Indian Journal of Positive Psychology

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Understanding Gratitude from the Happiness Perspective


Affiliations
1 Department of Applied Psychology, Sri Aurobindo College (Evening), University of Delhi, Delhi, India
     

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The current study looks into the connection between gratitude and happiness among college students. The study's purpose was to determine whether a happier individual is more likely to show gratitude than an unhappy person. The study also looked into the connection between aspects of gratitude and happiness. The sample was randomly selected from an age group of 18-25 years. The sample size was 168 participants (71 males & 97 females). Two different questionnaires were used to measure happiness and gratitude in college students. An Oxford happiness questionnaire (Argyle & Hills, 2002) was used, and to measure gratitude, the GRAT-16 (the gratitude, resentment, & appreciation scale) (Watkins et al., 2003) was used. Additionally, using the questionnaire, we compute three aspects of gratitude: lack of sense of deprivation (LOSD), appreciation for others (AO), and simple appreciation (SA). The data was generated with the help of Pearson Product Moment Correlation, an independent sample t-test, and Descriptive Statistics was also used. The study's results indicate that gratitude and happiness have strong positive relationships between them and that a happier person expresses more gratitude than an unhappy person.


Keywords

Gratitude, Happiness, Appreciation, Positive Psychology.
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  • Understanding Gratitude from the Happiness Perspective

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Authors

Sahil Handa
Department of Applied Psychology, Sri Aurobindo College (Evening), University of Delhi, Delhi, India
Monika Rikhi
Department of Applied Psychology, Sri Aurobindo College (Evening), University of Delhi, Delhi, India

Abstract


The current study looks into the connection between gratitude and happiness among college students. The study's purpose was to determine whether a happier individual is more likely to show gratitude than an unhappy person. The study also looked into the connection between aspects of gratitude and happiness. The sample was randomly selected from an age group of 18-25 years. The sample size was 168 participants (71 males & 97 females). Two different questionnaires were used to measure happiness and gratitude in college students. An Oxford happiness questionnaire (Argyle & Hills, 2002) was used, and to measure gratitude, the GRAT-16 (the gratitude, resentment, & appreciation scale) (Watkins et al., 2003) was used. Additionally, using the questionnaire, we compute three aspects of gratitude: lack of sense of deprivation (LOSD), appreciation for others (AO), and simple appreciation (SA). The data was generated with the help of Pearson Product Moment Correlation, an independent sample t-test, and Descriptive Statistics was also used. The study's results indicate that gratitude and happiness have strong positive relationships between them and that a happier person expresses more gratitude than an unhappy person.


Keywords


Gratitude, Happiness, Appreciation, Positive Psychology.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.15614/ijpp%2F2022%2Fv13i3%2F218228