Alexis L. Pandelios’s research while affiliated with Indiana University Bloomington and other places

Gratitude interventions align well with a prevention perspective because they do not typically focus on treating problems but on enhancing well-being and strengthening positive behaviors. Against this backdrop, the current study is the first to evaluate a 6-week, multicomponent naturalistic gratitude intervention in which participants could choose the type, timing, and frequency of gratitude activities. Participants consisted of 296 employees in a U.S. public university. The gratitude activities within the intervention included learning about gratitude, gratitude letter writing, brief gratitude notes, gratitude walks, gratitude meditation, and change-your-past gratitude journaling (evaluating one’s past through the lens of gratitude). Participants reported increased trait and state gratitude after the intervention. Several personality variables, such as openness to experience, predicted positive intervention outcomes. Additionally, baseline psychological investment (e.g., motivation to engage in gratitude activities) was the most consistent predictor of positive intervention outcomes. Psychological investment indirectly predicted increased post-intervention state gratitude and likelihood of continued practice in gratitude activities via its association with participants’ engagement in a greater variety of gratitude activities. Repeated engagement in gratitude walks and writing brief gratitude notes predicted increased trait gratitude and state gratitude, respectively. These were also the two gratitude activities for which participants reported the highest likelihood of continued practice after the intervention. These findings attest to the advantages of implementing multicomponent, choice-based gratitude interventions, utilizing simple gratitude activities (e.g., taking a gratitude walk and writing brief gratitude notes), and strengthening people’s psychological investment before they participate in an intervention.

Background/Objectives: Receiving gratitude at work has been associated with positive outcomes for employees. In this study, we extend previous findings on workplace gratitude by (a) testing the relative influence of receiving gratitude at work and workplace incivility on job satisfaction and intentions to quit and (b) examining the indirect effect of receiving gratitude at work on intentions to quit among U.S. working women. Methods: Data were drawn from a sample of 337 employed women living in the U.S. Participants were recruited via the Prolific platform and completed self-report measures of receipt of gratitude at work, workplace incivility, job satisfaction, and intentions to quit. Results: As predicted, receiving gratitude at work was a stronger predictor of job satisfaction and intentions to quit than experiencing workplace incivility. Further, receiving gratitude was indirectly associated with intentions to quit through job satisfaction, whereby those who received more gratitude at work were more satisfied in their jobs and, thus, had lower reported intentions to quit their jobs. Discussion/Conclusion: The results of the current study demonstrate that receiving gratitude (a positive workplace experience) can be more consequential than some negative experiences in affecting workplace outcomes – highlighting the importance of creating and supporting positive experiences for employees in the workplace.

Research has suggested that the quality of gratitude exchanges varies, with some exchanges resulting in positive outcomes and others resulting in null and negative outcomes for intimates. However, a current conceptual model outlining the conditional nature of interpersonal gratitude exchanges is lacking within the literature. In this paper, we introduce the Dyadic Process Model of Interpersonal Gratitude, an updated conceptual model that delineates the boundary conditions of interpersonal gratitude exchanges. Using the model, we propose that the benefits associated with interpersonal gratitude expressions depend on the context in which gratitude operates, articulating the influence of communication factors and contextual factors on interpersonal gratitude exchange outcomes. Drawing from the Dyadic Process Model of Interpersonal Gratitude, we provide implications for future research and gratitude‐based interventions.

Most gratitude interventions for adolescents focus on private experiences of gratitude (e.g., gratitude journaling), dyadic expressions of gratitude (e.g., writing a gratitude letter to another person), or group-based psychoeducation about gratitude. By contrast, group interventions that emphasize gratitude social processes (GSPs)—interpersonal or group processes that involve or are directly triggered by the disclosure or expression of gratitude to other group members—provide an ideal forum for adolescents to reap the full benefits of gratitude experiences. In this perspective article, we propose a typology of five GSPs—disclosing, expressing, receiving, responding to, and witnessing gratitude in relation to other group members—that operate synergistically to produce positive effects for adolescents. In turn, we theorize that these GSPs likely produce superior outcomes, as compared to other gratitude interventions, through five psychosocial mechanisms of change: observational learning, group cohesion, vicarious gratitude, group-based gratitude, and collective gratitude. Overall, we encourage researchers and practitioners to incorporate GSPs in their gratitude interventions with adolescents.

Positive psychology scholarship has been criticized for prioritizing individuals’ personal well-being over moral concerns. Therefore, using the example of gratitude, we offer a corrective to this imbalance by articulating a moral vision for the psychology of gratitude. Specifically, we propose the contextualist morality model of gratitude to integrate philosophical, conceptual, and empirical insights on the interface of morality and gratitude. Within this model, we offer a contextualist view by situating gratitude within a constellation of other related virtues. We explicate the moral bases, moral sensitivity, and moral functions of gratitude. First, we identify three moral virtues that facilitate the development of gratitude—humility, empathy, and altruism. Second, we address how moral concerns shape people’s experience of gratitude and their judgments of the appropriateness of gratitude. That is, the extent to which people feel grateful to others and believe it is appropriate to be grateful is informed by moral concerns, such as perceptions of the benefactor’s morality. Third, we articulate the moral consequences of experiencing and expressing gratitude. Building on McCullough et al.’s (2001) moral affect theory, which posits that gratitude is a moral barometer, motivator, and reinforcer, we propose that gratitude also functions as a moral cultivator of other prosocial virtues (e.g., forgiveness), a moral regulator (restraining immoral and uncivil behaviors), and a moral blessing (conferring goodness via a sense of mattering on gratitude recipients). We conclude with suggestions for future research and practice based on the contextualist morality model.