This
provides evidence for research showing how gratitude does
not appear to share a large amount of variance with the Big
Five traits (McCullough et al., 2002), probably owing to
the idea that gratitude, as a character strength, exists at a
different level of abstraction from the said constructs. If
one adheres to the conceptualization of gratitude as a
characteristic adaptation cultivated by people to respond
and adapt to their environment (Feist, Feist, & Roberts,
2013), it can then be considered as a resiliency factor that is
most likely of a different nature from those that are con-
sidered as risk factors for psychopathology such as high
neuroticism believed to have its origin in the biological
makeup of the individual.
One fundamental difference between gratitude and the
Big Five traits is that gratitude could be something that is
more susceptible to conditioning processes, making it more
prone to change as the individual ages. An evidence for this
can be found in Gomez et al.’s study (2013) wherein the
researchers found an interaction between age group and
gratitude in predicting resilience. The link between grati-
tude and resilience appeared to be twice as strong for adults
compared to adolescents. In the present study, age also
appeared to exert an effect on anhedonic depression, albeit
very small. Looking at the characteristics of the present
sample, most of the respondents were adolescents. Ado-
lescence is a time when rapid changes occur, and this stage
is characterized by identity exploration and various
adjustments in outlook (Conaco, Jimenez, & Billedo,
2003). It can be supposed that there must be something
about the nature of gratitude that is further developed as the
individual ages, as an older person can have a larger
resource of positive life experiences that can buffer against
unhealthy predispositions and adverse circumstances.
University as a variable also appeared to have had a
slight effect on anhedonic depression. Certain situational
influences (environment, condition of the students at the
time of data gathering) that were hard to control for might
have affected the results. Furthermore, data collection
123
Psychol Stud
involved students from two different universities—a pri-
vate university that had a more homogenous population
and a state university where the population of students are
probably more diverse. But then again, seeing that the
effects are small, it is still a good thing that this factor,
along with age, had been controlled for early in the
regression equation to already account for their effects
even before entering the major variables in the model.
Positive affect showing moderate correlations with
gratitude is in accordance with the conceptualization of
gratitude as a positive affective trait that was expected to
be able to target the low positive affect that is strongly
linked with anhedonic depression. Much of the literature on
gratitude presented it as a positive emotion (e.g. Algoe &
Stanton, 2012), and some researchers even went so far as to
suggest that the significant correlation between gratitude
and resilience might be due to grateful people being high in
positive affectivity (Gomez et al., 2013). As part of this
exploratory endeavour, the researcher deemed it interesting
to examine whether the individual effects of neuroticism
and gratitude on anhedonic depression would remain after
controlling for the effects of positive and negative affect.
The working assumption was that, if neuroticism and
gratitude indeed exert their effects on anhedonic depression
through negative affect and positive affect, respectively,
their effects on anhedonic depression should disappear
when the effects of affect are controlled for. Although
neuroticism displayed moderate associations with anhedo-
nic depression and appeared to be a significant predictor of
it, neuroticism was able to maintain its effect on anhedonic
depression only when affect had not been accounted for.
The fact that gratitude remained to be a negative predictor
of anhedonic depression even after controlling for the
effects of both positive and negative affect, however, is
worth noting, as it implies that there may be other path-
ways by which gratitude could prevent anhedonic depres-
sion aside from affect. Potential candidates include
optimism and life satisfaction which previous studies show
are significant correlates of gratitude (Emmons & McCul-
lough, 2003; McCullough et al., 2002; Wood et al., 2008a).
With optimism, it is possible that the grateful person’s
habitual focus on the good things in his life increases
expectations that more good things would come. Further-
more, studies found gratitude to be a strong predictor of life
satisfaction beyond the effects of many personality traits
(Wood et al., 2008a; Wood et al., 2009). Life satisfaction is
more of a cognitive rather than an affective measure of
subjective well-being. Future researchers are then encour-
aged to explore the mediating role of optimism and life
satisfaction on the relationship between gratitude and
anhedonic depression, especially since a previous study
found that aside from positive emotions, positive reframing
(the tendency to reframe negative circumstances in a
Psychol Stud
positive light) also mediated the relationship between
gratitude and depressive symptoms (Lambert et al., 2012).
While it is true that part of depression reflects an inability
to experience positive emotions, gratitude apparently does
more than fill an emotional void as it reflects an orientation
directed towards a positive evaluation of the quality of
one’s life. Viewed from this perspective, the presentation
of gratitude as a characteristic adaptation could still hold
true despite it failing to interact with neuroticism in
buffering against anhedonic depression in this study.
This is the first study to reveal an association between
gratitude and anhedonic depression. Past studies only
showed how gratitude is related to depressive symptoms in
general (Lambert et al., 2012; Seligman et al., 2005).
Looking for pathways other than affect through which
gratitude and anhedonic depression could be associated
might provide a clearer understanding of the components
of anhedonia that gratitude is able to counter. The fact that
a high score on the anhedonic depression subscale of the
MASQ is predictive of the likelihood for an individual to
qualify for a current depressive disorder (Bredemeier et al.,
2010) underlines the significance of anhedonia as an
important symptom to watch out for and address. This
study’s focus on anhedonic depression is an attempt to
obtain substantial insights that go beyond symptom sum
scores used to diagnose the presence of psychopathological
conditions. Practitioners in particular should be well
informed of the nature of the relationship between gratitude
and anhedonic depression so that in incorporating gratitude
into their practice, they could develop better approaches on
how to enhance this character strength in their clients.
Presenting gratitude as a preventive measure against
anhedonic depression is an effort to find a more accessible
and more acceptable way of dealing with an important
outcome. Given the existing stigma associated with seeking
treatment from psychologists, it becomes of relevance to
identify character strengths that could make individuals at
risk more resilient. Individuals in the early stages of
depression may benefit from interventions that incorporate
gratitude exercises. Once the literature has been informed
of the potential of gratitude in conferring resilience against
anhedonic depression, mental health professionals hope-
fully will become more inclined to work for its promotion.
One way is to develop programs and workshops for the
public using gratitude as the theme. Furthermore, the
gratitude exercises geared towards the development of a
grateful attitude (gratitude lists, grateful contemplation,
behavioural expressions of gratitude) are known to obtain a
high compliance rate relative to other therapeutic tech-
niques (Geraghty, Wood, & Hyland, 2010), and so those
who seek psychological services may benefit from grati-
tude interventions should their therapists decide to incor-
porate these into their practice.
Conclusion
This study presents gratitude as a viable resiliency factor
against anhedonic depression and highlights its significance
as a trait to be valued and developed in therapy and in con-
texts outside of therapy. While gratitude did not appear to
moderate the effects of neuroticism on anhedonic depres-
sion, there are many other risk factors to depression—work
hours, personal and family history of MDD, childhood stress,
stressful life events, and sex (Fried et al., 2014)—that could
be examined in combination with gratitude to see whether
the magnitude of the effects they have on anhedonic
depression or on another outcome can be reduced through
their interaction with this character strength. This research
could also serve as a model for future studies that can look at
other character strengths to be tested in combination with
neuroticism to see whether these other strengths can serve as
resiliency factors against psychopathology.
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