SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY, 2003, 31(5), 431-452

© Society for Personality Research

DOI 10.2224/sbp.2003.31.5.431

GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS: DEVELOPMENT OF A

MEASURE OF GRATITUDE, AND RELATIONSHIPS WITH
SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING

PHILIP C. WATKINS, KATHRANE WOODWARD, TAMARA STONE,

AND RUSSELL L. KOLTS
Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA, USA

The purpose of these studies was to develop a valid measure of trait gratitude, and to evalu-
ate the relationship of gratitude to subjective well-being (SWB). Four studies were conduct-
ed evaluating the reliability and validity of the Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test
(GRAT), a measure of dispositional gratitude. This measure was shown to have good inter-
nal consistency and temporal stability. The GRAT was shown to relate positively to various
measures of SWB. In two experiments, it was shown that grateful thinking improved mood,
and results also supported the predictive validity of the GRAT. These studies support the the-
ory that gratitude is an affective trait important to SWB.

It has been well documented that psychology has been more interested in
studying human vice than virtue (e.g., Myers & Diener, 1995). Gratitude appears
to be one of the neglected virtues in psychology. Although linguistic equivalents
for gratitude reside in virtually every language and major religions have empha-
sized the importance of grateful expression (Emmons & Crumpler, 2000), very
little attention has been paid to gratitude in the social sciences.

Philip C. Watkins, Kathrane Woodward, Tamara Stone and Russell L. Kolts, Eastern Washington
University, Cheney, WA, USA.
This paper was supported in part by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The
authors wish to dedicate this paper to the memory of Nick Curtis.
Appreciation is due to reviewers including Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, PhD, Director, Quality of Life
Research Center, C. S. and D. J. Davidson, Professor, Peter F. Drucker School of Management,
Claremont Graduate University, 1021 N. Dartmouth Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711, USA.
Email:<[email protected]>; Michael E. McCullough, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of
Psychology and Department of Religious Studies, University of Miami, P.O. Box 248185, Coral
Gables, FL 33124-2070, USA. Email: <[email protected]>, http://www.psy.miami.edu/
faculty/mmccullough/index.html.
Keywords: gratitude, subjective well-being, happiness, appreciation.
Please address correspondence and reprint requests to: Philip C. Watkins, Department of
Psychology, 151 MartinHall, EasternWashington University, Cheney, WA 99004-2423 USA.
Phone: 001-509-359-6174; Fax: 001-509-359-6325; Email:<[email protected]>
431
432 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS

However, there are several reasons why gratitude may be important to inves-
tigate. Research indicates that gratitude is important to people (Gallup, 1998),
and "grateful" appears to be a highly valued trait. In a recent study of over 800
descriptive trait words, "grateful" was rated in the top four percent in terms of
likeability (Dumas, Johnson, & Lynch, 2002). Conversely, "ungrateful" was
rated as one of the most negative traits (in the bottom 1.7%). Also, gratitude may
be a strength important to the good life. Although this is one of the primary
questions of this article, there are some conceptual analyses and empirical indi-
cations that suggest ways in which gratitude might be important to emotional
well-being (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002; Watkins, in press).
Emotion may be studied as an immediate feeling state, as a more enduring cli-
mate of mood, or as an affective trait (Rosenberg, 1998). The term affective trait
refers to how likely a given individual is to experience a particular emotion.
Thus, the affective trait of gratitude may be thought of as a predisposition to
experience gratitude. A grateful person may not experience grateful feelings at
any given moment, but he/she will be more likely to experience gratitude in par-
ticular situations. Thus, grateful individuals have a lower threshold for gratitude.
This analysis implies that a science of gratitude should embark on studies of both
the state and trait of gratitude. In this article we describe the development of a
measure of trait gratitude, as well as relationships between the grateful disposi-
tion and grateful feelings. Grateful affect may be defined as a feeling of thank-
ful appreciation for favors received(Guralnik, 1971, p. 327), and trait gratitude
would be the predisposition to experience this state.
A successful measure of dispositional gratitude should be developed from a
clear theory of what grateful individuals are like. In creating our gratitude meas-
ure, we felt that grateful persons would have four characteristics. First, we rea-
soned that grateful individuals would not feel deprived in life. Stated positive-
ly, grateful individuals should have a sense of abundance. Second, we reasoned
that grateful individuals would be appreciative of the contribution of others to
their well-being. Theories of gratitude have emphasized the importance of
attributing the source of benefits to others (e.g., Weiner, 1985), and generally
speaking experimental research has supported this hypothesis (for a review see
McCullough, Kilpatrick, Emmons, & Larson, 2001). Third, we felt that grateful
persons would be characterized by the tendency to appreciate simple pleasures.
Simple pleasures refers to those pleasures in life that are readily available to
most people. Individuals who appreciate simple pleasures should be more prone
to experience grateful feelings because they will experience subjective benefits
more frequently in their daily lives. Finally, we expected that grateful individu-
als should acknowledge the importance of experiencing and expressing grati-
tude. In creating our measure of trait gratitude we attempted to create items that
tapped these four characteristics, and called our measure the Gratitude,
 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS 433
Resentment, and Appreciation Test (GRAT).
Implicit in our understanding of grateful persons is that experiencing and
expressing gratitude should enhance one's subjective well-being (SWB). In his
attempt to understand the function of praise, C. S. Lewis observed,
I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely
expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.
It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how
beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete until it is expressed. (Lewis,
1958, p. 95)
Thus, Lewis argued that praise enhances enjoyment of benefits, and if praise
is simply the verbal expression of gratitude, experiences of gratitude should
complete the enjoyment of benefits in life. Following this line of reasoning,
experiences and expressions of gratitude should enhance SWB, and thus, those
who are disposed to gratitude should also demonstrate more happiness. A sec-
ond purpose of the studies described here was to evaluate the relationship
between gratitude and happiness.
In this article we report four studies that describe the development of the
GRAT and also illuminate relationships between trait gratitude, grateful feelings,
and happiness. In Study 1 we describe our initial development of the GRAT. In
Study 2 we compared the GRAT with a number of different measures in several
populations in an attempt to demonstrate the construct validity of this measure.
In Studies 3 and 4 we report two experiments that manipulated gratitude to
investigate causative relationships with affect. In addition, we investigated how
the disposition of gratitude might interact with these manipulations.

STUDY 1

The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable measure of dispositional

gratitude following our theory of grateful persons as described earlier.

METHOD

PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE

Our initial population consisted of 237 students. All participants were enrolled
in an undergraduate psychology course and received partial course credit for
their involvement. Participants were administered the preliminary item set of
the GRAT in several group settings.

PRELIMINARY FORM DEVELOPMENT

We initially created 53 questions that we felt tapped the four domains of a
sense of abundance, simple appreciation, appreciation for others, and importance
of gratitude expression. Nine items were eliminated due to poor item-total cor-
434 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS

relations. The final 44 items are shown on Table 1. Participants were instruct-
ed to read each item and to indicate their agreement/disagreement on a five point
Likert-type scale (1= I strongly disagree, 5 = I strongly agree with the statement).
Of the final 44 items, 14 are reverse scored. These items are indicated on Table
1.
TABLE 1
FACTOR STRUCTURE OF GRAT ITEMS

Item # Item Ab SA AO

42* For some reason I never seem to get the breaks that others get. .718 -.101 -.015
26* More bad things have happened to me in my life than I deserve. .700 .112 .136
4* I never seem to get the breaks that other people do. .692 -.152 -.194
7* There never seems to be enough to go around and I'm always
coming up short. .683 .030 .026
14* I really don't think that I've gotten all the good things that I deserve
in life. .674 -.003 .024
28* Because of what I've gone through in my life, I really feel like the
world owes me something. .671 -.133 -.056
31* I believe that I've had more than my share of bad things come
my way. .659 .109 .086
2* I think that life has handed me a short stick. .623 .144 .250
37* I basically feel like life has ripped me off. .610 -.123 .170
3* It sure seems like others get a lot more benefits in life than I do. .597 .007 -.113
6 Life has been good to me. .566 .051 .265
12* It seems like people have frequently tried to impede my progress. .526 .136 -.056
39* I feel that "someone up there" doesn't like me. .514 -.074 .196
24 I believe that I am a very fortunate person. .431 -.102 .331
32* Although I think that I'm morally better than most, I haven't gotten
my just reward in life. .421 -.124 -.173
21* At Christmas, I never seemed to get as many presents or presents
that were as good as others received. .309 -.042 .122
29 I believe that the things in life that are really enjoyable are just as
available to me as they are to Ross Perot or Donald Trump. .261 -.225 .012
15 Every Fall I really enjoy watching the leaves change colors. .063 -.798 -.166
25 I think that it's important to "Stop and smell the roses." .127 -.738 .018
27 I really enjoy the changing seasons. .069 -.736 -.115
9 Oftentimes I have been overwhelmed at the beauty of nature. -.025 -.720 .021
41 I love the green of Spring. -.027 -.700 .019
36 I think it's important to enjoy the simple things in life. -.014 -.695 .186
5 Often I'm just amazed at how beautiful the sunsets are. .057 -.679 -.079
18 Sometimes I find myself overwhelmed by the beauty of a musical
piece. -.043 -.639 -.058
34 I really enjoy a crackling fire on a cold winter's day. -.106 -.630 .232
30 I love to sit and watch the snow fall. .148 -.612 -.017
35 I think that it's important to sit down every once in a while and
"count your blessings." .109 -.580 .225
 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS 435
Item # Item Ab SA AO

40 The simple pleasures of life are the best pleasures of life. -.022 -.558 .236
43 I think it's important to appreciate each day that you are alive. .200 -.501 3.07
8 Often I think, "What a privilege it is to be alive." .247 -.302 .301

16 Although I'm basically in control of my life, I can't help but think

about all those who have supported me and helped me along the way. -.047 -.064 .694
38 I feel deeply appreciative for the things others have done for me in
my life. .007 -.198 .625
13 Although I think it's important to feel good about your
accomplishments, I think that it's also important to remember how
others have contributed to my accomplishments. .079 -.056 .612
1 I couldn't have gotten where I am today without the help of many
people. -.045 .014 .582
19 I'm basically very thankful for the parenting that was provided to me. .131 .284 .582
22 Sometimes I think, "Why am I so privileged so as to be born into
the situation I was born into?" .183 .269 .550
44 I'm really thankful for friends and family. .155 -.208 .432
11 Many people have given me valuable wisdom throughout my life
that has been important to my success. .102 -.288 .419
23 One of my favorite times of the year is Thanksgiving. -.026 -.090 .410
17 Part of really enjoying something good is being thankful for that thing. .047 -.208 .373
20* I've gotten where I am today because of my own hard work,
despite the lack of any help or support. .174 .214 .331
10 I feel grateful for the education I have received. .261 -.250 .221
33 After eating I often pause and think, "What a wonderful meal." -.071 -.139 .228

* Indicates item is reverse scored. Ab=Sense of Abundance, SA=Simple Appreciation,

AO=Appreciation for Others.

RESULTS

We first conducted corrected item-to-total correlations to determine the items

for the final measure. All items with less than .20 correlations were eliminated.
This left the final 44 items shown in Table 1. Mean corrected item-to-total cor-
relation was .44 (SD =.11). The internal consistency for the final 44 item meas-
ure was good (coefficient alpha = .92).
We followed this analysis by conducting a principle components factor analy-
sis (with oblimin rotation) to evaluate the four proposed characteristics of grati-
tude. Three factors had eigenvalues above 2.00. We then extracted three factors.
Factor loading for the items are shown on Table 1. Generally speaking, this fac-
tor structure fitted our proposed characteristics of gratitude with few exceptions.
436 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS

However, items relating to the appreciation of others and to the importance of

expressing gratitude clustered in one factor. Following our convention, we enti-
tled factor 1 "Sense of Abundance" (Ab), factor 2 "Simple Appreciation" (SA),
and factor 3 "Appreciation of Others" (AO). Table 1 indicates the factors to
which each item belongs. The last two items listed did not clearly fall into any
of the factors (i.e., relatively equivalent factor loadings on all three factors).
Each factor showed adequate internal consistency as revealed by coefficient
alpha (Ab = .88, SA = .90, AO = .76). Mean GRATscores for this population were
176.61 (SD = 17.33), and mean factor scores were: Ab = 66.48 (SD = 8.83),
SA = 58.64 (SD = 7.48), and AO = 43.63 (SD = 5.20). Across six years, six different
student populations, and 1,187 participants, total GRAT scores averaged 176.62
(SD = 22.02), and mean factors scores were: Ab = 67.61 (SD =11.68), SA = 57.40
(SD = 8.59), and AO = 43.88 (SD = 6.28).

DISCUSSION

The initial development of the GRAT appeared to be successful. The measure

showed good internal consistency and factorial validity. Factor analysis sup-
ported the proposed structure of grateful persons, with the exception that items
related to the importance of expressing gratitude clustered in one factor with
items related to the appreciation of others. In retrospect, this makes some sense
because the expression of gratitude is typically a social expression. Individuals
who are appreciative of the contribution of others are also likely to express grat-
itude to their benefactors and believe that expressing thanks to their benefactors
is important. This study showed that the GRAT is a reliable instrument in terms
of internal consistency and factorial validity.

STUDY 2

The principal aim of Study 2 was to examine criterion-related validity for the
GRAT using several different populations. At the time of this study there were
no direct measures of trait gratitude and so we investigated the validity of the
GRAT by comparing it with a number of measures we felt would be indirectly
related to dispositional gratitude. In a nutshell, we predicted that trait gratitude
would be positively related to positive affects and SWB, and negatively related
to unpleasant states. Following from our notion that gratitude functions to
enhance positive affect, we predicted that the GRAT would be more strongly
related to positive affectivity than to negative affectivity. Of the negative affects,
we predicted that gratitude would show the strongest inverse relationship with
depression because those vulnerable to depression should be more likely to feel
deprived, which should degrade their sense of gratitude. We felt that gratitude
 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS 437
would also be inversely related to resentment. We reasoned that if a person is
resentful about his or her past s/he is not likely to experience pervasive gratitude.
We also conducted several exploratory investigations. First, we were interest-
ed in the relationship between religiosity and gratitude. We reasoned that
because many religious individuals believe that the first cause of all benefits
resides in a good giver (God), they would be more prone to experience gratitude,
because all benefits are experienced as gifts from God (cf. McCullough et al.,
2002). This prediction would seem to hold for intrinsically religious individuals
(i.e., those who practice religion for a relationship with the divine), but not for
extrinsically religious individuals (those who practice religion for secondary
gain).
Finally, we felt it important to evaluate the relationship between gratitude and
locus of control. It could be that gratitude fosters an external locus of control
because grateful responses are experienced in the context of an external attribu-
tion for a benefit. However, grateful individuals could have an internal locus of
control in that they accurately recognize their own contribution to good things in
life, but are more likely than less grateful individuals to acknowledge the contri-
bution of others as well.

METHOD

In three different groups of participants we administered various question-

naires along with the GRAT to evaluate the proposed relationships outlined
above. In each case the questionnaires were administered in a group format in
undergraduate psychology courses. Students received partial course credit for
their participation.

MATERIALS
The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) is one of the most commonly used
measures of SWB (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), and focuses on the
cognitive judgment aspect of SWB (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999). The
Fordyce Happiness Scales (HS) provide a more affective index of a person's
overall happiness (Fordyce, 1988). Although the four scales on this measure are
single items scales, this measure appears to have good validity and is frequently
used in happiness research. The Positive and Negative Affectivity Scales
(PANAS) is one of the most well developed measures of positive and negative
affectivity (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). This measure is based on the the-
ory that positive and negative emotional states are not simply bipolar opposites,
but are largely orthogonal axes in affective space. In these populations we
administered these scales with the instruction to "Indicate to what extent you
generally feel that way." The Life Events Questionnaire (LEQ) asks participants
438 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS

to indicate whether or not certain stressful events have occurred to them in the
last six months (Brugha & Cragg, 1990). If the GRATis indeed a trait measure
of gratitude, we felt that gratitude would not be unduly affected by recent stress-
ful experiences. As we argued earlier, comparisons between dispositional grati-
tude and locus of control could be very interesting. We used the Belief in
Personal Control Scale (BPCS; Berrenberg, 1987) because not only does it
assess general internal versus external locus of control, it also contains scales for
an exaggerated sense of control, and also measures how much personal control
an individual believes they have through the assistance of a divine being. The
factor measuring exaggerated sense of control assesses an individual's unrealis-
tic belief in his or her control of events. The Religious Orientation Scale (ROS)
taps two orthogonal dimensions of religious orientation (Allport & Ross, 1967).
Intrinsically religious persons are said to engage in religious practices for their
own sake, whereas extrinsically religious persons participate in religion for other
gains outside of religion (e.g., material gains and social status). We predicted that
gratitude would be positively related to intrinsic religiosity, but would show no
relationship with extrinsic religiosity. The Semantic Differential Feeling and
Mood States (SDFMS) scale contains 35 semantic differential items with bipo-
lar emotional states (Lorr & Wunderlich, 1988), which are divided into five sub-
scales. We used this measure to assess the immediate affective states of our
respondents. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is one of the most com-
monly used measures of depression, and has extensive reliability and validity
data supporting its use (e.g., Beck, 1972). The Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) is
one of the most widely used instruments assessing various aspects of anger, and
has good psychometric properties (Buss & Perry, 1992). It contains four sub-
scales that tap physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility (or
resentment). We predicted that gratitude would be most strongly associated with
resentment. The Selfism Scale (NS) is designed to tap subclinical narcissism,
and it appears to have adequate psychometric properties (Phares & Erskine,
1984). We reasoned that narcissistic individuals would be less likely to be grate-
ful because research has shown that if people feel they are entitled to benefits,
they are less likely to feel grateful (for reviews see McCullough et al., 2001;
Watkins, 2001). Thus, we predicted an inverse correlation between the NS and
the GRAT.

POPULATIONS
Population 1 consisted of 57 students. They were administered the GRAT with
the following measures: SWLS, PANAS, SDFMS, LEQ, BPCS, ROS, BDI, AQ,
and the NS. Population 2 consisted of 66 individuals who completed the GRAT
along with the following measures: SWLS, HS, PANAS, and the BDI. With this
population we administered the GRAT twice, at the beginning and end of the
 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS 439
series of questionnaires. This afforded us an opportunity to evaluate within-ses-
sion temporal stability of the GRAT. In Population 3 we administered the GRAT,
BDI, and SWLS to 154 participants.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A summary of our results is presented in Table 2. In general, results support-

ed our predictions. The two administrations of the GRAT were highly correlat-
ed (r = .94), providing some support for the temporal stability of the GRAT.
TABLE 2
CORRELATIONS OF THE GRAT WITH VARIOUS MEASURES IN THREE POPULATIONS

Measure Population 1 Population 2 Population 3

(N = 57) (N = 66) (N = 154)

Satisfaction With Life Scale .50**** .49**** .62****

Beck Depression Inventory -.34** -.54**** -.56****
PANAS Positive Affectivity .36** .52****
PANAS Negative Affectivity -.15 -.20
SDFMS
Elation-Depression .47**
Relaxed-Anxious .19
Unsure-Confident -.27*
Fatigued-Energetic -.06
Grouchy-Good Natured -.23
Life Events Questionnaire .04
Aggression Questionnaire -.30*
Physical Aggression -.37**
Verbal Aggression -.12
Anger -.13
Hostility -.26*
Belief in Personal Control Scale
Internal Locus of Control .33**
Extreme Control .08
Divine Control .49****
ROS Intrinsic .32**
ROS Extrinsic -.28*
ROS Indiscriminate -.03
Selfism Scale -.49***
HS Happiness Rating .49****
HS % Happy .38***
HS % Unhappy -.53****
HS % Happy Bias .48****

Note: *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001, ****p<.0001.

440 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS

CORRELATIONS WITH SWB AND POSITIVE AFFECT VARIABLES

The GRAT showed strong relationships with various measures of positive
affect. Correlations with the SWLS ranged between .49 and .62 in the three pop-
ulations. Other SWB variables showed similar associations with the GRAT. In
general, results showed that dispositional gratitude was more strongly related to
positive affect than to negative affect.

CORRELATIONS WITH NEGATIVE AFFECT AND MALADAPTIVE TRAITS

Of the variables tapping negative states, depression showed the strongest and
most reliable inverse associations with gratitude. As predicted, the BDI showed
moderate to strong negative correlations with the GRAT. It should be noted that
other negative affects (anxiety and irritability) did not show reliable relationships
with the GRAT. Does gratitude have a unique relationship with depression
among psychological disorders? This issue may be a fruitful avenue for future
research.
Interestingly, the number of stressful events in the last six months showed no
relationship to the GRAT(r = .04). This did not appear to be due to the insensi-
tivity of the LEQ, as number of recent stressful events was reliably associated
with the BDI (r = .30, p < .05). Thus, the GRATdid not appear to be reactive to
significant recent stressors. If the GRAT is indeed tapping a trait variable, this
would be the expected finding.
Gratitude was also inversely associated with some anger-related variables. In
particular, the GRAT showed inverse correlations with physical aggression and
resentment (i.e., "Hostility"). Feeling resentful about the past may contravene a
grateful attitude in the present. Conversely, it could be that grateful experiences
counteract resentment.
As predicted, we also found that gratitude was negatively related to narcis-
sism. Although this relationship was as predicted, we were somewhat surprised
at the strength of the association (r = -.49). The investigation of relationships
between narcissism, humility, and gratitude, presents promising research possi-
bilities.

GRATITUDE AND RELIGIOSITY

We also predicted that intrinsic religiosity would be positively related to grat-
itude, and our results supported this notion. Additionally, extrinsic religiosity
was significantly and negatively associated with gratitude. Thus, it appears that
individuals who engage in religious practice as an end in itself tend to be more
grateful, but those who engage in a more instrumental religiosity tend to be less
grateful. Intrinsic religiosity may enhance gratitude because these individuals
see the ultimate source of all benefits in life in a good God. However, some have
also suggested that experiences of gratitude may promote belief in God (e.g., see
 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS 441
Chesterton, 1908/1986, p. 258. McCullough et al., 2002).

GRATITUDE AND LOCUS OF CONTROL

In a more exploratory analysis we investigated relationships of dispositional
gratitude with locus of control. We found that the GRAT was positively corre-
lated with an internal locus of control, but was not related to a maladaptive sense
of personal control. At first glance, this appears to be a paradoxical finding,
because in order to experience gratitude people must make an external attribu-
tion for the benefit. McCullough and colleagues (2002) have suggested that
grateful individuals may be willing to attribute benefits to themselves when they,
are, in fact, responsible. However, they argue that grateful individuals should be
more likely to attribute benefits to many sources. Alternatively, it could be that
individuals with an internal locus-of-control do not expect others to provide ben-
efits, and therefore favors from others are more salient and more likely to gen-
erate gratitude. Conversely, individuals with an external locus-of-control may
expect others to bring them benefits, thus decreasing their experience of grati-
tude when favors are provided. Research has shown that gratitude is more like-
ly when favors exceed social expectations (Bar-Tal, Bar-Zohar, Greenberg, &
Hermon, 1977).
The relationship between the Divine Control scale of the BPCS and the GRAT
might be informative to this issue. The positive correlation here (r=.49), suggests
that grateful individuals are more likely to feel in control of their destiny through
the actions of a divine entity who is interested in their well-being. This implies
that one can feel in control of one’s future and well-being through one’s confi-
dence in the goodness of others. If people feel grateful for how others have con-
tributed to their lives in the past, it is likely that they will also feel in control of
their destiny because they are confident that others will contribute in a positive
way to their well-being in the future. At this point, these ideas are speculative,
but future research may illuminate this interesting relationship.
In sum, this study provided evidence of construct validity for the GRAT and
also illuminated relationships between gratitude and positive and negative affec-
tive states. Results revealed strong relationships between gratitude and various
happiness measures. In addition, gratitude was inversely related to several
unpleasant states, but appeared to show the strongest negative relationship with
depression. Grateful individuals also appeared to be less narcissistic, more intrin-
sically religious, and tended to have an internal locus of control. Although these
results support the theory that gratitude enhances happiness, it is also possible
that gratitude is somewhat of an epiphenomenon of happiness. In studies 3 and
4 we conducted experimental studies in an effort to evaluate whether gratitude
promotes positive affect.
442 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS

STUDY 3

In this study we investigated whether gratitude might enhance mood. In addi-

tion, we administered the GRAT, which allowed us to further evaluate the crite-
rion-related validity of the GRAT. Specifically, we asked whether grateful indi-
viduals were more likely to experience gratitude and positive affect in the con-
text of a gratitude manipulation.

METHOD

PARTICIPANTS
One hundred and four students from undergraduate psychology courses at
Eastern Washington University participated in this study. Participants received
partial course credit for being involved in this study.

MATERIALS
In addition to the GRAT, we also administered the SDFMS, SWLS, and the
BDI to provide additional construct validity data on the GRAT. Our primary
dependent variable in this study was the PANAS. In this study we used the
immediate state version of the PANAS ("Indicate to what extent you feel that
way right now at this moment"). We also administered 10 neutral words to which
participants supplied 4 semantic differential ratings to each word on a 7-point
Likert scale (Kuykendall, Keating, & Wagaman, 1988). This provided us with an
indirect measure of SWB. Our previously presented comparisons of gratitude
with happiness measures are vulnerable to the criticism of the relationship being
created by similar desirability self-report biases. Ratings of neutral words pro-
vided us with an indirect, nonobvious measure of SWB.

PROCEDURE
All participants carried out the tasks for this study within the first five weeks
of Fall quarter, 1999. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two condi-
tions. In the gratitude condition, participants were asked to recall things they did
over the previous summer that they felt grateful for. In the second condition par-
ticipants were asked to list things they wanted to do over the summer but were
not able to do. Participants engaged in these tasks for 5 minutes. Following this
manipulation participants first completed a five-point Likert type scale indicat-
ing how grateful they felt for the summer. Participants then completed the
PANAS, followed by the neutral word ratings, the SDFMS, the BDI, the SWLS
and the GRAT.
 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS 443
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
We analyzed the impact of our manipulation on positive and negative affect
separately with a 2 (gratitude condition) x 2 (gender) ANOVA. There were no
significant main effects or interactions involving gender. Although the means
were in the predicted direction for both positive and negative affect, gratitude
condition showed a significant difference only with negative affect, F(1,
100) = 6.21, p < .05, ηp2 = .057 (small to moderate effect size). The gratitude con-
dition showed lower negative affect scores (mean=15.74, SE=1.01), than the
control condition (mean = 18.27, SE = 0.96). Thus, in this study it appeared that a
simple gratitude priming task was shown to improve mood. Although we found
significant differences between the two conditions, it should be stated that it is
possible that the control condition produced more negative affect than did the
gratitude condition improving mood. In Study 4 we used a more neutral control
condition to clarify this ambiguity.
We then conducted correlational analyses with the various measures to further
evaluate the construct validity of the GRAT. Table 3 displays these relationships.
Again, the GRAT was positively related to measures of SWB, and negatively
related to depression. The disposition of gratitude implies that individuals high
in this trait should be more likely to experience gratitude. Are grateful people
indeed more likely to experience gratitude? Correlations between the GRAT and
ratings of gratitude for the summer suggest that they are. However, because we
did not evaluate mood prior to our manipulation, this design did not allow us to
evaluate whether or not grateful individuals are more likely to experience an
increase in positive affect in the context of a gratitude exercise. Also, debriefing
interviews of our participants suggested that because we asked them to list as
TABLE 3
PEARSON CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS OF GRATITUDE WITH VARIOUS MEASURES

GRAT Thankful for Summer

Positive Affect .28*** .23*

Negative Affect -.35*** -.15
SDFMS Scales
Elated-Depressed .36*** .29**
Relaxed-Anxious .39**** .27**
Unsure-Confident -.36*** -.24*
Fatigued-Energetic -.19 -.22*
Grouchy-Good Natured -.19 -.27**
Satisfaction with Life Scale .68**** .40****
Beck Depression Inventory -.72**** -.33**
Neutral Word Ratings .31*** .11
Thankful for Summer .44**** _

Note: *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001, ****p<.0001.

444 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS

many things as possible that they were grateful for over the summer, the task of
listing might have mitigated their experience of gratitude somewhat. In Study 4,
we attempted to design a gratitude manipulation that accounted for these prob-
lems.

STUDY 4

In this study we again sought to investigate whether grateful reflections can

enhance positive affect. We were also interested in whether the nature of grate-
ful experience/expression affects the extent of positive affect experienced.
Third, we were interested in whether an individual's GRAT score administered
before the experimental session would be predictive of his or her response to the
gratitude manipulation. Finally, because we also administered the GRAT at the
conclusion of the experimental session, this afforded an opportunity to evaluate
the temporal stability of the GRAT.

METHOD

PARTICIPANTS
One hundred and fifty-seven undergraduate students participated in this study
and received partial course credit for this activity. One participant was exclud-
ed because of failing to complete all the measures.

MATERIALS
We used the PANAS as our primary dependent variable, administered both
before and after treatment to evaluate affect changes over the course of the
TABLE 4
CORRELATIONS BETWEEN GRATITUDE AND AFFECT MEASURES

GRAT GRAT
(screening) (experiment)

Positive Affect .31**** .32****

Negative Affect -.51**** -.43****
Bipolar Affect Scales
Good .38**** .41****
Awake .26*** .26***
Content .43**** .50****
Afraid -.14 -.20*
Thankful .46**** .48****
Happy .48**** .50****
Energetic .24** .22**
Sad -.40**** -.42****

Note: *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001, ****p<.0001.

 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS 445
experiment. The PAST (Past Accounts of Sadness Test; Watkins & Curtis, 1994)
was administered prior to treatment primarily to distract participants from our
primary purpose - that of detecting affect changes. We also administered 8 bipo-
lar affect scales. These scales were administered in an 8-point Likert format, and
are listed on Table 4. The primary purpose of these scales was to provide data
regarding predictive validity of the GRAT. Following the experimental treat-
ment, all participants completed these affect scales as well as the GRAT.

PROCEDURE
In initial mass-testing sessions participants were administered the GRAT along
with a number of other measures not relevant to this study. Students were then
contacted to arrange participation in the experiment. Time between mass testing
and the experimental session was not less than two weeks but not greater than
two months. After signing a consent form participants were administered the
PAST, followed by the PANAS and the 8 bipolar affect scales. Participants were
then randomly assigned to one of four conditions. In the control condition
(n = 38), participants were asked to write about the lay-out of their living room.
The remaining participants were randomly assigned to one of three gratitude
conditions (thinking, essay, and letter). In the grateful thinking condition (n = 39),
participants were instructed to think about someone living for whom they were
grateful. As soon as the participant indicated they had thought of the person,
timing began and the participant began thinking about this person. In the grate-
ful essay condition (n = 37) participants were asked to write about someone they
were grateful for. As soon as the participant began writing the timing began for
five minutes. Finally, some participants were engaged in the grateful letter con-
dition (n = 42). In this condition participants were asked to write a letter to a liv-
ing person for whom they were grateful. Participants were told that the experi-
menter would not see the letter, but would mail it for the participant. Participants
were also told that they would be phoned in about a week to see how the recip-
ient received the letter. Although we did not actually mail the letter (at the con-
clusion of the experiment we gave them the letter to do with as they pleased), we
felt that this cover story would encourage the participants to take the letter-writ-
ing task seriously. Following the experimental manipulation all participants were
again administered the affect scales, followed by the PANAS, BDI, SDFMS, and
concluding with the GRAT.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

We analyzed the impact of our experimental manipulation by conducting a

mixed-factorial General Linear Model (GLM) analysis for positive and negative
affect as measured by the PANAS. Time (pretreatment and posttreatment) was
446 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS

our within subjects variable and condition was the between subjects variable.
For positive affect, we found a main effect for time, F(1, 152) =19.70, p < .05,
ηp2 = .115 (moderate effect size). Observation of means indicated that this effect
was due to posttreatment positive affect scores being higher than pretreatment
affect scores. However, this main effect was modified by a significant time x
condition interaction, F(3, 152) = 6.84, p < .05, ηp2 = .119 (moderate effect size). As
predicted, the gratitude conditions showed reliable increases in positive affect
and this was not the case in the control condition. This finding is depicted in
Figure 1 using PANAS change scores (posttreatment – pretreatment). Somewhat
surprisingly, the grateful thinking condition showed the strongest effect. We
expected the letter-writing condition to show the strongest effect because in this
condition our participants were engaging in a social expression of gratitude. It
is possible that writing about positive events or persons engages cognitive
processes that interrupt the experience of positive affect. If this is the case, this

3.28

3
Control
Grateful Thinking
2.24
Mean PANAS Change Scores

Grateful Essay
2 Grateful Letter
1.55

0
-0.26

-1
-0.98 -1.08
-1.41 -1.45

-2
Positive Affect Negative Affect

Figure 1: PANAS Change Scores by Experimental Condition

 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS 447
has clear implications for gratitude interventions. However, it could also be that
the writing conditions produced more social anxiety than in the grateful thinking
condition. Our cover story for the letter-writing condition could have concerned
our participants in that they were worried about how their benefactor would
receive the letter.
We conducted a similar GLM analysis for negative-affect scores from the
PANAS. Again we found a significant main effect for time, F(1, 152) =16.90,
p < .05, ηp2 = .100 (moderate effect size). Negative affect reliably decreased from
pre to posttreatment. Unlike positive affect, the time x condition interaction did
not reach significance, F(3, 152) =1.51, ns, ηp2 = .022. Negative affect decreases
were not reliably different across our experimental conditions, although the pat-
tern of the means was in the expected direction.
Finally, we conducted several correlational analyses to further investigate the
validity of the GRAT. Because we administered the GRAT at screening and in
the experimental session, we were able to evaluate the temporal stability of the
GRAT (two weeks to two months). The two administrations correlated highly,
demonstrating good test-retest reliability. The full GRAT scores correlated at
r = .90, p < .0001. The subscales of the GRATalso correlated highly between the
two administrations (Ab r = .87, SA r = .85, AO r = .80).
We also conducted correlation analyses between the screening GRAT and the
affect measures administered at pretest. These results are shown in Table 4.
Again, in general positive affect correlated positively and negative affect corre-
lated negatively with the GRAT. Of our bipolar affect scales, the highest corre-
lations were between the GRAT and happiness, thankfulness, and contentment.
These results provide further support for the construct validity of the GRAT. Of
particular note, the GRAT reliably predicted future feelings of thankfulness, as
would be expected of an affective trait measure. Again, sadness was more
strongly associated with the GRAT than was fear, and the correlation coefficients
were significantly different (z = 2.49, p < .01).
Our design also allowed us to conduct correlational analyses to evaluate
whether GRAT scores predicted affect changes in the gratitude experimental
conditions. Thus, we correlated screening GRAT scores with affect changes in
the three gratitude conditions. Difference scores on the PANAS were computed
by subtracting the pretreatment scores from the posttreatment scores. Screening
GRATscores reliably predicted increases in positive affect (r = .22, p < .05), but
did not predict positive affect changes in the control condition. Changes in neg-
ative affect were not significantly related to screening GRAT scores. These
results suggest that grateful individuals are more likely to enjoy gratitude exer-
cises. As discussed above, screening GRAT scores were significantly and posi-
tively associated with pretreatment positive affect scores. Thus, grateful individ-
uals had less room for improvement in positive affect, but still showed greater
448 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS

increases of positive affect than did less grateful individuals. We believe that this
was a particularly strong test of the criterion-related validity of the GRAT. In
sum, this study showed that gratitude exercises reliably cause increases in posi-
tive affect, and that grateful individuals show stronger increases than do their
less grateful counterparts.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

In this series of studies we sought to develop a psychometrically sound meas-

ure of trait gratitude, and to evaluate the relationship between gratitude and
SWB. Our results suggest that the GRAT is a reliable and valid measure of dis-
positional gratitude. Results also suggest that grateful individuals tend to be
happy and well adjusted.
In two studies, we found that the GRAT contains excellent internal consisten-
cy and temporal stability. We also found good support for the construct validity
of this measure, in that it was predictive of grateful feelings in the future, and
correlated in the expected manner with a number of relevant variables. Of
course, the GRAT suffers from the same weaknesses as other self-report meas-
ures. Most notably, scores on the GRAT are probably somewhat reflective of a
positivity bias. However, we do not believe this to be a significant weakness
because a positively biased approach to life is also likely to be an important
characteristic of the grateful person.
We also found strong relationships between dispositional gratitude and various
measures of happiness and SWB. While most of these associations were demon-
strated with direct self-report measures, in Study 3 we showed that gratitude was
also correlated with an indirect measure of happiness (semantic differential rat-
ings of neutral words). The association of the GRAT with the SWLS compares
quite favorably with other personality traits that have been shown to have reli-
able associations with SWB (see Watkins, in press). Of course, these correla-
tions may simply reflect the idea that gratitude is an epiphenomenon of happi-
ness. However, in two studies we found that gratitude interventions improved
mood. In a more long-term investigation on the impact of gratitude on emotional
well-being, Emmons and McCullough (2003) found similar effects. In three
studies, they demonstrated that a daily and weekly practice of gratitude caused
increases in a number of positive affect variables, including SWB and hope.
Their gratitude intervention also prompted decreases in a number of negative
affect variables. Because the field of SWB has largely relied on correlational
designs, results indicating that the induction of grateful thoughts can actually
cause improvements in SWB are of particular significance.
How does gratitude promote SWB? The answer to this question awaits future
research, but some authors have offered suggestions as to how gratitude might
 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS 449
enhance SWB (Emmons & McCullough, 2003; Watkins, in press). For example,
gratitude might promote happiness by enhancing one's experience of positive
events, by enhancing adaptive coping to negative events, by enhancing encoding
and retrieval of positive events, by enhancing one's social network, or by pre-
venting or mitigating depression. Investigations into these proposed mecha-
nisms should provide valuable information for the understanding of happiness.
Although we have demonstrated that gratitude can cause positive affect, it is
still possible that happiness enhances gratitude as well. Positive affect research
provides a number of reasons why gratitude should be more likely in the pres-
ence of positive affect (see Isen, 1999). Does the relationship between gratitude
and SWB result from gratitude causing happiness, or is it that happiness causes
gratitude? In answer to this conundrum we support the notion that happiness and
gratitude may operate in a "cycle of virtue" (Watkins, in press), whereby grati-
tude enhances happiness, but happiness enhances gratitude as well. This may be
another "upward spiral" where positive affect has been proposed to provide ben-
efits for the individual that tend to feed into further benefits (cf. Fredrickson,
1998). Clearly, these speculative notions await further research.
We have argued that there are several components to trait gratitude. In large
measure, our results support the notion that grateful individuals have at least
three characteristics. First, grateful individuals have a sense of abundance.
Grateful individuals do not feel that they have been deprived in life. The second
component of trait gratitude appears to be an appreciation of simple pleasures.
Our results suggest that grateful individuals appreciate the common everyday
pleasures of life. Thirdly, grateful individuals appreciate the contribution of oth-
ers to their well-being. While our locus-of-control findings suggest that grateful
individuals still take appropriate credit for their successes, our results also imply
that grateful individuals are quick to acknowledge how others have contributed
to their well-being. Results from our religiosity measures suggest that not only
do grateful individuals admit the beneficial contributions of their fellow humans,
they are also more likely to acknowledge the contribution of the divine.
Is there a grateful trait? Taken together, the results presented here and else-
where (McCullough et al., 2002), indicate that there is a grateful trait, that it can
be reliably measured, and that it is strongly associated with SWB. Because pos-
itive emotions are less studied than negative states and traits (Fredrickson, 1998),
investigations into traits relating to positive affect are needed. We have found
that grateful individuals tend to be happy individuals, and that grateful thinking
improves mood. Although the science of gratitude is still in its infancy, prelim-
inary findings suggest that gratitude may be an important component of the good
life.
450 GRATITUDE AND HAPPINESS

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