I wrote a few months back about some intriguing research on the power of gratitude, showing that people who kept "gratitude journals," (keeping track of the good things that happen to them and things that they appreciate in life) not only reported better physical and mental health, their partners also noticed it as well (including reports that they slept better). A new study shows that the positive effect of gratitude on signs of well-being such as mastery, relationships with others, and self-acceptance happen over and above personality factors. Similar to the study of gratitude journals, this study by Alex Wood and his colleagues suggests, that regardless of one's personality, taking time to notice and appreciate the good things in life can help all of us. This strikes as me as an especially important finding given the difficult times.
Here is the source and the abstract for those of you who want to know more:
Wood, A. M; Joseph, S; Maltby, J "Gratitude uniquely predicts satisfaction with life: Incremental validity above the domains and facets of the five factor model" Personality and Individual Differences, 45:54-60.
ABSTRACT
This study tests whether gratitude predicts psychological well-being
above both the domains and facets of the five factor model.
Participants (N = 201) completed the NEO PI-R measure of the 30
facets of the Big Five, the GQ-6 measure of trait gratitude, and the
scales of psychological well-being. Gratitude had small correlations
with autonomy (r = .17), and medium to large correlations with
environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relationships, purpose
in life, and self-acceptance (rs ranged from .28 to .61). After
controlling for the 30 facets of the Big Five, gratitude explained a
substantial amount of a unique variance in most aspects of
psychological well-being (requivalent = .14 to .25).
Gratitude is concluded to be uniquely important to psychological
well-being, beyond the effect of the Big Five facets.
P.S. Also, the senior author of this study, Alex Wood at The University of Manchester has done a lot of cool of research on gratitude that is listed on his web page.
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