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Author(s): Wood, Alex M.; Maltby, John; Stewart, Neil; Linley, P. Alex;
Joseph, Stephen
Article Title: A social-cognitive model of trait and state levels of
gratitude.
Year of publication: 2008
Link to published version: http://dx.doi.org./10.1037/1528-3542.8.2.281
Publisher statement: 'This article may not exactly replicate the final
version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.'
A SOCIAL-COGNITIVE 1
Running head: MODEL OF GRATITUDE
A social-cognitive model of trait and state levels of gratitude
Alex M. Wood
University of Warwick
John Maltby
University of Leicester
Neil Stewart
University of Warwick
P. Alex Linley
Centre for Applied Positive Psychology
Stephen Joseph
University of Nottingham
Wood, A. M., Maltby, J., Stewart, N., Linley, P. A., & Joseph, S. (2008). A social-cognitive
model of trait and state levels of gratitude.
Emotion, 8,
281-290.
A SOCIAL-COGNITIVE 2
Abstract
Three studies tested a new model of gratitude, which specified the generative mechanisms
linking individual differences (trait gratitude) and objective situations with the amount of
gratitude people experience after receiving aid (state gratitude). In Study 1 all participants (
N
= 253) read identical vignettes describing a situation where they received help. People higher
in trait gratitude made more positive beneficial appraisals (seeing the help as more valuable,
more costly to provide, and more altruistically intended), which fully mediated the
relationship between trait and state levels of gratitude. Study 2 (
N
= 113) replicated the
findings using a daily process study, where participants reported on real events each day for
up to14 days. In Study 3, participants (
N
= 200) read vignettes experimentally manipulating
objective situations to be either high or low in benefit. Benefit appraisals were shown to have
a causal effect on state gratitude, and to mediate the relationship between different prosocial
situations and state gratitude. The three studies demonstrate the critical role of benefit
appraisals in linking state gratitude with trait gratitude and the objective situation.
KEYWORDS: gratitude, personality, social-cognitive, attribution, positive psychology,
emotion, trait, state, well-being.
A SOCIAL-COGNITIVE 3
A social-cognitive model of trait and state levels of gratitude.
Throughout history, philosophical and theological discussions have viewed gratitude
as fundamental to understanding people, their relationships, and the operation of society
(Emmons & Crumpler, 2000). In contemporary society gratitude seems still to play an
important role, with most people reporting feeling gratitude very frequently (McCullough,
Emmons, & Tsang, 2002). However it is only recently that psychological research has begun
systematically to study gratitude (McCullough, Kilpatrick, Emmons, & Larson, 2001),
possibly in part due to the traditional neglect of positive emotions in psychology (see Linley,
Joseph, Harrington, & Wood, 2006).
Emotions can be conceptualized on state and trait levels (Rosenberg, 1998). At the
state level, emotions involve temporary affects or longer duration moods, which may have
associated thought and action tendencies. At the trait level, emotions are characterized by
individual differences in the average frequency with which affects and moods are
experienced in daily life. The study of gratitude has almost exclusively focused on one or
other of these levels, and there is little knowledge about how trait and state levels of gratitude
interact (McCullough, Tsang, & Emmons, 2004).
Trait gratitude has been shown to have unique associations with other prosocial traits
(e.g. McCullough et al., 2002; Wood, Joseph, & Linley, 2007a; Wood, Maltby, Stewart, &
Joseph, in press) and to be a causal predictor of well-being (Emmons & McCullough, 2003;
Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005; Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005). State
gratitude is an affect which occurs after a person has been helped, and which motivates the
reciprocation of aid (Bartlett & DeSteno, 2006; McCullough et al., 2001; Tsang, 2006). Using
a daily process methodology, McCullough, et al. (2004) have shown that higher trait levels of
gratitude is related to more frequent and intense experiences of state gratitude in daily life.
However, the mechanisms which explain why trait gratitude is related to state gratitude have
not yet been demonstrated. If two people receive help in an identical situation, it is intuitive
A SOCIAL-COGNITIVE 4
that the person higher in (trait) gratitude would feel more (state) gratitude. There is currently
no explanation of why this might occur.
We propose a model where characteristic interpretive biases in appraising prosocial
situations mediate the relationship between trait and state levels of gratitude. First, we
suggest that after a person is helped he or she makes several attributions about the nature of
the aid, and the attributions naturally group together to form a benefit appraisal. Second, we
suggest that the benefit appraisals cause the experience of state gratitude. Third, we suggest
that characteristic interpretive biases lead people higher in trait gratitude to make more
positive benefit appraisals. Fourth, we suggest that more positive benefit appraisals explain
why trait and state levels of gratitude are linked. This model is presented in Figure 1.
[Figure 1]
Two previous studies suggest which attributions may compose a benefit appraisal.
Tesser, Gatewood, and Driver (1968) gave participants three vignettes detailing a
hypothetical situation in which they were given help by another person. The vignettes were
manipulated to provide low, medium or high perceptions of (a) the value of the help, (b) how
much it cost the benefactor to provide the help, and (c) to what extent the benefactor
genuinely wanted to help them (as opposed to having ulterior motives). Participants rated
their attributions of the situation in terms of value, cost, and genuinely helpfulness, and
indicated how they would feel on a composite variable of gratitude and indebtedness.
Manipulating the vignettes led to different attributions, suggesting that these attributions are
in part caused by the objective situation. Complex interactions were seen between the
manipulations, where manipulating one appraisal affected perceptions of other appraisals
(e.g., manipulating value additionally led to higher perceptions of genuine helpfulness, and
manipulating genuine helpfulness additionally led to higher perceptions of value). This
suggests that these appraisals are not independent, but perhaps operate as part of a wider
benefit appraisal. Manipulating perceptions of value, cost, and genuine helpfulness caused