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Looking on the bright side of life: Gratitude and experiences of interpersonal transgressions in adulthood and daily life
Author(s) -
Stieger Mirjam,
Hill Patrick L.,
Allemand Mathias
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/jopy.12501
Subject(s) - gratitude , psychology , interpersonal communication , interpersonal relationship , developmental psychology , stressor , test (biology) , social psychology , clinical psychology , paleontology , biology
Objective Gratitude plays an important role in individual and social well‐being. However, less is known about the link between gratitude and experiences of interpersonal stressors. The current research examined the associations between gratitude and interpersonal transgressions. Method One cross‐sectional study with a broad age range and two daily diary studies (total N = 2,348; total age range: 18–91) were used to test the associations on the between‐ and within‐person level. Results A consistent result across all studies was that dispositionally grateful individuals tended to report fewer interpersonal transgressions than less grateful people. In turn, people who generally reported more interpersonal transgressions were less grateful in daily life. Moreover, higher gratitude on one specific day was associated with fewer reported transgressions on the same day. However, the results from the daily diary studies indicated differences between the samples. Whereas gratitude was consistently associated with interpersonal transgressions in one daily diary sample, the findings in the second daily diary sample were less consistent. Conclusion The present findings suggest that grateful people tend to perceive their social exchanges differently and/or actually experience fewer interpersonal transgressions. Future work is needed to test the underlying mechanisms of this negative association.