Adding complexity to the gratitude-affect relationship: deeper impersonal gratitude leads to more contentment

UnrestrictedGratitude exercises can have hedonic benefits, but observed effects have differed in terms of intensity and duration. These differences could be due to qualitative differences in how gratitude exercises have been operationalized and in how well-being has been measured between studies. The present online gratitude study randomly assigned participants to perform weekly gratitude exercises varied along one of three dimensions. These dimensions included personalization (being thankful to someone versus being generally thankful), depth of writing (writing five sentences versus one sentence), and number of things one is grateful for (five versus one). Increases in well being were measured using a balance of activated and deactivated emotions, derived from Feldman-Barrett & Russell (1998). Results indicated that being more grateful (about one or several things) generally led to greater affective rewards but only in cases where gratitude was not directed at a person. As well, gratitude exercises may have more pronounced effects on the negative activated/positive deactivated axis of emotions