An Examination of the Science of Gratitude and Its Role in Human Happiness meaning to our actions. One of the primary concerns of a subdiscipline of psychology is the conditions and prerequisites for human happiness in general. Similar to philosopher Aristotle's notion of virtue as a habit, happiness research attempts to uncover the strong connections between personal practices and well-being. A “strong connection” between a practice and its emotional correlate implies some degree of empirical or statistical connection – not just a simple theory of happiness. Finding personal practices that promote happiness is important for empirical researchers, but also for society as a whole. When individual members of a society are happy, overall happiness increases. Societal happiness does not increase when a new definition of happiness is derived or a new theory is developed; rather, it arises in response to practices that promote positive affect, some of which only exist at the individual level. This article focuses on an individual-level practice aimed at promoting positive emotions based on the concept of gratitude. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The word "gratitude" has its origins in the Latin gratus, meaning "grateful" or "pleasant." It is not surprising that the history of the term is linked to spirituality as a form of humility, which is a virtue in monotheistic traditions. To the extent that one is grateful to God, who bestows his divine gifts on humanity, one rightly recognizes God's role in our lives. In fact, ancient sources have noted that gratitude is a “parental” virtue (Wood, Joseph, & Linley, 2007). Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith also considered gratitude in the context of moral study in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, in which he concluded that gratitude is necessary for the proper functioning of society (Smith, 1759). Secular concepts of gratitude extend beyond gratitude to God, but also to neighbors, family, and friends. Modern notions of gratitude tend to treat the term more as an attitude or experience, rather than a trait or virtue as described by moral philosophers. For example, modern English speakers tend not to describe someone as a "grateful person" but rather as a temporary emotional state. Consistent with the idea that gratitude is an attitude or cognitive state, happiness research in modern psychology tends to focus on the concept's relationship to subjective well-being, or happiness. In fact, Wood, Joseph, and Linley (2007) argue that gratitude has become a major focus in psychological research regarding the issue of happiness. Researchers such as Professor Robert Emmons of the University of California, Davis, have studied the relationship between gratitude and happiness. Emmons and McCullough (2003) found a robust positive effect of attitude gratitude on subjective well-being in a controlled experiment, providing strong evidence of a link. Furthermore, Emmons and Crumpler (2000) conclude that gratitude as a pleasant emotional state promotes more positive moods and that expressions of gratitude help people feel happier than they otherwise would. Knowing that there is an apparent link between these two concepts in the psychology literature, itIt is possible to generally state that gratitude is a beneficial personal practice. However, one might wonder how to define gratitude so that scientists can assess a possible strong link. to happiness. Watkins, Woodward, Stone, and Kolts (2003) set out to create a measurable picture of gratitude, which involves a robust definition of the concept. Once again, whether gratitude is related to the characteristics of individuals or to individual emotional states is a relevant question. Watkins et al. (2003) provide definitions of both a feeling (“trait affect” as “a feeling of grateful appreciation for favors received”) and a characteristic (“trait gratitude” as “the predisposition to experience this state") (p. 432). . Obviously, the definition is parsimonious but also sufficiently explanatory. The notion of gratitude as a trait also implies some connection to evolutionary theory, and an explanation of this relationship would paint a more complete picture of gratitude within a population. Nowak and Roch (2007) study the conceptual difference between gratitude and another concept called “backward reciprocity,” which is the increased likelihood that one recipient of kindness will help another in turn. Similar to Watkins et al. (2003) of gratitude as an affective appreciation of recognition, Nowak and Roch (2007) place gratitude in the context of the evolution of cooperation and find that positive emotions that reinforce helping behavior can actually evolve by natural selection. The predisposition to feel grateful is more likely to produce happier mood states (Emmons & Crumpler, 2000), thus perhaps improving self-confidence and thus the chances of mating behavior. The framework provided by Watkins et al. (2003) is useful here in that it explains the evolutionary pressures acting on trait gratitude through its close connection to the trait affect that individuals actually feel after receiving favors from another. Another advantage of Watkins et al. (2003)'s approach to gratitude is an explicit attempt at a measurable and quantifiable operational definition of the concept. Using their Gratitude, Resentment, and Appreciation Test (GRAT), the authors found a reliable and valid measure of dispositional (or “trait”) gratitude. Additionally, the test contains a good deal of construct validity in its ability to predict feelings of gratitude at some point in the future. Returning to the notion of “strong connection” in empirical studies of happiness, it is important to have reliable and valid measures of gratitude in order to determine robust correlative relationships and demonstrate effective personal practice to improve subjective well-being . Built on a solid scientific foundation, a compelling argument for the role of gratitude in well-being can be made on a personal level. The purpose of this article is to construct this argument through a treatment of the science of gratitude as it relates to happiness. in positive psychology. By focusing on the individual and what a person does to improve their subjective well-being as a habit, this article will imply generalizations to anyone capable of grateful or grateful affect. With generalizations, it is important to note the connection between successful personal practices and a level of social effect; in other words, gratitude as a personal practice can produce a desirable net effect for groups or populations. In addition to examining what constitutes a successful personal practice for improving lifelong happiness (in the senseeudaimonist of this word), this review will also incorporate information on what works empirically and what does not. A project of this magnitude will extend from higher levels of organization (social connections and friendships) to individual behavior (depression and mental illness) all the way inside the brain into the neuroscience of gratitude. In addressing subjective well-being at each of these levels of the organizational hierarchy, personal practice emerges as a common theme. So the challenge is to take this scientific evidence and translate it into a practical, everyday phenomenon for most people, which we address later in this article. Gratitude in Social Relations Gratitude, by its very nature, is a social emotion. , and much of the previous research on its social effects has focused on repaying favors (Algoe, Haidt & Gable,2008). However, recently, psychologists have begun to focus their research on the potential effects that feeling grateful may have on the formation and maintenance of healthy relationships (relationships in which members express strong positive feelings toward each other). In 2008, Algoe, Haidt, and Gable provided the first empirical evidence linking gratitude as an affective state to the promotion of positive relationships. Critically, their investigation was very realistic – they studied the real-life relationships formed between new inductees into a number of University of Virginia sororities and their “Big Sisters” – girls who had already been members of the sorority for one year. This mundane realism is essential if their research findings are to be applied to personal practices that occur in real life, not in the artificially created laboratories typical of gratitude research (Algoe, Haidt, & Gable, 2008). To study the formation of relationships between new and existing sorority members, researchers took advantage of an already existing initiative at the University of Virginia known as "Big Sister Week." During this four-day period, each new inductee (“Little Sister”) is randomly assigned to a Big Sister, whose identity is not revealed until the end of the week. Big Sisters plan events for their Little Sister throughout the week, as well as buy or give them gifts, with the goal of making them feel welcome within their sorority. Algoe et al. (2008) studied how the gratitude (for gifts that were given) felt by the Little Sister towards her specific Big Sister affected both the Little and Big Sisters' evaluations of their relationship, both immediately after the Big Sisters Week (when the identity of their Big Sister was revealed to each Little Sister) and a month later. During Big Sisters Week, each Little Sister was asked to fill out a questionnaire each time they received a gift from their Big Sister. The questionnaire aimed to measure how grateful Little Sister “felt” for the gift, how much she liked the gift, how much she thought the gift was a surprise, how much she thought her Big Sister had was thoughtful in choosing the gift. specific gift, how much she thought the gift had cost her Big Sister, and what effort she thought her Big Sister had put into giving her the gift. These questions were asked to determine the potential moderating or mediating effects of other social variables indicated by previous research, such as feelings of indebtedness and unexpectedness of a reward. This has been used to distinguish the feeling of gratitude frompotentially confounding social factors. In addition to the questionnaire on their gratitude for the gift, each Little Sister had to answer a second questionnaire after receiving each gift. This questionnaire was designed to assess the perceived quality of the relationship each Little Sister felt with her Big Sister, and asked to what extent she thought her Big Sister “understood” her, as well as how much she loved and cared. felt close to his Big Sister. Relationship quality was measured as the average of responses to the three questions. The researchers found that Little Sister's feelings of gratitude were predictive of a positive relationship with her Big Sister (p = 0.000). This first part of the study demonstrates that the feeling of gratitude can indeed have an influence on the establishment of new positive relationships with strangers. At the end of Big Sisters Week, once the identity of their Big Sister was revealed, the Little Sisters were asked to evaluate their relationship. in terms of pleasure and disappointment during their interactions, as well as feeling connected to her. A month after Big Sisters Week ended, the relationship between each pair of Big and Little Sisters was assessed again, including questions about whether their Big Sister was one of their close friends, whether they felt supported by their Big Sister and how much time they had spent in each other's company during the previous week. Algoe et al. (2008) found that the average gratitude expressed by a Little Sister during Big Sisters Week was predictive of relationship quality both at the end of Big Sisters Week and one month later, although No significant correlation was found with how much time had been spent together recently. This proves that gratitude can have more lasting effects, promoting not only the formation of positive relationships, but also their maintenance. Additionally, Algoe et al. (2008) found that levels of gratitude expressed by Little Sisters were significantly predictive of Big Sisters' ratings of relationship quality. This indicates that it is not only the receipt of gifts for which one feels gratitude that contributes to a strong relationship, but that the act of giving these gifts (engendering a feeling of gratitude in the other) also has effects positive. Researchers suggest that gratitude may induce a cycle of relationship building in which the roles of benefactor and recipient are continually reversed. This suggests that positive relationships can be sustained over time by creating a cycle in which you provide something that induces gratitude in another person, in return for which they attempt to promote that same feeling in you. Additional support for the hypothesis that gratitude can promote healthy, positive relationships comes from the work of Algoe and Haidt (2009). The authors explained to new participants that their study focused on the effects of interpersonal communication to avoid demand characteristics. A letter writing task was used to induce feelings of gratitude in their participants (a control condition was also present, as well as an "admiration" condition, as the researchers consider admiration to be part of the same family of emotions as gratitude, and wished to avoid any ambiguity or confusion between the two). Participants were asked to write a letter to someone they knew, describing a time when that person did something for them for which they felt grateful. A questionnaire was distributedimmediately after the letter-writing task to check the manipulation, to ensure that participants felt gratitude toward the person, rather than other similar emotions, such as admiration. Participants were then given “reference cards” describing two people with whom they would choose to participate in an instant messaging conversation. One person was described as having just transferred to the University and looking for new social opportunities (this person was described as a “social person”). The second person was described as someone who did a lot of community service work in the area (the “prosocial person”). Task participants were then asked which person they would prefer to engage in an online conversation with. The researchers found that participants in the gratitude condition indicated that they wanted to meet other people like the person they wrote their letter to significantly more than participants in the task. the control condition, as well as a stronger desire to “give back” to others. Consistent with this idea, more participants in the gratitude condition indicated that they would prefer to chat with the prosocial person (rather than the social person) because they viewed them as more similar to the person to whom they had written. their letter of gratitude. Researchers posited that although people feeling gratitude primarily want to give back to the person they feel grateful toward for an act or gift, they are also willing to extend their positive and constructive feelings to other people who are similar. to this person. This indicates that gratitude can be helpful in establishing positive relationships not only between a benefactor and a recipient, but also between a recipient and others who demonstrate qualities similar to those of the benefactor – that is, gratitude helps build many positive relationships, even if the gratitude is directed toward one person. Gratitude's influence on promoting and maintaining positive, healthy relationships is important for long-term happiness, as positive relationships are known to "help us get through the tough times and thrive in the good times." (Algoe, Haidt & Gable, 2008 p. 429). ). Because gratitude helps us form positive relationships, it builds a framework for those positive relationships to help us thrive in the future. Additionally, because gratitude helps maintain these positive relationships over the long term, it allows the resulting happiness to last for a long time. Gratitude and mental health Throughout the empirical literature, the beneficial effects of gratitude on mental health have been demonstrated on several levels. The presence of positive emotions is a widely accepted characteristic of happiness, and gratitude can often be easily considered a positive emotion. Additionally, trait gratitude has been positively correlated with personality trait resilience – the ability to recover quickly and effectively from adverse experiences (Algoe & Stanton, 2011). Additionally, traits of gratitude and resilience have been shown to be linked to the development of more and better coping mechanisms in individuals, with gratitude perhaps acting as a mediator in this case (Algoe and Stanton, 2011). . Fredrickson, Tugade, Waugh, and Larken (2003) provide a compelling summary of the many and varied beneficial effects of positive emotions, including gratitude. An important benefit of positive emotions is their ability to reverse the harmful physical effects of negative emotions onmind and body. The experience of many negative emotions, such as fear, anger and sadness, triggers an arousal in the body's autonomic nervous system which, although useful in making the body alert, focused and prepared to face danger, has adverse effects such as increased blood pressure and vasoconstriction. Research has shown that experiencing a pleasant emotion is beneficial by returning the body to its baseline more quickly than when neutral or negative emotions are experienced (Fredrickson, Mancuso, Branigan, & Tugade, 2000). Another notable effect of positive emotions, such as gratitude, stems from their ability to decrease autonomic nervous system activity. One of the characteristics of this activity is that it causes the brain to focus more on the problem at hand. Because positive emotions reduce this effect, they contribute to “cognitive broadening” when experienced following a negative emotional event. This has been shown to lead to more flexibility, creativity, and efficiency in the brain and many researchers believe it promotes the development of creative and effective coping mechanisms (Fredrickson et al., 2003). This enlargement has also been associated with increased circulation of dopamine in the brain, known to be associated with positive emotions and rewarding experiences (Immordino-Yang and Sylvan, 2010). Furthermore, it has been argued that developing better coping mechanisms through the experience of positive emotions helps develop beneficial and long-lasting personality characteristics, including resilience (Fredrickson et al., 2003). That is, the brief experience of positive emotions such as gratitude may contribute to the development of enduring traits that contribute to positive emotionality and the ability to better handle difficult situations. It follows, then, that a personal practice aimed at promoting and cultivating gratitude could have lasting effects, even if the practice were stopped, because lasting personality characteristics are created or fostered. Another interesting effect of this increased resilience is that resilient people have been shown to be able to elicit positive emotions from people they are close to. This, in turn, creates a more positive and supportive social network for the person, which which is known to be beneficial for better coping with difficult life experiences (Fredrickson et al., 2003; Kumpfer, 1999). Thus, not only does gratitude help people choose to seek, promote, and maintain positive, healthy relationships, as shown by Algoe et al. (2008) and Algoe and Haidt (2009), but it also contributes to increasing the positivity of the existing social network, making it more supportive. Others have also suggested that on an intrinsic level, gratitude motivates one to express thanks and praise to a benefactor, which helps foster a positive relationship (Algoe & Haidt, 2009). This suggests that the happiness benefits associated with gratitude will be very long-lasting. In 2011, Algoe and Stanton studied the effects of gratitude in combating negative emotions in a group of women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. This form of cancer does not have a high survival rate and therefore is a significant and pervasive stressor in these women's lives. In the first part of the study, women were asked to write about a time in the past month when someone did something for them, whether they had positive or negative feelings about it. about this experience. Then, fourteen emotions were assessed, including gratitude (many emotions wereevaluated in order to mask the target emotion – gratitude – studied). Participants also completed a questionnaire assessing their view of the event – either closed and avoidant (feeling as if they were unintentionally trapped in a situation in which they would have to return a favor), or open and close (feeling as if they were unintentionally trapped in a situation in which they would have to return a favor), or open and close (feeling as if they were unintentionally trapped in a situation in which they would have to return a favor), or open and close ( ready to accept the kindness of the benefactor). Gratitude was found to be strongly negatively correlated with a closed and negative perspective (r = -0.73) and strongly positively correlated with an open and positive perspective (r = 0.83). Although these are correlations and causality cannot be determined, there is nevertheless a clear link between the affective state of gratitude and a more positive overall outlook. Adopting an open and close perspective is more conducive to happiness than a closed and avoidant personality, especially if this positive outlook is extended to other areas of life, putting them in a more positive light. Algoe and Stanton (2011) call this the self-transcendence hypothesis. In the second part of Algoe and Stanton's (2011) study, participants were asked to think about times in the past month when other people had done things for them. . They were then asked to indicate how often they experienced the same fourteen emotions in response to the favors. The researchers then used an average of a participant's responses regarding feeling grateful, grateful, and appreciated to create their "typical gratitude response." This was used to determine whether a participant generally felt grateful to people who had done them favors over the past month, or whether they generally showed a different emotional response. The level of support participants perceived from their social network was also recorded in response to each favor. In the overall sample, a generally grateful response was not significantly correlated with perceived social support; however, the researchers conducted additional statistical analyzes to determine whether the correlation between gratitude and perceived social support could be mediated by particular personality characteristics. They found that among women who were not ambivalent about expressing their emotions, gratitude was positively correlated with their perceived level of social support. Therefore, for some, but not all, people, gratitude can contribute to feeling like they have a supportive social network. This is very beneficial for dealing with negative emotions and helps facilitate and speed recovery from traumatic events (Kumpfer, 1999). So, gratitude is not only beneficial through the many ways in which positive emotions improve happiness and mental health, but it is also helpful in the other direction of the problem: combatting and reducing negative emotions. Long-term happiness requires not only high levels of positive affect, but also low levels or infrequent experience of negative emotions—gratitude promotes both of these effects. The Neurological Underpinnings of GratitudeGratitude is a complex human emotion that requires many different psychological processes to recognize an event requiring gratitude and producing the feeling of gratitude. Producing gratitude first requires recognizing that one has received an unwarranted service or gift from another. After the gift is recognized, the benefits of receiving must be weighed against the costs involved in the gift. Possible costs associated with these gifts may include the need to reciprocate through altruistic actions towardspeople whose gifts have been received previously. Anticipation of reciprocity is one of the predicted driving forces of human gratitude and has been shown to be advantageous in animals such as vampire bats that share blood meals with hungry companions, even when they do not. are not related (Williams, 1984). Following the acceptance of a gift, the recipient must feel positive emotions which transform into a feeling of gratitude. Finally, the recipient must encode the memories of the gift and the gratitude felt toward the giver so that gratitude has a lasting effect on human emotion. These processes must arise from distinct brain structures that work in unison to form the abstract social value of gratitude. Recent research has highlighted the possibility of areas of the neocortex regulating and interpreting information from the limbic system in neuroscience studies of social constructs and values. (Zahn et al., 2009). Studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging have shown that when considering the relationship between social concepts, such as honor and courage, moral activation is shown in the superior anterior temporal lobe of the cortex than when It is compared to control using physical functions, such as nutrition and courage. useful (Zahn et al., 2007). The anterior superior temporal lobe must play a role in social interaction by providing abstract knowledge of social behavior. Other areas in this study were also found to be activated, including the orbitofrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, and the temporoparietal junction. Activation of the anterior superior temporal lobe was also found to be independent of the valence of the social construct. Whether the concept had a negative or positive connotation made no difference; the zone was activated due to the need to deal with abstract ideas about social values. In addition to cortical structures, much older limbic structures also play an important role in the production of gratitude (Immordino-Yang & Sylvan, 2010). The mesolimbic dopamine system plays a huge role in producing positive affect and encoding reward values. It is possible that the positive affect caused by receiving a gift is encoded by dopamine neurons in the same way that Tobler, Fiorillo, and Schultz reported in 2005. Their study examined the adaptive properties of frequency of gifts. spikes and coding of dopamine neurons in response to anticipated and unanticipated rewarding stimuli. A situation that creates gratitude might be where a gift or service is given to the recipient and this information is processed the same way in the limbic system. Adaptive firing rates of dopamine-releasing neurons in rewarding structures in the brain may underlie the positive, rewarding emotions that elicit gratitude. The memory of an event that provoked gratitude must be recorded and be accessible in order to access it. any lasting effect on an organism. Studies show that contemplation during moments of gratitude increases activation in the basal forebrain, a structure essential for memory (Zahn et al., 2009.) The basal forebrain is directly connected to the hippocampus by a bundle chologeneric projections. When the gray matter of the basal forebrain was atrophied, cognitive functions, such as memory recall, were impaired. This shows how memory formation is linked to the formation of feelings of gratitude and has implications for the storage and retrieval of memories of times whengratitude was expressed. Many studies on the neural pathways of gratitude have been performed on patients with brain damage caused by severe head trauma or neurological disease. Although they are not experimental and therefore cannot say with certainty the cause of the results, these types of studies can shed light on which structures need to be examined more closely. Richard Emmons (2007) carried out a study on patients with severe prefrontal dysfunction. These patients suffered from Parkinson's disorder and, compared to healthy individuals, when they recalled an event in which they felt grateful, their mood did not improve. The healthy control group showed a significant increase in affect following the gratitude reminder. Patients with frontotemporal dementia show a clear lack of prosocial feelings, such as guild, pity and gratitude. Lack of prosocial feelings has been linked to the frontopolar cortex and septal area using fMRI while applying a moral sentiment test, indicating that damage to either of these regions may be the cause of a blunted social conscience (Moll et al., 2011). The most interesting thing about these findings is that both the cortex and the limbic system play a role. The development of the human cortex during evolution is what sets humans apart from other species, both in terms of intelligence and many prosocial feelings. The limbic system evolved much earlier than the cortex, but it appears that both must together play a role in mediating abstract social construction. A plausible explanation could involve that the limbic system is the source of raw emotion while cortical structures negotiate and choose the appropriate response based on external stimuli, including perceived social expectations (Mercadillo, Luis Diaz, & Barrios, 2007). . As evidence shows, there is a clear link between subjective well-being, or happiness, and the notion of gratitude. In terms of support, we discussed definitions of gratitude, the role of gratitude in forming healthy friendships, the role gratitude can play in combating depression, and finally, the neuroscience of gratitude in most basic cognitive level. Having studied the evidence for this link, there still remains the practical problem of clarifying the “resilience” of gratitude (the ability to increase personal happiness over an extended period of time). In other words, if gratitude can improve subjective well-being over time, then it may be a legitimate personal practice that we can recommend and support as a proven method for making individuals happy. Furthermore, it is hollow to say that gratitude is empirically linked to subjective well-being and that gratitude has power. The challenge arises when attempting to outline how the virtue of gratitude might work in practice. Bono, Emmons, and McCullough (2004) note intervention strategies aimed at increasing gratitude in individual research participants and their awareness of the good elements in their lives as prerequisites for gratitude. well-being. Citing a study by Emmons and McCullough (2003), which examined the effect of briefly giving participants a written list of five things they were grateful for over the previous week for 10 weeks, the researchers found that Individuals who were grateful (as opposed to those who wrote about unpleasant or emotional events) felt better about their lives on average. Compared to controls, grateful participants' higher ratings of subjective well-being were,.

Essay / An Examination of the Science of Gratitude and Its Role in Human Happiness meaning to our actions. One of the primary concerns of a subdiscipline of psychology is the conditions and prerequisites for human happiness in general. Similar to philosopher Aristotle's notion of virtue as a habit, happiness research attempts to uncover the strong connections between personal practices and well-being. A “strong connection” between a practice and its emotional correlate implies some degree of empirical or statistical connection – not just a simple theory of happiness. Finding personal practices that promote happiness is important for empirical researchers, but also for society as a whole. When individual members of a society are happy, overall happiness increases. Societal happiness does not increase when a new definition of happiness is derived or a new theory is developed; rather, it arises in response to practices that promote positive affect, some of which only exist at the individual level. This article focuses on an individual-level practice aimed at promoting positive emotions based on the concept of gratitude. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The word "gratitude" has its origins in the Latin gratus, meaning "grateful" or "pleasant." It is not surprising that the history of the term is linked to spirituality as a form of humility, which is a virtue in monotheistic traditions. To the extent that one is grateful to God, who bestows his divine gifts on humanity, one rightly recognizes God's role in our lives. In fact, ancient sources have noted that gratitude is a “parental” virtue (Wood, Joseph, & Linley, 2007). Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith also considered gratitude in the context of moral study in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, in which he concluded that gratitude is necessary for the proper functioning of society (Smith, 1759). Secular concepts of gratitude extend beyond gratitude to God, but also to neighbors, family, and friends. Modern notions of gratitude tend to treat the term more as an attitude or experience, rather than a trait or virtue as described by moral philosophers. For example, modern English speakers tend not to describe someone as a "grateful person" but rather as a temporary emotional state. Consistent with the idea that gratitude is an attitude or cognitive state, happiness research in modern psychology tends to focus on the concept's relationship to subjective well-being, or happiness. In fact, Wood, Joseph, and Linley (2007) argue that gratitude has become a major focus in psychological research regarding the issue of happiness. Researchers such as Professor Robert Emmons of the University of California, Davis, have studied the relationship between gratitude and happiness. Emmons and McCullough (2003) found a robust positive effect of attitude gratitude on subjective well-being in a controlled experiment, providing strong evidence of a link. Furthermore, Emmons and Crumpler (2000) conclude that gratitude as a pleasant emotional state promotes more positive moods and that expressions of gratitude help people feel happier than they otherwise would. Knowing that there is an apparent link between these two concepts in the psychology literature, itIt is possible to generally state that gratitude is a beneficial personal practice. However, one might wonder how to define gratitude so that scientists can assess a possible strong link. to happiness. Watkins, Woodward, Stone, and Kolts (2003) set out to create a measurable picture of gratitude, which involves a robust definition of the concept. Once again, whether gratitude is related to the characteristics of individuals or to individual emotional states is a relevant question. Watkins et al. (2003) provide definitions of both a feeling (“trait affect” as “a feeling of grateful appreciation for favors received”) and a characteristic (“trait gratitude” as “the predisposition to experience this state") (p. 432). . Obviously, the definition is parsimonious but also sufficiently explanatory. The notion of gratitude as a trait also implies some connection to evolutionary theory, and an explanation of this relationship would paint a more complete picture of gratitude within a population. Nowak and Roch (2007) study the conceptual difference between gratitude and another concept called “backward reciprocity,” which is the increased likelihood that one recipient of kindness will help another in turn. Similar to Watkins et al. (2003) of gratitude as an affective appreciation of recognition, Nowak and Roch (2007) place gratitude in the context of the evolution of cooperation and find that positive emotions that reinforce helping behavior can actually evolve by natural selection. The predisposition to feel grateful is more likely to produce happier mood states (Emmons & Crumpler, 2000), thus perhaps improving self-confidence and thus the chances of mating behavior. The framework provided by Watkins et al. (2003) is useful here in that it explains the evolutionary pressures acting on trait gratitude through its close connection to the trait affect that individuals actually feel after receiving favors from another. Another advantage of Watkins et al. (2003)'s approach to gratitude is an explicit attempt at a measurable and quantifiable operational definition of the concept. Using their Gratitude, Resentment, and Appreciation Test (GRAT), the authors found a reliable and valid measure of dispositional (or “trait”) gratitude. Additionally, the test contains a good deal of construct validity in its ability to predict feelings of gratitude at some point in the future. Returning to the notion of “strong connection” in empirical studies of happiness, it is important to have reliable and valid measures of gratitude in order to determine robust correlative relationships and demonstrate effective personal practice to improve subjective well-being . Built on a solid scientific foundation, a compelling argument for the role of gratitude in well-being can be made on a personal level. The purpose of this article is to construct this argument through a treatment of the science of gratitude as it relates to happiness. in positive psychology. By focusing on the individual and what a person does to improve their subjective well-being as a habit, this article will imply generalizations to anyone capable of grateful or grateful affect. With generalizations, it is important to note the connection between successful personal practices and a level of social effect; in other words, gratitude as a personal practice can produce a desirable net effect for groups or populations. In addition to examining what constitutes a successful personal practice for improving lifelong happiness (in the senseeudaimonist of this word), this review will also incorporate information on what works empirically and what does not. A project of this magnitude will extend from higher levels of organization (social connections and friendships) to individual behavior (depression and mental illness) all the way inside the brain into the neuroscience of gratitude. In addressing subjective well-being at each of these levels of the organizational hierarchy, personal practice emerges as a common theme. So the challenge is to take this scientific evidence and translate it into a practical, everyday phenomenon for most people, which we address later in this article. Gratitude in Social Relations Gratitude, by its very nature, is a social emotion. , and much of the previous research on its social effects has focused on repaying favors (Algoe, Haidt & Gable,2008). However, recently, psychologists have begun to focus their research on the potential effects that feeling grateful may have on the formation and maintenance of healthy relationships (relationships in which members express strong positive feelings toward each other). In 2008, Algoe, Haidt, and Gable provided the first empirical evidence linking gratitude as an affective state to the promotion of positive relationships. Critically, their investigation was very realistic – they studied the real-life relationships formed between new inductees into a number of University of Virginia sororities and their “Big Sisters” – girls who had already been members of the sorority for one year. This mundane realism is essential if their research findings are to be applied to personal practices that occur in real life, not in the artificially created laboratories typical of gratitude research (Algoe, Haidt, & Gable, 2008). To study the formation of relationships between new and existing sorority members, researchers took advantage of an already existing initiative at the University of Virginia known as "Big Sister Week." During this four-day period, each new inductee (“Little Sister”) is randomly assigned to a Big Sister, whose identity is not revealed until the end of the week. Big Sisters plan events for their Little Sister throughout the week, as well as buy or give them gifts, with the goal of making them feel welcome within their sorority. Algoe et al. (2008) studied how the gratitude (for gifts that were given) felt by the Little Sister towards her specific Big Sister affected both the Little and Big Sisters' evaluations of their relationship, both immediately after the Big Sisters Week (when the identity of their Big Sister was revealed to each Little Sister) and a month later. During Big Sisters Week, each Little Sister was asked to fill out a questionnaire each time they received a gift from their Big Sister. The questionnaire aimed to measure how grateful Little Sister “felt” for the gift, how much she liked the gift, how much she thought the gift was a surprise, how much she thought her Big Sister had was thoughtful in choosing the gift. specific gift, how much she thought the gift had cost her Big Sister, and what effort she thought her Big Sister had put into giving her the gift. These questions were asked to determine the potential moderating or mediating effects of other social variables indicated by previous research, such as feelings of indebtedness and unexpectedness of a reward. This has been used to distinguish the feeling of gratitude frompotentially confounding social factors. In addition to the questionnaire on their gratitude for the gift, each Little Sister had to answer a second questionnaire after receiving each gift. This questionnaire was designed to assess the perceived quality of the relationship each Little Sister felt with her Big Sister, and asked to what extent she thought her Big Sister “understood” her, as well as how much she loved and cared. felt close to his Big Sister. Relationship quality was measured as the average of responses to the three questions. The researchers found that Little Sister's feelings of gratitude were predictive of a positive relationship with her Big Sister (p = 0.000). This first part of the study demonstrates that the feeling of gratitude can indeed have an influence on the establishment of new positive relationships with strangers. At the end of Big Sisters Week, once the identity of their Big Sister was revealed, the Little Sisters were asked to evaluate their relationship. in terms of pleasure and disappointment during their interactions, as well as feeling connected to her. A month after Big Sisters Week ended, the relationship between each pair of Big and Little Sisters was assessed again, including questions about whether their Big Sister was one of their close friends, whether they felt supported by their Big Sister and how much time they had spent in each other's company during the previous week. Algoe et al. (2008) found that the average gratitude expressed by a Little Sister during Big Sisters Week was predictive of relationship quality both at the end of Big Sisters Week and one month later, although No significant correlation was found with how much time had been spent together recently. This proves that gratitude can have more lasting effects, promoting not only the formation of positive relationships, but also their maintenance. Additionally, Algoe et al. (2008) found that levels of gratitude expressed by Little Sisters were significantly predictive of Big Sisters' ratings of relationship quality. This indicates that it is not only the receipt of gifts for which one feels gratitude that contributes to a strong relationship, but that the act of giving these gifts (engendering a feeling of gratitude in the other) also has effects positive. Researchers suggest that gratitude may induce a cycle of relationship building in which the roles of benefactor and recipient are continually reversed. This suggests that positive relationships can be sustained over time by creating a cycle in which you provide something that induces gratitude in another person, in return for which they attempt to promote that same feeling in you. Additional support for the hypothesis that gratitude can promote healthy, positive relationships comes from the work of Algoe and Haidt (2009). The authors explained to new participants that their study focused on the effects of interpersonal communication to avoid demand characteristics. A letter writing task was used to induce feelings of gratitude in their participants (a control condition was also present, as well as an "admiration" condition, as the researchers consider admiration to be part of the same family of emotions as gratitude, and wished to avoid any ambiguity or confusion between the two). Participants were asked to write a letter to someone they knew, describing a time when that person did something for them for which they felt grateful. A questionnaire was distributedimmediately after the letter-writing task to check the manipulation, to ensure that participants felt gratitude toward the person, rather than other similar emotions, such as admiration. Participants were then given “reference cards” describing two people with whom they would choose to participate in an instant messaging conversation. One person was described as having just transferred to the University and looking for new social opportunities (this person was described as a “social person”). The second person was described as someone who did a lot of community service work in the area (the “prosocial person”). Task participants were then asked which person they would prefer to engage in an online conversation with. The researchers found that participants in the gratitude condition indicated that they wanted to meet other people like the person they wrote their letter to significantly more than participants in the task. the control condition, as well as a stronger desire to “give back” to others. Consistent with this idea, more participants in the gratitude condition indicated that they would prefer to chat with the prosocial person (rather than the social person) because they viewed them as more similar to the person to whom they had written. their letter of gratitude. Researchers posited that although people feeling gratitude primarily want to give back to the person they feel grateful toward for an act or gift, they are also willing to extend their positive and constructive feelings to other people who are similar. to this person. This indicates that gratitude can be helpful in establishing positive relationships not only between a benefactor and a recipient, but also between a recipient and others who demonstrate qualities similar to those of the benefactor – that is, gratitude helps build many positive relationships, even if the gratitude is directed toward one person. Gratitude's influence on promoting and maintaining positive, healthy relationships is important for long-term happiness, as positive relationships are known to "help us get through the tough times and thrive in the good times." (Algoe, Haidt & Gable, 2008 p. 429). ). Because gratitude helps us form positive relationships, it builds a framework for those positive relationships to help us thrive in the future. Additionally, because gratitude helps maintain these positive relationships over the long term, it allows the resulting happiness to last for a long time. Gratitude and mental health Throughout the empirical literature, the beneficial effects of gratitude on mental health have been demonstrated on several levels. The presence of positive emotions is a widely accepted characteristic of happiness, and gratitude can often be easily considered a positive emotion. Additionally, trait gratitude has been positively correlated with personality trait resilience – the ability to recover quickly and effectively from adverse experiences (Algoe & Stanton, 2011). Additionally, traits of gratitude and resilience have been shown to be linked to the development of more and better coping mechanisms in individuals, with gratitude perhaps acting as a mediator in this case (Algoe and Stanton, 2011). . Fredrickson, Tugade, Waugh, and Larken (2003) provide a compelling summary of the many and varied beneficial effects of positive emotions, including gratitude. An important benefit of positive emotions is their ability to reverse the harmful physical effects of negative emotions onmind and body. The experience of many negative emotions, such as fear, anger and sadness, triggers an arousal in the body's autonomic nervous system which, although useful in making the body alert, focused and prepared to face danger, has adverse effects such as increased blood pressure and vasoconstriction. Research has shown that experiencing a pleasant emotion is beneficial by returning the body to its baseline more quickly than when neutral or negative emotions are experienced (Fredrickson, Mancuso, Branigan, & Tugade, 2000). Another notable effect of positive emotions, such as gratitude, stems from their ability to decrease autonomic nervous system activity. One of the characteristics of this activity is that it causes the brain to focus more on the problem at hand. Because positive emotions reduce this effect, they contribute to “cognitive broadening” when experienced following a negative emotional event. This has been shown to lead to more flexibility, creativity, and efficiency in the brain and many researchers believe it promotes the development of creative and effective coping mechanisms (Fredrickson et al., 2003). This enlargement has also been associated with increased circulation of dopamine in the brain, known to be associated with positive emotions and rewarding experiences (Immordino-Yang and Sylvan, 2010). Furthermore, it has been argued that developing better coping mechanisms through the experience of positive emotions helps develop beneficial and long-lasting personality characteristics, including resilience (Fredrickson et al., 2003). That is, the brief experience of positive emotions such as gratitude may contribute to the development of enduring traits that contribute to positive emotionality and the ability to better handle difficult situations. It follows, then, that a personal practice aimed at promoting and cultivating gratitude could have lasting effects, even if the practice were stopped, because lasting personality characteristics are created or fostered. Another interesting effect of this increased resilience is that resilient people have been shown to be able to elicit positive emotions from people they are close to. This, in turn, creates a more positive and supportive social network for the person, which which is known to be beneficial for better coping with difficult life experiences (Fredrickson et al., 2003; Kumpfer, 1999). Thus, not only does gratitude help people choose to seek, promote, and maintain positive, healthy relationships, as shown by Algoe et al. (2008) and Algoe and Haidt (2009), but it also contributes to increasing the positivity of the existing social network, making it more supportive. Others have also suggested that on an intrinsic level, gratitude motivates one to express thanks and praise to a benefactor, which helps foster a positive relationship (Algoe & Haidt, 2009). This suggests that the happiness benefits associated with gratitude will be very long-lasting. In 2011, Algoe and Stanton studied the effects of gratitude in combating negative emotions in a group of women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. This form of cancer does not have a high survival rate and therefore is a significant and pervasive stressor in these women's lives. In the first part of the study, women were asked to write about a time in the past month when someone did something for them, whether they had positive or negative feelings about it. about this experience. Then, fourteen emotions were assessed, including gratitude (many emotions wereevaluated in order to mask the target emotion – gratitude – studied). Participants also completed a questionnaire assessing their view of the event – either closed and avoidant (feeling as if they were unintentionally trapped in a situation in which they would have to return a favor), or open and close (feeling as if they were unintentionally trapped in a situation in which they would have to return a favor), or open and close (feeling as if they were unintentionally trapped in a situation in which they would have to return a favor), or open and close ( ready to accept the kindness of the benefactor). Gratitude was found to be strongly negatively correlated with a closed and negative perspective (r = -0.73) and strongly positively correlated with an open and positive perspective (r = 0.83). Although these are correlations and causality cannot be determined, there is nevertheless a clear link between the affective state of gratitude and a more positive overall outlook. Adopting an open and close perspective is more conducive to happiness than a closed and avoidant personality, especially if this positive outlook is extended to other areas of life, putting them in a more positive light. Algoe and Stanton (2011) call this the self-transcendence hypothesis. In the second part of Algoe and Stanton's (2011) study, participants were asked to think about times in the past month when other people had done things for them. . They were then asked to indicate how often they experienced the same fourteen emotions in response to the favors. The researchers then used an average of a participant's responses regarding feeling grateful, grateful, and appreciated to create their "typical gratitude response." This was used to determine whether a participant generally felt grateful to people who had done them favors over the past month, or whether they generally showed a different emotional response. The level of support participants perceived from their social network was also recorded in response to each favor. In the overall sample, a generally grateful response was not significantly correlated with perceived social support; however, the researchers conducted additional statistical analyzes to determine whether the correlation between gratitude and perceived social support could be mediated by particular personality characteristics. They found that among women who were not ambivalent about expressing their emotions, gratitude was positively correlated with their perceived level of social support. Therefore, for some, but not all, people, gratitude can contribute to feeling like they have a supportive social network. This is very beneficial for dealing with negative emotions and helps facilitate and speed recovery from traumatic events (Kumpfer, 1999). So, gratitude is not only beneficial through the many ways in which positive emotions improve happiness and mental health, but it is also helpful in the other direction of the problem: combatting and reducing negative emotions. Long-term happiness requires not only high levels of positive affect, but also low levels or infrequent experience of negative emotions—gratitude promotes both of these effects. The Neurological Underpinnings of GratitudeGratitude is a complex human emotion that requires many different psychological processes to recognize an event requiring gratitude and producing the feeling of gratitude. Producing gratitude first requires recognizing that one has received an unwarranted service or gift from another. After the gift is recognized, the benefits of receiving must be weighed against the costs involved in the gift. Possible costs associated with these gifts may include the need to reciprocate through altruistic actions towardspeople whose gifts have been received previously. Anticipation of reciprocity is one of the predicted driving forces of human gratitude and has been shown to be advantageous in animals such as vampire bats that share blood meals with hungry companions, even when they do not. are not related (Williams, 1984). Following the acceptance of a gift, the recipient must feel positive emotions which transform into a feeling of gratitude. Finally, the recipient must encode the memories of the gift and the gratitude felt toward the giver so that gratitude has a lasting effect on human emotion. These processes must arise from distinct brain structures that work in unison to form the abstract social value of gratitude. Recent research has highlighted the possibility of areas of the neocortex regulating and interpreting information from the limbic system in neuroscience studies of social constructs and values. (Zahn et al., 2009). Studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging have shown that when considering the relationship between social concepts, such as honor and courage, moral activation is shown in the superior anterior temporal lobe of the cortex than when It is compared to control using physical functions, such as nutrition and courage. useful (Zahn et al., 2007). The anterior superior temporal lobe must play a role in social interaction by providing abstract knowledge of social behavior. Other areas in this study were also found to be activated, including the orbitofrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, and the temporoparietal junction. Activation of the anterior superior temporal lobe was also found to be independent of the valence of the social construct. Whether the concept had a negative or positive connotation made no difference; the zone was activated due to the need to deal with abstract ideas about social values. In addition to cortical structures, much older limbic structures also play an important role in the production of gratitude (Immordino-Yang & Sylvan, 2010). The mesolimbic dopamine system plays a huge role in producing positive affect and encoding reward values. It is possible that the positive affect caused by receiving a gift is encoded by dopamine neurons in the same way that Tobler, Fiorillo, and Schultz reported in 2005. Their study examined the adaptive properties of frequency of gifts. spikes and coding of dopamine neurons in response to anticipated and unanticipated rewarding stimuli. A situation that creates gratitude might be where a gift or service is given to the recipient and this information is processed the same way in the limbic system. Adaptive firing rates of dopamine-releasing neurons in rewarding structures in the brain may underlie the positive, rewarding emotions that elicit gratitude. The memory of an event that provoked gratitude must be recorded and be accessible in order to access it. any lasting effect on an organism. Studies show that contemplation during moments of gratitude increases activation in the basal forebrain, a structure essential for memory (Zahn et al., 2009.) The basal forebrain is directly connected to the hippocampus by a bundle chologeneric projections. When the gray matter of the basal forebrain was atrophied, cognitive functions, such as memory recall, were impaired. This shows how memory formation is linked to the formation of feelings of gratitude and has implications for the storage and retrieval of memories of times whengratitude was expressed. Many studies on the neural pathways of gratitude have been performed on patients with brain damage caused by severe head trauma or neurological disease. Although they are not experimental and therefore cannot say with certainty the cause of the results, these types of studies can shed light on which structures need to be examined more closely. Richard Emmons (2007) carried out a study on patients with severe prefrontal dysfunction. These patients suffered from Parkinson's disorder and, compared to healthy individuals, when they recalled an event in which they felt grateful, their mood did not improve. The healthy control group showed a significant increase in affect following the gratitude reminder. Patients with frontotemporal dementia show a clear lack of prosocial feelings, such as guild, pity and gratitude. Lack of prosocial feelings has been linked to the frontopolar cortex and septal area using fMRI while applying a moral sentiment test, indicating that damage to either of these regions may be the cause of a blunted social conscience (Moll et al., 2011). The most interesting thing about these findings is that both the cortex and the limbic system play a role. The development of the human cortex during evolution is what sets humans apart from other species, both in terms of intelligence and many prosocial feelings. The limbic system evolved much earlier than the cortex, but it appears that both must together play a role in mediating abstract social construction. A plausible explanation could involve that the limbic system is the source of raw emotion while cortical structures negotiate and choose the appropriate response based on external stimuli, including perceived social expectations (Mercadillo, Luis Diaz, & Barrios, 2007). . As evidence shows, there is a clear link between subjective well-being, or happiness, and the notion of gratitude. In terms of support, we discussed definitions of gratitude, the role of gratitude in forming healthy friendships, the role gratitude can play in combating depression, and finally, the neuroscience of gratitude in most basic cognitive level. Having studied the evidence for this link, there still remains the practical problem of clarifying the “resilience” of gratitude (the ability to increase personal happiness over an extended period of time). In other words, if gratitude can improve subjective well-being over time, then it may be a legitimate personal practice that we can recommend and support as a proven method for making individuals happy. Furthermore, it is hollow to say that gratitude is empirically linked to subjective well-being and that gratitude has power. The challenge arises when attempting to outline how the virtue of gratitude might work in practice. Bono, Emmons, and McCullough (2004) note intervention strategies aimed at increasing gratitude in individual research participants and their awareness of the good elements in their lives as prerequisites for gratitude. well-being. Citing a study by Emmons and McCullough (2003), which examined the effect of briefly giving participants a written list of five things they were grateful for over the previous week for 10 weeks, the researchers found that Individuals who were grateful (as opposed to those who wrote about unpleasant or emotional events) felt better about their lives on average. Compared to controls, grateful participants' higher ratings of subjective well-being were,.

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