The Effect of Practicing Daily Gratitude on Mood, Life Satisfaction, Happiness, and Overall Well-being
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The Effect of Practicing Daily Gratitude on Mood, Life Satisfaction, Happiness, and Overall Well-being
Introduction
Just like any other emotions and attitudes in life, gratitude gives the human the strength that enables one’s relational and personal well-being (Emmons & Crumpler, 2000). Krejtz, Nezlek, Michnicka, Holas, and Rusanowska (2016) noted that gratitude is a state of being grateful for the different life gifts such as the life of a loved one. Also, one can observe and appreciate the various altruistic gifts. Wood, Froh, and Geraghty (2010) emphasized that gratitude comes with positive outcomes. In the majority of the researchers that examine recognition, gratitude is seen as a trait-like characteristic that has been stable across time. Just like any other human feature, gratitude varies amongst individuals depending on agreeableness, openness, and other individual differences. Also, gratitude is a disposition, and therefore, ranges from a person, time, and even circumstance. Notably, in this survey, together with my husband we maintained a diary of daily events so that we could realize how much gratitude would affect our overall happiness as well as satisfaction, and mood well-being. Each of us would like write down how grateful we felt each day for the blessings in life.
In particular, the positive education themes considered in my issue are;
- Gratitude
- Character strengths
- Mindfulness
Why This Topic?
I selected the topic out of my interest to see how working and gratitude has enabled the growth of my character strength because in normal circumstances it occurs in the lower list of my well-being. Apparently, when it comes to my character strength list, gratitude was placed in number 15. I did the study and practice to examine how improving my ways of appreciating what I have in life would boost my ability to be happier and satisfied with the life that I led.
The questions that I considered to shape my inquiry:
- Does gratitude have a visible or measurable effect on happiness?
- How do building character strengths affect happiness?
Literature Review of Gratitude
This section aims to give a critical analysis of the literature on gratitude and its effects on the overall well-being of individuals. First of all, there is the conceptualization of appreciation which will be followed by human flourishing. Later, there will be a discussion of the effectiveness of the techniques of the gratitude interventions. Finally, there will be examinations of gaps with suggestions on how to fill them.
Conceptualization of Gratitude
Historically, gratitude has the lineage of acknowledgment from religious and at times philosophical standpoints. According to Emmons and Crumpler (2000), whichever viewpoint one undertakes it all end up showing the importance of having a grateful outlook when it comes to life. Although there has been an abandonment that is attributed to the general negligence of the importance of positive emotions in the past, the current studies are trying as much as possible to ensure that they shed some light. Emmons and McCullough (2004) noted that there is burgeoning evidence on the connection of human flourishing to gratitude. As a result, there is the need to know how and in what ways that an individual can become a practitioner of appreciation. There are many constructs of gratitude where some claim that it is manifested in two-way information-processing stages. First, an individual should have an awareness of positive experiences that are attributable to an external source.
Nevertheless, if gratitude is conceptualized in this way, then it neglects the individuals who base their appreciation in the daily aspects of their lives. For instance, Emmons and McCullough (2003) study participants listed grateful events such as “woke up early today” which showed that the gratitude could come from a personal achievement. Another example is by Krejtz et al. (2016) which observed that the within-person relationship is what determined appreciation and well-being positivity. Notably, in this research, the authors also stated that the manipulation of gratitude was able to reduce the daily stresses in individuals. Additionally, the participants also showed much appreciation to the people who offered them help while doing some task. Interestingly, the same showed that the participants who completed work on their own were happier than the one who received assistance to finish the same job. As a result of such findings, it is clear that an individual is more appreciative of the things that they have personally achieved. Similarly, Snyder and Lopez (2011) observed that gratitude goes beyond interpersonal appreciation of another individuals help. As a result, there is a need to identify a standard definition of recognition to resolve the inconsistency.
Gratitude in life
Wood, Froh, and Geraghty (2010) emphasized that appreciation is a broader attitude that involves noticing and appreciating any positive activity in a person’s life. The majority of scholars and researchers have used scales to assess the different levels of gratitude amongst the various participants. Such standards can capture the distinct features that show what gratitude comprises to provide a broader definition of the life-orientation perspective. In this study, three scales bring out eight conceptions of appreciation in a grateful person.
Trait and State Gratitude
Watkins, Woodward, Stone, and Kolts (2003) stated that people are more oriented in noticing positivity in life through analyzing the eight aspects of gratitude in intense, frequent, and eliciting stimuli. As a result, there might be a connection between a trait and state when it comes to determining the individual life-orientation. Notably, the levels of trait gratitude are measured with GQ-6 to assess an individual dispositional gratitude. Further, the Gratitude Adjectives Checklist (GAC) evaluates the state appreciation levels. GAC has three adjectives which are thankful, grateful, and appreciative which shows the time spent while analyzing a personal feeling of gratefulness. Theoretically, Wood et al. (2010) demonstrated that individuals who have a low well-being associate their success with factors that are brief, uncontrollable, and related to other persons. Such situations, in turn, lead to high levels of anxiety, depression, and negative emotions. The helplessness and attribution theory supported the findings that postulate the wellbeing of how people describe their life happenings. Further, gratitude is an antithesis of Beck’s (1976) negative cognitive triad. Also, the assessment of attitude in the state and trait levels enables an individual to determine and understand the well-being of their interaction.
Ways of Associating Gratitude and Well-being
Emmons and McCullough (2003) emphasized that recognition bring outs happiness. The scenario can be expressed using the Fredrickson’s (2001) broaden-and-build theory which shows that the positive emotions contribute to maximum attention and thinking. Accordingly, the gratitude can broaden the innovative reciprocity which adds to enduring personal resources such as physical, psychosocial, and spiritual skills that enhance the individual well-being. In another study, Seligman (2012) showed that the grateful people utilize three methods of coping with gratitude. The strategies are finding both emotional and instrumental support; dealing with individual problems through coping, benefit-finding, and managing; and engaging in the adaptive behavior. The plans help people to cope with stresses as well as gratitude in their lives. Notably, stress occurs when an event is perceived as threatening as well as exceeding the ability to deal with resources hence enabling individuals to engage into positive coping mechanisms. On the other hand, gratitude enables one to have mood stabilization which allows a person to counteract stressful life events.
Further, Watkins et al. observed that recognition influences the wellbeing of an individual by preventing the hedonic set-point. Just like the coping hypothesis, gratitude serves as an appreciation mechanism that helps a person to deal with any adversity and recollect the pleasant memories instead. As a result, an individual can shift their mindset from deprivation to appreciation. Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2006) noted that gratitude is an emotion that helps an individual to feel costly, valuable, and altruistic. Notably, grateful people have specific features that are associated with their well-being. The same ability is what fosters own interconnectedness with the society as well as strengthening all interrelationships between the individuals in any platform.
Effectiveness of Gratitude-Based Interventions
Therapeutically, many responses have been made to analyze both psychological and physical benefits that bring out a grateful-outlook. The responses have been categorized into behavioral expressions, gratitude listing as well as grateful contemplation (Wood et al., 2010).
Behavioral Expressions: According to Seligman (2012) this method is also referred to a gratitude visit because it includes someone appreciating a benefactor for their underlying kindness. The practices enable one to learn to say thank you whenever something good has happened in their lives. In short, this procedure encourages people to continually say thank you when they have received goods and services. In the findings, Seligman (2012) found out that the individual who wrote thank you notes and delivered were happier than those who wrote about their childhood memories. Nevertheless, the gratitude effects are short-lived and in this case only took a month to fade. Therefore, writing just one letter of appreciation in a month is not sufficient. In another study, Park, Peterson, and Seligman (2004) noted that writing of three more gratitude letters and more helped the participants to accumulate more happiness and gratitude indexes compared to those who never wrote at all. On the other hand, Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2006) isolated the psychological realism of sending the letter; nevertheless, people experienced elevated forms of their wellbeing. As a result, mailing out a thank you note at the first instance becomes exciting; however, after some time it becomes tedious. Therefore, there is need to investigate the importance of delivery and non-delivery of gratitude letters and assesses the impact based on the person who writes the letters.
Grateful Contemplation: The process involves one writing what they are thankful for in a casual manner. Watkins et al. (2003) study instructed one of the participant’s groups to list the summer activities that they appreciated while the other team recorded the things that they wanted to do but did not get the opportunity to do them. Interestingly, those people who wrote about the things that they appreciated during the summer had less negative feelings than the others. Similarly, Snyder and Lopez (2011) observed that this simple technique is used by the therapists to induce sudden positive mood amongst individuals with dysphoric issues.
Gratitude Lists: Wood et al. (2010) observed that amongst all procedures, the gratitude list is the most commonly used when it comes to recognition examination. On the contrary to the gratitude contemplation method, the gratitude lists require an individual to record daily thoughts or weekly journals of the things that they are grateful. Similarly, Emmons and McCullough (2003) carried three experiments in which they encouraged the participants to keep gratitude journals. The first list wanted the participants to have three conditions which are five gratitude conditions, five hassles conditions, and five life conditions within one week. Along with these three terms, the students were required to complete other tasks such as coping behavior as well as mood, global appraisals, and physical distress. The results showed that the students who assessed the first condition of gratitude were optimistic, and therefore, had fewer physical complaints than the groups who assessed their hassles and living conditions who had more physical complaints.
The second group undertook a two weeks daily gratitude journal keeping; however, the hassles condition was changed to the social-downward comparison. The downward social comparison entailed that the students compared how they were better off than their colleagues. Similarly, in this experiment, the gratitude condition experienced more positive effect as well as altruistic behavior, unlike the other conditions. Nonetheless, the second study did not bring out the health benefits that were associated with the practices (Emmons & McCullough, 2003). In the third experiment, Emmons and McCullough (2003) extended the study to three weeks and focused on the adult neuromuscular disease. In this case, the participants were only randomly assigned to the control or gratitude condition group. The results showed that the group given the recognition condition demonstrated a positive enhancement in their lives satisfaction.
Other benefits got from the procedure included the increased sleep quality, greater bonding with family and friends as well as ability to spend more time exercising. Nevertheless, this study lacks follow-up of the participants which can show whether or not the effects lasted long enough (Emmons & McCullough, 2003). Consequently, Krejtz et al. (2016) did a follow-up on their participants and found out that the people who continually grateful for their blessing had higher satisfaction with their lives and there was the reduction of the adverse effects compared to the people who never counted their blessings. Notably, being grateful contributed to increased physical benefits as well as the quality of interpersonal relationships.
Another study by Seligman (2012) showed that people who keep the daily journal that reflects on their day-to-day operations, especially the positive events, are likely to boost their happiness and as well as elevate any depressive symptoms with a period of six months. Further, Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2006) observed that continued frequency in undertaking happiness-enhancing interventions brought about therapeutic outcomes in individuals. Nevertheless, people who undertook a once per week gratitude journal had much more positive effects than those who kept a regular gratitude journal. Therefore, it is necessary to find out the appropriate “dosage” of the gratitude intervention journal so that it can show the proper number of the list within a week.
Evaluation of Gratitude Intervention on the Life Satisfaction
The previous works have shown that gratitude can enhance the life well-being through the simple tasks such as keeping the gratitude list. Nonetheless, it is essential that I highlight the concerns and caveats that come with the effectiveness of each technique. First of all, several studies such as Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2006) did not successfully evaluate how individual well-being is fostered through the intervention methods. Apparently, such scholars did not show how span, intensity, and density of gratitude among their study groups enhanced the overall wellbeing, thus leaving gaps. Much more study is expected to answer the questions of whether or not prolonged gratitude interventions, in fact, led to increased overall human welfare.
The interventions based on recognition listing have been demonstrated as more useful than the others in many studies. Nevertheless, such as in the case of Wood et al. (2010) and Emmons and McCullough (2003) the effectiveness of this technique was compared with other conditions such as hassles that brought about negative emotions. As a result, it becomes difficult to state the efficiency of this procedure without examining it to the other components. Further, all the studies above show that there are benefits associated with practicing gratitude every day. The interests include improved well-being, altruistic behavior, religiosity, and spirituality (Park et al., 2004). Nevertheless, the duration that an individual remains happy is still unanswered. Evidence from Seligman (2012) and Watkins et al. (2003) showed that there was the need to follow-up on the participants so that the scholars can examine how the long the happiness lasts in an individual’s life.
Notably, the researchers should come up with the types of positive exercises as well as the time commitment required for participants to assess the effects of gratitude and happiness (Emmons & McCullough, 2004). Notably, it is just a few studies such as Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2006) that have tried to tackle the question of who and how the recipient of gratitude activities should be carried out. Emmons & Crumpler (2000) noted that a person must identify the perceived-activity fit so that they can experience beneficial outcomes when it comes to using gratitude. Therefore, an overlook of this factor has brought mixed feelings into the study so far.
Chapter Conclusion
All the social science researchers in this study have concluded that gratitude brings out psychological strength manifested in the improvement of human overall life satisfaction, mood, as well as the well-being. Watkins et al. (2003) among others have shown that expressing and experiencing gratitude has led to a peaceful mind, great relationships with others, and general happiness in an individual. Nevertheless, there are still pending speculations on how the psychological techniques such as keeping daily gratitude lists encourage human satisfaction. As a result, there is the need for the continued study to bring out the validation of the results. Therefore, the importance of this research is to examine the importance of keeping gratitude lists, thereby increasing the social science knowledge about the practical benefits of such interventions. In particular, the study will show how the use of gratitude lists can foster happiness, life satisfaction, and overall well-being through the daily listing of activities that one is appreciative.
Methods
This investigation was a self-study for thirty-two days. I put together a survey of my husband’s happiness at the beginning and the end of my research. Also, I did the self-examination of the level of my happiness, satisfaction, and overall wellbeing from the start and at the end of the investigation. The primary reason for undertaking this study was to explore mood, happiness, and irritability that would bring out an individual’s joy in the day. Between the first day and the last day of my study, I ensured that both of us practiced gratitude every day. I made sure that we took small pictures of something that I felt grateful about and included in a short caption. With my husband I developed a quick test that included six questions that focused on disappointment, snapping, irritation, appreciation, anger, and joy. The questions were answered on a scale which comprised of five attributes which were every day, often, neutral, not very usually, and rarely. On the other hand, I undertook the Oxford Questionnaire test of twenty-nine questions that help in the calculation of personal happiness from. I took the test at the beginning of my study and recorded the results. Concurrently, at the end of my survey, I undertook the experiment again to record the results of my progress.
Results
Ethics: My husband gave me the consent to be part of my investigation; nevertheless, he only allowed me to include the numerical scores of his survey rather than the results of the answers that he gave. As a result, the following data are scores of his before and after gratitude expression.
At the beginning of the study, my husband gave me a score of five in all aspects. Often, I would make him angry and disappointed, and as a result, he did not want to spend a lot of time with me. However, at the end of the study, my husband score had improved to fourteen. At this point, he was happy with me, and he was grateful that I undertook the gratitude listing test. In fact, he even started spending time with me and also help me in cooking. In reciprocation, I become grateful each day for the things that he did, and we are now pleased and satisfied with our lives. In short, my husband saw a difference in me which boosted a change in the way that we related. Thus we started appreciating each other more, which increased our overall happiness.
The following are some of the things that I noted in the daily appreciation diary;
- I took a nice bath
- I hang out with a friend
- I had a panic attack, and it felt awesome when my husband supported me to overcome that situation
- I watched the sunset on a beach with my husband
- My husband cooked dinner for me
- I spent the full day with my husband
- I tried a new magical painting technique
At the beginning of my self-study, my happiness score from the Oxford Questionnaire test was 3.2, however, during the completion my study my score was 4.2. According to the analysis, the unhappy person scores one while the happiest person scores 6. Nevertheless, the person who scores 4 is average. Therefore, it shows that I started with lower levels of happiness which increased incredibly after practicing gratitude. My score of 4.2 is above that of an average person which means that I am happier than an ordinary person. Nevertheless, I have not reached the optimal happiness levels, and thus, I should continue with the gratitude listing since this is likely to boost my happiness levels further.
Discussion
One of the most credible approaches of boosting one’s happiness is through deliberate counting of blessing (Emmons & McCullough, 2004; Krejtz et al., 2016). My self-study inspected this acclamation by assessing my happiness levels at the beginning of the study and after exercising gratitude for thirty-two days. Also, I examined the benefits brought about by my gratitude exercise on my husband overall satisfaction with me before and after the investigation. Findings showed that we both experienced gratitude-induced happiness and total satisfaction with our lives and well-being and most importantly with our relationship.
With respect to my husband levels of on disappointment, snapping, irritation, appreciation, anger, and joy, it was observed there was a substantial improvement. For instance, before undertaking the gratitude intervention, my husband used to snap often; however, after the study, my husband rarely snapped. To the best of my knowledge as well as the sources utilized in this study, the use of gratitude to examine personal outcomes such as the levels of anger have not been sufficiently considered. As a result, this research recommends that there is further examination of how the gratitude intervention can successfully alter the moods of individuals.
Previous scholars warned that the daily gratitude listing does not help bring out positive effects on the lives of people. Seligman (2012) in this study stated that although the people who reflect on their daily activities and keep regular journals of the things that they are grateful for are likely to be happier, it is not evident that these people can achieve the same levels of elevated depressive symptoms in six months. Further, Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2006) observed that the constant recording of the things that a person is grateful about could bring out the happiness as well as therapeutic outcomes in a person. Nevertheless, it showed that only the person who undertook longer intervals to record their satisfaction such as once per week were able to achieve the happiness unlike those who conducted daily listings. As a result, I did a self-study of regular listings of the things that I appreciated gaining every day to examine the success of the gratitude listing.
The results showed that the gratitude listing helped boost my happiness levels from 3.2 at the beginning of the investigation to 4.2 at the completion of my self-examination using Oxford Questionnaire test retrieved from xxx. Together with my husband’s results then, it is evident that gratitude listing can, in fact, elevate an individual’s mood, happiness, as well as the overall well-being of a person’s life. As a result, this study agrees with the others such as Watkins et al. (2003), Emmons and Crumpler (2000), Emmons and McCullough (2003), Wood et al. (2010), and Emmons and McCullough (2004). All these studies support that gratitude can be experimentally cultivated which, in turn, enable the creation of the right platforms for happiness, good moods, and overall satisfaction of human being. Evidently, if a person initiates gratitude in their lives, then they are likely to be happy as well for productive relationships with their family and friends. I was not pleased, and neither was my husband until I practiced gratitude. As a result, we are happy together now. In particular, therapists can use recognition to bring out the appreciation of one’s life by cultivating the ability to say thank you.
As per this study, the benefits of practicing gratitude are the greater positive effect, increased well-being, improved social-connection, and better physical health.
Conclusion
The current study shows that gratitude interventions can boost one’s appreciation of life, mood, happiness as well as overall well-being. Evidence shows that daily listing of the things that one count as the blessing and they are appreciative can boost gratitude as well as positivity in life. The attributes manifest in my husband’s life when I start appreciating every minute that I spend in his life. On the other hand, I also experience elevated happiness levels for recognizing most of the activities in my life. As a result, the study is significant, and it can help many people to acknowledge the importance of counting the blessing which, in turn, can help one strengthen their well-being and happiness without necessarily visiting the clinical therapies.
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