Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 1 9, No, 1 , 2000, pp.

56-69

GRATITUDE AS A HUMAN STRENGTH:

APPRAISING THE EVIDENCE

ROBERT A. EMMONS AND CHERYL A. CRUMPLER

University of California, Davis

Gratitude is an emotional state and an attitude toward life that is a source of human

strength enhancing
in one's
personal and relational
well-being. In this
we article,
first the of as a virtue to be cultivated in the
explore theological origins gratitude
major monotheistic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each tradition
emphasizes the development of gratitude as a path to a good life, and prescribes ap
proaches for practicing. Gratitude is explored further in the context of psychologi
cal theory and research. Empirical research linking gratitude with well-being and
goal attainment is presented and discussed. Finally, future research questions and a
tentative research agenda are presented.

I learned what I must have forgotten somewhere in my busy,

well-planned, and very "useful" life. I learned that everything is, is
freely given by the God of love. All is grace. Light and water, shelter
and food, work and free time, children, parents, and grandparents,
birth and death it is all given to us. Why? So that we can say gracias,
thanks: thanks to God, thanks to each other, thanks to all and every
one. (Nouwen, 1983, p. 187)

What is gratitude? What is the context in which it occurs? What are the
consequences of experiencing and expressing it? What does it mean to
be a grateful person? Gratitude has been conceptualized as an emotion, a
virtue, a moral sentiment, a motive, a coping response, a skill, and an at
titude. It is all of these and more. Minimally, gratitude is an emotional re
sponse to a gift. It is the appreciation felt after one has been the

This article is based on an invited talk at the "Classical Sources of Human

Strength" confer
ence, Turf
Valley Resort and Conference Center, Ellicott Citv, Maryland, December 1998
This article was prepared while Robert A. Emmons was being supported by a
grant from
the John M Templeton Foundation.
Address correspondence to Robert A. Emmons, Department of
Psychology, University
of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616-8686. E-mail:
raemmons@ucdavis.edu

56
GRATITUDE 57

beneficiary of an altruistic act (Lazarus & Lazarus, 1 CW4). Social psychol

ogist Fritz Heider (1958), provided a common-sense view that people
feel grateful receiving a benefit that was intended by another per
when
son. As such, the Heiderian perspective accentuated the perceived
intentionality of the sender as being crucial in shaping the recipient's
sense of
gratitude. Thus, gratitude is profoundly interpersonal. One
does not talk about being grateful to oneself. One talks, as Henri
Nouwen (1983) did in his journal chronicling a 6-month sojourn in Latin
America, of giving thanks to God, to each other, and to everyone. How
ever, gratitude does not necessarily require an interpersonal context. For
instance, the farmer who has experienced weeks of rain is grateful when
the sun comes out. Or, one can feel grateful for avoiding a mistake.
In this article we reason that
gratitude is a source of human strength,
an
"aspect of human flourishing" (Roberts, 1987) with implications for
personal and relational well-being. Rather than attempting a compre
hensive treatise on gratitude, our more circumscribed goal is to intro
duce the theoretical basis of the concept, along with a few examples of

past and potential scientific research.

THE GRAMMAR OF GRATITUDE

Although gratitude is most often conceived of as an emotional state in

psychology, it has been portrayed as a virtue in the moral philosophy lit
erature. Virtues are acquired excellences in character traits, the posses
sion of which contributes to a person's completeness or wholeness.
Virtues represent ideal states that facilitate adaptation to life. As a virtue,

gratitude is a disposition to feel and express consistently the emotion of

thankfulness across situations and over time, and to do so appropriately.
Similarly, ingratitude is a vice. The ungrateful person, regularly re
sponds to others beneficence with resentment, hostility, or indifference.
Roberts (1991b) has argued that the disposition to acknowledge indebt
edness is a source of strength, and the striving to feel and exhibit grati
tude is a sign of human perfection.
A lucid definition of gratitude as a virtue was provided by Roberts
(1984, 1987, 1991a, 1991b); to experience gratitude, he wrote, is to,
"gladly construe some person as a giver of some benefice (gift) to one
self, and thus gladly to construe oneself as a recipient of some benefice
from a benefactor, and thus as a kind of debtor" (1991b, p. 334). As a vir
tue, gratitude possesses a distinct "grammar" the rules for its usage,
including what the virtue is like, what it includes and excludes, and its
connections. Roberts identifies the conditions that elicit a
response of
gratitude. The grammar of gratitude includes the concepts of giver, re
cipient, gift, and debtor. Perhaps the most essential feature of gratitude,
58 EMMONS AND CRUMPLER

as identified by both Roberts (1991b) and Berger (1975), is that it is a re

sponse to perceived benevolence. Behavior that arises from grateful feel
to provide
ings is a
response to the benevolence of others who intended
One also must be willing to be indebted to the benefactor; if the gift
help.
is resented, perceived as an obligation, gratitude is impossible. Yet sheer
dislike of the gift is irrelevant; one can be grateful for the intentions of the
benefactor ("it's the thought that counts").

THE PARADOX OF GRATITUDE

and to gratitude: To be genu

There is an intriguing paradoxical aspect
inely grateful is to feel indebted for a debt that can never be repaid. Ex
pressions of gratefulness are attempts to repay debts for which no

payment may be possible. Roberts (1991a) soberly points out that no

amount or form of repayment can compensate for sacrificial gifts. At the

same time, gifts obligate the recipient to recognize the gift and express
appropriate gratitude. Gratitude is both a duty (Berger, 1975) and an ob

ligation (Meilaender, 1984). Meilaender depicted gratitude as a "pecu

liar obligation," in that there are "obligations and debts which of their
A
very nature cannot be adequately fulfilled and discharged" (p. 163).
simple exchange reciprocity
or notion cannot begin to deal with the pro
fundity of gratitude in this sense. Gratitude involves a willingness to re
main indebted, to acknowledge dependency on the benefactor. It is

inappropriate to repay a debt too quickly or too literally. Roberts (1991a)

describes this situation in the context of filial gratitude:

If Iam
grateful to my parents for feeding me, changing my diapers,
introducing me to God, holding me when I was afraid, comforting
me when I was
distraught, and housing and educating me for 20 or
more years, then I acknowledge gladly that there is no way I can give

back to them in the measure that they have given to me. If I nurse mv
father for the last two weeks of his life, or do a few repair jobs around
the house for my mother, these acts can only be by some grotesque
distraction of mind be considered repayment of their gifts... they are
ways of saying "I gladly admit that my debt to vou is unrepayable."

(p. 329)

At the same time, however, this acknowledgement of indebtedness ;s a

repayment of the gift in a way that is appropriate to the relationship of

the recipient to the giver. It is clear from Robert's analysis that gratitude
is relational virtue that involves strong feelings of appreciation toward
a

significant others. Schimmel (1997) also writes about gratitude as a

moral obligation, as
something that we "owe" to others as we are
pro-
GRATITUDE 59

foundly dependent upon them for our well-being. Regrettably, he states,

"gratitude as a moral virtue is not emphasized in our culture" (p. 208).

THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF GRATITUDE

Religion is a source of some of the most profound emotional experi

ences. Gratitude, like forgiveness (McCullough & Worthington, in
press) and agape love (Post, 1990), bridges theological and psychologi
cal understandings of human nature. As an emotion, the roots of grati
tude can be seen in many of the world's great religious traditions. In the
great monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the con
cept of gratitude permeates the texts, prayers, and the teachings. Wor
ship with gratitude to God for thegifts and mercies are common
many
themes, and believers are
develop this trait. As such, gratitude
urged to
is one of the most common emotions that religions seek to provoke and
sustain in believers. What follows is a consideration of gratitude from
these three religious perspectives.

HEBRAIC CONCEPTIONS

In Judaism, gratitude is a vital component of worship and permeates ev

ery aspect of the worshipers daily life. For instance, upon arising from
sleep, the worshipper thanks Yahweh for having "returned our soul to
us" (Kertzer, 1993). The Hebrew Scriptures, in particular the poetry of
the Psalms, are saturated with thanksgiving to God: "O Lord my God, I
will give thanks to you forever" (Ps. 30:12) and "I will give thanks to the
Lord with my whole heart" (Ps. 9:1). King David commanded the chosen
priests who would be ministers before the Ark of the Covenant, "To in
voke, to thank, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel" (1 Chron.
16:4-36). In the worship of ancient Israel, special instructions are given
concerning the offering of thanks to God (Lev. 7:28-29). Biblical prayers
of take particular form, in which human distress and
thanksgiving a a

cry to God is met with deliverance from the situation. Within Judaism,
the proper response is a public proclamation praise and thanksgiving
for God's steadfast love and faithfulness (Anderson, 1991; Miller, 1994).
The Jewish prayers begin with the Shema in which the worshipper recites
from the Bible, "You shall love the Eternal, your God, with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deut. 6:5), and the concluding

prayer the Alenu, thanks God for the particular destiny of the Jewish people
(Kertzer, 1993). In addition to these daily prayers, the observant Jew recites
more than one hundred berakhot (blessings) throughout the day.
Thankfulness for everything is appropriate in Judaism because all things
come from God in the Hebrew worldview, and Jewish life is filled with
60 EMMONS AND CRUMPLER

thankfulness. Rabbis have taught, "It is forbidden to a man to enjoy any

of this world without a benediction, and if anyone enjoys anything of
thing
this world without a benediction, he commits sacrilege" (Wilson, 1989, p.
157). Thus, a prayer is said upon hearing good or bad news, and God is
praised for everything. In this way, a divine perspective on life is kept.

CHRISTIAN GRATITUDE

Theological perspectives on Christian gratitude can be found in classical

(Edwards, 1746/1959; Kempis, 1441/1989), as well as contemporary
(Browning, 1992; Foster, 1992; Roberts, 1991a) theological and devo
tional writings. Gratitude always has been central among the Christian
virtues. Being created by a personal God, Christians are obligated to

praise and thank the source of their life. Roberts (1991a) and Meilaender
(1984) have argued that gratitude molds and shapes the entire Christian
life, thus being inextricably connected to mental, physical, and relational
well-being. An indebtedness to others enables followers of Christ to
share a common bond, which shapes not only emotions and thoughts,
but actions and deeds. In Christian gratitude, God becomes the giver of
all good gifts, the ultimate foundation for thankfulness. Gratitude is a
state of well-being and righteousness, these stem from a profound sense

of indebtedness to the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. Christian grat

itude is a glad acknowledgment of God's generosity that provides the
model for how Christians are to deal with their own children and with
each other.
Jonathan Edwards, the 17th century revivalist preacher and theolo
gian, described two forms of gratitude in his theological classic A Treatise
Concerning Religious Affections. The central theme of what has been de
scribed as the first comprehensive work in the psychology of religion is,
How shall the presence of true spirituality within a person be discerned?
Love, gratitude, and thankfulness displayed toward God were among
the signs of true religion. Edwards distinguished between natural grati
tude and a gracious or spiritual gratitude. Natural gratitude is thanks ex

pressed to God for the benefits that the person has received, whereas
gracious gratitude has its source in the knowledge of the goodness of
God independently of favors received. The "gracious stirrings of grate
ful affection to God" (Edwards, 1959, p. 247), in which love flows from
the heart as a
response to the divine, differs greatly from all other forms
of gratitude. These insights containimportant practical implications for
the contemporary concern of measuring religious spirituality. Items as

sessing thankfulness and gratitude toward God

might be included in
measures of spirituality. Allport (1950) suggested that mature religious
intentions or
strivings issue out of feelings of profound gratitude and
GRATITUDE 61

thankfulness toward God, and Edwards (174b/195L) contended that the

"affection" of gratitude is one of the surest ways to discern the presence
of the Holy Spirit in a
person's life.
There is some limited empirical research on
gratitude within a Chris
tian context. Samuels and Lester (1985) found that, small
sample of
in a

Catholic nuns and priests, out of 50 emotions, love and gratitude were
the most frequently experienced emotions toward God. A qualitative
studv by Griffith (1998) documented the ecstatic experiences of "pious
emotion" in American Pentecostal women in the first half of the 20th
century. Common in the narratives analyzed were heartfelt and lively
expressions of joy, gratitude for every aspect of life, and a blissful sense

of peace.

GRATITUDE IN ISLAM

The Holy Koran, which is divided into chapters called suras repeatedly
asserts the necessity for gratitude and thankfulness to God throughout

the chapters. For instance, in Sura fourteen it is written "If vou are grate
ful, I will give vou more" (14:7). A traditional Islamic saying states that,

"The first who will be summoned to paradise are those who have

praised God in every circumstance" (Qushayri, 1997, p. 127). The

prophet Mohammad also said "Gratitude for the abundance you have
received is the best insurance that the abundance will continue"
(Fadiman & Frager, 1997, p. 178). True gratitude, it is taught, draws more
abundant graces upon the believer.
The performance of the daily Islamic prayers is considered to be one of
the "pillars" of the religion. The essence of the prayer is not to ask nor pe
tition God, but to show everlasting praise and adoration to God for life
and mercy. This is apparent in the opening lines of Sura Fatehe (the open

ing chapter) of the Koran, which begins each of the five daily prayers
(1:1-5).

In the name of God, most gracious most merciful.

Praise be to God, The cherisher and sustainer of the worlds;
Most gracious, most merciful; master of the day of judgment.
Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek.

Another pillar of Islam is fasting during the month of Ramadhan. This

period prescribed as leading to a state of gratitude. "He wants you to
is

complete the prescribed period and to glorify him that He has guided
be grateful" (Koran, 2:185).
you, and perchance ye shall
In Sufism, the mystical tradition of Islam, entire book chapters have
been devoted to developing gratitude. Gratitude often is divided into
62 EMMONS AND CRUMPLER

different ranks or
gratitude for the gifts received from
stages. First is

God, for one should be grateful for receiving any gift. But an even higher
state is attained when one becomes grateful for not receiving gifts or at

being delayed in having a hope fulfilled. In this state of gratitude, one

sees the
blessings that are veiled in affliction and this is considered an in
sight into the wisdom and workings of God. The final state of gratitude
culminates in a recognition that no amount of worship is sufficient to ex
and that even the
press the gratitude and adoration owed to the Creator,
state or feelings of gratitude are a gift from God. Hence, there is grati
tude for the capacity to feel grateful (Schimmel, 1975), literally a thank

ing for the thanking.

PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO GRATITUDE

Within psychology, gratitude most often has been studied by social psy
chologists (e.g., Baumeister & Ilko, 1995), and by emotion theorists tak
ing a cognitive-appraisal approach to emotional experience. Among the
latter group are Lazarus (Lazarus & Lazarus, 1994), Weiner (1986) and
Ortony, Clore, and Collins (1987). Interestingly, the term gratitude
rarely appears in the emotion lexicon (Shaver, Schwarz, Kirson, &
O'Connor, 1987), and most psychologists of emotion, with the exception
of the trio identified, have ignored the concept. Gratitude does not ap
pear in the index of the Handbook of Emotion (Lewis & Haviland, 1993).
Ambiguity and uncertainty concerning its status as an emotion appears
to be the rule. For example, although Lazarus and Lazarus (1 994) discuss
the concept at some length, in his earlier comprehensive monograph,
Lazarus (1991) remarked that, "I have ignored gratitude though with
some
misgiving, because in some instances, it
may be a
strong emotional
state" (p. 265). In his structural theory of the emotions, de Rivera (1977)

neglected gratitude, yet in a later chapter he (de Rivera, 1984) included

gratitude as one of 80 common emotion terms. Yet another emotion the
orist displaying this "gratitudinal ambivalence" is Keith Oatley, who
omits gratitude from his scholarly treatise (1992), but groups it with the
social emotions in a later work (Oatlev & Jenkins, 1996).

GRATITUDE IN COGNITIVE EMOTION THEORY

Appraisal theories posit that emotions are the outcomes of event-related

judgments. For example, Weiner's (1986) attributional model empha
sizes causal appraisals about events as the main determinants of emo
tional responses. Underlying properties or dimensions of causal
attribution, in combination with event valence, influence the direction
andmagnitude of the felt emotion. There
are two sets of emotions: out

come-dependent and attribution-dependent. General affective reactions

GRATITUDE 63

ofhappiness and unhappiness are outcome dependent, whereas sec

ondary emotional reactions of, say, pride, anger or gratitude follow spe
cific patterns of causal attribution. In this framework, attributions to
another for a pleasant outcome elicits gratitude. A recent study using so
phisticated causal modeling techniques verified Weiner's model
(Overwalle, Mervielde, & de Schuyter, 1995).

Ortony, Clore, and Collins (1987) introduced a goal-based model of

appraisal, where the consequences of events are appraised for their rele
vance to one's
ongoing goal pursuits. Representational systems consist
ing of goals, standards (consisting of "oughts"), and attitudes (a
dispositional liking or disliking of objects) mediate between objective
events and the attendant emotional reactions. In addition, there are three
associated variables influencing the of the felt emotion. These
intensity
include desirability of the event, praiseworthiness (or blameworthiness
of agents), and appealingness. In their framework, gratitude is a com

pound of admiration and joy: It consists of approving of someone else's

praiseworthy actions and feeling joy for the desirability of the outcome.
The variables that affect the intensity of gratitude are (a) the degree of

judged praiseworthiness, (b) deviation of the agent's action from

role-based expectations, and (c) the desirability of the event. The main
contribution of this model is that it specifies conditions under which

gratitude is and is not likely to occur, and calls attention to nuances that
might be missed in other analyses of gratitude. For example, felt grati
tude may reflect the potential desirability of an event independently of
the outcome, such as the case where someone aids in the unsuccessful
search for a lost child. Twenty years before Ortony et al. (1987) published
their theory, Tesser, Gatewood, and Driver (1968) demonstrated that the
recipient's judged intention of the benefactor, the cost to the benefactor,
and the value of the benefit together influenced felt gratitude, thereby

supporting the Ortony et al. (1987) model.

The last theory to be considered in this section is the appraisal theory
of Richard Lazarus (Lazarus & Lazarus, 1994). He places gratitude in the
class of empathic emotions, because along with compassion, it depends
on the capacity to empathize with others. Each emotion, according to

Lazarus, is associated with a distinctive dramatic plot, defining what is

happening to the person and its significance for the person's well-being
(what he also has referred to as the emotion's "core relational theme").
The dramatic plot for gratitude is the appreciation of an altruistic gift.
Both giving and receiving of the gift involve empathy, because one must
sense the donor's positive intention and the donor must sense the need

of the recipient. Lazarus and Lazarus (1994) describe the "many faces of

gratitude" (p. 118), and suggest that the personal meanings attached to
giving and receiving influence the experience of gratitude within an in
terpersonal transaction.
64 EMMONS AND CRUMPLER

BIOSOCIAL ORIGINS OF GRATITUDE

The biosocial origins of gratitude as an emotion have been discussed

from within evolutionary framework. In his analysis of reciprocal al
an

truism, Trivers (1971) argued that gratitude serves to reward others' acts
of altruism; in creating an obligation, gratitude motivates the recipient
of an altruistic act to reciprocate. Gratitude thus serves as a type of an in
surance
policy for future cooperation. Tiger and Fox (1971; as cited in
Weisfeld, 1980) proposed that gratitude not only enabled social ex
change, but provided a way of trading a resource of little value for one of
greater value. Gratitude presumably evolved relatively recently
(Weisfeld, 1980), concomitantly with the development in higher mam
mals and humans to actively assist others. Weisfeld further speculates
that the main transitional event from animal dominance hierarchies to
human social systems was the evolution of
gratitude.
Taken as a whole, the
philosophical, theological, cognitive-emotional,
and biosocial perspectives on gratitude provide guidelines for examin

ing the structure of gratitude, its ultimate and proximal sources, and the
intra- and interpersonal functions of its expression. They offer a fertile
theoretical base for the generation of testable hypotheses.

EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON GRATITUDE AND WELL-BEING

To illustrate how one

might approach the scientific study
gratitude of
and well-being, we will describe a
study
recent by the first
conducted
author (R.A.E.) which examined gratitude and thanksgiving in every
day life (Emmons, 1999). For 10 weeks, undergraduate students enrolled
in a health psychology class were asked to complete a weekly log of their
emotions, physical symptoms, and health behaviors. The weekly log in
cluded two global judgments where participants were asked to evaluate
their life as a whole during the past week and their expectations for the
upcoming week. In addition to filling out the weekly report, research
participants were assigned randomly to one of three conditions. One
third were asked to simply record up to five major events or circum
stances that most affected them during the week, a second third were
asked to write down five hassles or minor stressors that occurred in their
life in the past week, and the final third were asked to write down five

things in their lives for which they were grateful or thankful.

Results revealed significant differences between the three groups on

the outcome measures. Relative to the hassles and events group, partici

pants in the
gratitude condition felt better about their lives as a whole
and were more
optimistic regarding their expectations for the upcoming
week. The thankful group reported fewer physical complaints overall
than the hassles group, and spent significantly more time
exercising
GRATITUDE 65

TABLE I The Gratitude Laws of Life

2-4: An attitude of gratitude creates blessings

6-2: Thanksgiving leads to having more to give thanks tor
10-3: Count your blessings and vou will have an attitude of gratitude

13-4- Thanksgiving, not complaining, attracts people to you

14-4: It is better to praise than to criticize

23-3 Thanksgiving leads to giving and forgiving, and to spiritual growth

37-5 Count blessings
your every day and thev will grow and multiply like
well-tended plants

\\',>0du'nte lair^ of lye Two hundred eternal

Note Source Templeton, | M ( W-17) spiritual principle-
Radnor, PA Templeton Press

than did subjects in the other two groups. This finding suggests that the
emotional and mental benefits of a thankful focus are associated with in
creased feelings of
physical vitality. Participants who had been in the

gratitude condition reported having made more progress toward their

goals, on average, than participants in the other two groups. The benefits
of an attitude of gratitude appear to extend beyond the domain of mood
and well-being to encompass an indicator of effective functioning, the
attainment of concrete goals in life. The study provides some empirical

support for the supposition that gratitude is a source of human strength.

GRATITUDE AS AN ETERNAL SPIRITUAL LAW?

The Laws of Life eternal spiritual principles that

(Templeton, 1997) are

embody fundamental, universal guiding principles consistent with

many of the world's great wisdom traditions The laws pertaining to

gratitude and thanksgiving are shown in Table 1. Seven deal specifically

with the effects of thanksgiving and the consequences of adopting an at
titude of gratitude. The findings of the study on thankfulness in daily life
are relevant for several of these laws, and might be taken as providing

preliminary experimental support for them.

QUESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

We will conclude by presenting some questions for a possible research

agenda on gratitude. As a relatively uncharted area of psychological in
quiry, many more could be added to this list.
(a) How is gratitude related to other classical human virtues and
vices? Envy leads to feelings of
ingratitude (Schimmel, 1997). Humility
and love, on prerequisites for thankful feelings.
the other hand, may be

Feelings of gratitude may inspire person to be more forgiving, particu

a

larly if one is grateful for having been forgiven by God or by others for
one's transgressions. In our study of gratitude in everyday life, when
66 EMMONS AND CRUMPLER

subjects reported feelings of gratitude, they also reported feeling more

loving, hopeful, andforgiving.

(b) Can the practice of gratitude alleviate distress as well as enhance
positive well-being? Consider clinically depressed individuals.
Might thev profit from an exercise in thankfulness (Miller, 1995)? Ru
mination prolongs and intensifies depressive mood (Morrow &
Nolen-Hoeksema, 1990). What if ruminative thoughts were redi
rected from self-inadequacy to undeserved merit? Might the practice
of gratitude as a mood regulation tactic also be effective for the
remediation of anger?
(c) What are the most promising strategies for inculcating an attitude
of gratitude? If the ability to experience and express gratitude is a
learned capacity, then instruction and various exercises might be effec
tive means for developing gratitude. Research on counterfactual think

ing (imagining alternative possible outcomes) or downward social

comparison has demonstrated that people engage in mental simulations
in an attempt to improve their moods. Miller (1995) and Templeton
(1997) provide a number of concrete suggestions for the inculcation of
gratitude.
(d) Is there a negative side to gratitude? Even though a gift is a gift and
ought to be freely given, gifts may be binding. People may resent being
placed in an inferior and dependent position. Attitudes toward indebt
edness have been studied with some success (Greenberg & Westcott,
1983). On the flip side, some people may enjoy the advantages of a hier
archical imbalance by frequently giving gifts that cannot be repaid. Nar
cissistic persons, for example, may wish others to remain in their debt
and may balk at repayment attempts.
(e) What is the link between gratitude and happiness? Gratitude tends
to be a very
pleasant emotion that is linked with
positive psychological
states such as contentment (Walker & Pitts, 1998), happiness, pride, and

hope (Overwalle et al., 1995). An attitude of gratitude might foster more

positive moods; conversely, temperament differences in hedonic level
might lead a person to interpret events in a grateful or ungrateful way. In
a recent
survey of American teens and adults, over 90"n of respondents
indicated that expressing gratitude helped them to feel "extremely

happy" or "somewhat happy" (Emerging Trends, 1998).

(f) How common is it for people to be grateful in unpleasant life cir
cumstances, and to what extent are these a significant component of
gratitude-generating experiences? As the Bible exhorts believers to be
grateful in all circumstances (1 Thes. 5:18, NIV), is it really possible to do
so? What characteristics make it possible to be thankful no matter what
the circumstances? The examination of gratitude in the lives of people

coping with major adversities might be illuminating. An attitude of grat-

GRATITUDE 67

itude may be one means by which tragedies are transformed into oppor
tunities for growth, being thankful not so much for the circumstance but
rather for the skills that will come from dealing with it. In Latin America,
Nouwen (1983) noted that among the poor and the hungry, the sick
even

and the unemployed, the homeless and the destitute, all of life was cele
brated as
thanksgiving.
(g) What form does the expression of gratitude take in instances where
it is trulyimpossible to repay one's debt? This might occur either be
cause the debt is too
big or the benefactor cannot be personally thanked.
It might be enlightening to study special populations, where these two
factors coalesce, such as in organ donor recipients.
As the science of gratitude develops, these and other questions await

empirical answers. We are hopeful that future investigations will illumi

nate the power of gratitude for human health and
psychological
well-being.

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Baumeister, R. F., & Ilko, S .A. (1995). Shallow gratitude- Public and private acknowledge
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191-209

Berger, F R. (1975) Gratitude Ethics, 85, 298-309.

Browning, G L (1992) Thankfulness. In D H Ludlow (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mor monism
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