The Role of Trait Gratitude in Predicting Psychological and Subjective Well-being

Subject Areas : روان درمانگری

Naser Aghababaei ¹ , Hojatollah Farahani ²

1 - MA in General Psychology
2 - PhD Tehran University

Received: 2015-06-03 Accepted : 2015-06-03 Published : 2011-09-23

Keywords: personality, Subjective well-being, Psychological well-being, Gratitude,

Abstract :

he purpose of this study was to investigate the role of gratitude in psychological and subjective well-being. Two hundred college students (171 females, 29 males) completed the Ryff’s Psychological Well-being Scales (Ryff, 1989), the Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, 2009), the Gratitude Questionnaire (McCullough et al., 2002), and the International Personality Item Pool (Goldberg, 1999). Results indicated that gratitude was positively correlated with all factors of psychological well being, subjective well being, and personality (except autonomy and extraversion). The relationship between gratitude and personality demonstrated a distinctive pattern, so that gratitude was strongly correlated with religiosity- and social functioning- related factors (agreeableness and conscientiousness). Gratitude accounted for significant additional variance in environmental mastery, personal growth, self-acceptance, life satisfaction, and happiness after controlling for the personality factors as well. These findings suggested the relationships of gratitude to psychological well-being, subjective well-being, and personality factors, and supported the notion that gratitude had a unique relationship with well-being.