Publication Cover
The Journal of Positive Psychology
Dedicated to furthering research and promoting good practice
Volume 14, 2019 - Issue 3
5,025
Views
64
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Articles

Gratitude across the life span: Age differences and links to subjective well-being

ORCID Icon, , , &
Pages 292-302 | Received 25 May 2017, Accepted 29 Nov 2017, Published online: 15 Dec 2017

References

  • Algoe, S. B. (2012). Find, remind, and bind: The functions of gratitude in everyday relationships. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6(6), 455–469. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2012.00439.x
  • Algoe, S. B., Gable, S. L., & Maisel, N. C. (2010). It’s the little things: Everyday gratitude as a booster shot for romantic relationships. Personal Relationships, 17(2), 217–233.10.1111/(ISSN)1475-6811
  • Algoe, S. B., & Stanton, A. L. (2012). Gratitude when it is needed most: Social functions of gratitude in women with metastatic breast cancer. Emotion, 12, 163–168.10.1037/a0024024
  • Allemand, M., & Hill, P. L. (2016). Gratitude from early adulthood to old age. Journal of Personality, 84(1), 21–35. doi:10.1111/jopy.12134
  • Allemand, M., & Martin, M. (2016). On correlated change in personality. European Psychologist, 21(4), 237–253. doi:10.1027/1016-9040/a000256
  • Anusic, I., Yap, S. C., & Lucas, R. E. (2014). Does personality moderate reaction and adaptation to major life events? Analysis of life satisfaction and affect in an Australian national sample. Journal of Research in Personality, 51, 69–77.10.1016/j.jrp.2014.04.009
  • Baltes, P. B. (1997). On the incomplete architecture of human ontogeny. Selection, optimization, and compensation as foundation of developmental theory. American Psychologist, 52(4), 366–380.10.1037/0003-066X.52.4.366
  • Buhrmester, M., Kwang, T., & Gosling, S. D. (2011). Amazon’s mechanical turk: A new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality, data? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(1), 3–5. doi:10.1177/1745691610393980
  • Büssing, A., Wirth, A. G., Reiser, F., Zahn, A., Humbroich, K., Gerbershagen, K., … Baumann, K. (2014). Experience of gratitude, awe and beauty in life among patients with multiple sclerosis and psychiatric disorders. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 12, 63–63. doi:10.1186/1477-7525-12-63
  • Carey, G. (2003). Coding catgorical variables. Retrieved from http://psych.colorado.edu/~carey/Courses/PSYC5741/handouts/Coding%20Categorical%20Variables%202006-03-03.pdf
  • Carstensen, L. L. (2006). The influence of a sense of time on human development. Science, 312(5782), 1913–1915. doi:10.1126/science.1127488
  • Carstensen, L. L., Fung, H. H., & Charles, S. T. (2003). Socioemotional selectivity theory and the regulation of emotion in the second half of life. Motivation and Emotion, 27(2), 103–123. doi:10.1023/a:1024569803230
  • Carstensen, L. L., Isaacowitz, D. M., & Charles, S. T. (1999). Taking time seriously: A theory of socioemotional selectivity. American Psychologist, 54(3), 165–181. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.54.3.165
  • Carstensen, L. L., & Mikels, J. A. (2005). At the intersection of emotion and cognition: Aging and the positivity effect. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(3), 117–121. doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00348.x
  • Charles, S., & Carstensen, L. L. (2010). Social and Emotional Aging. Annual Review of Psychology, 61, 383–409. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100448
  • Chopik, W. J., & Edelstein, R. S. (2014). Age differences in romantic attachment around the world. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5(8), 892–900. doi:10.1177/1948550614538460
  • Chopik, W. J., Edelstein, R. S., & Fraley, R. C. (2013). From the cradle to the grave: Age differences in attachment from early adulthood to old age. Journal of Personality, 81, 171–183. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2012.00793.x
  • Chopik, W. J., Edelstein, R. S., & Grimm, K. J. (2017). Longitudinal changes in attachment orientation over a 59-year period. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. doi:10.1037/pspp0000167
  • Chopik, W. J., & Giasson, H. L. (2017). Age differences in explicit and implicit age attitudes across the life span. The Gerontologist, 57(suppl_2), S169–S177.10.1093/geront/gnx058
  • Chopik, W. J., Kim, E. S., & Smith, J. (2015). Changes in optimism are associated with changes in health among older adults. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6, 814–822. doi:10.1177/1948550615590199
  • Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71–75.10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13
  • Disabato, D. J., Goodman, F. R., Kashdan, T. B., Short, J. L., & Jarden, A. (2016). Different types of well-being? A cross-cultural examination of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Psychological Assessment, 28(5), 471–482. doi:10.1037/pas0000209
  • Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377–389.10.1037/0022-3514.84.2.377
  • Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2004). The psychology of gratitude. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195150100.001.0001
  • Evans, J. D. (1996). Straightforward statistics for the behavioral sciences. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing.
  • Freund, A. M., & Isaacowitz, D. M. (2013). Beyond age comparisons: A plea for the use of a modified brunswikian approach to experimental designs in the study of adult development and aging. Human Development, 56(6), 351–371. doi:10.1159/000357177
  • Froh, J. J., Fan, J., Emmons, R. A., Bono, G., Huebner, E. S., & Watkins, P. (2011). Measuring gratitude in youth: Assessing the psychometric properties of adult gratitude scales in children and adolescents. Psychological Assessment, 23(2), 311–324. doi:10.1037/a0021590
  • Froh, J. J., Sefick, W. J., & Emmons, R. A. (2008). Counting blessings in early adolescents: An experimental study of gratitude and subjective well-being. Journal of School Psychology, 46(2), 213–233.10.1016/j.jsp.2007.03.005
  • Froh, J. J., Yurkewicz, C., & Kashdan, T. B. (2009). Gratitude and subjective well-being in early adolescence: Examining gender differences. Journal of Adolescence, 32(3), 633–650.10.1016/j.adolescence.2008.06.006
  • Fung, H. H., Carstensen, L. L., & Lutz, A. M. (1999). Influence of time on social preferences: Implications for life-span development. Psychology and Aging, 14(4), 595–604. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.14.4.595
  • Gerstorf, D., Ram, N., Mayraz, G., Hidajat, M., Lindenberger, U., Wagner, G. G., & Schupp, J. (2010). late-life decline in well-being across adulthood in Germany, the UK, and the US: Something is seriously wrong at the end of life. Psychology and Aging, 25(2), 477–485. doi:10.1037/a0017543
  • Goh, J. X., Hall, J. A., & Rosenthal, R. (2016). Mini meta-analysis of your own studies: Some arguments on why and a primer on how. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 10(10), 535–549. doi:10.1111/spc3.12267
  • Gordon, A. M., Impett, E. A., Kogan, A., Oveis, C., & Keltner, D. (2012). To have and to hold: Gratitude promotes relationship maintenance in intimate bonds. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(2), 257–274. doi:10.1037/a0028723
  • Griffin, B. J., Garthe, R. C., Worthington, E. L., Sullivan, T. N., Larsen, R., Lavelock, C. R., & Davis, D. E. (2016). How positive processes function in negative relationships: Dispositional gratitude moderates the association between affective need and frequency of dating violence victimization. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 11(4), 388–398. doi:10.1080/17439760.2015.1117124
  • Hill, P. L., & Allemand, M. (2011). Gratitude, forgivingness, and well-being in adulthood: Tests of moderation and incremental prediction. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 6(5), 397–407. doi:10.1080/17439760.2011.602099
  • Hill, P. L., Allemand, M., & Roberts, B. W. (2013). Examining the pathways between gratitude and self-rated physical health across adulthood. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(1), 92–96. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.08.011
  • Isaacowitz, D. M., Vaillant, G. E., & Seligman, M. E. (2003). Strengths and satisfaction across the adult lifespan. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 57(2), 181–201.
  • Isaacowitz, D. M., Wadlinger, H. A., Goren, D., & Wilson, H. R. (2006). Selective preference in visual fixation away from negative images in old age? An eye-tracking study Psychology and Aging, 21(1), 40–48. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.21.1.40
  • Kashdan, T. B., Blalock, D. V., Young, K. C., Machell, K. A., Monfort, S. S., McKnight, P. E., & Ferssizidis, P. (2017). Personality Strengths in romantic relationships: Measuring perceptions of benefits and costs and their impact on personal and relational well-being. Psychological Assessment. doi:10.1037/pas0000464
  • Kashdan, T. B., Mishra, A., Breen, W. E., & Froh, J. J. (2009). Gender differences in gratitude: Examining appraisals, narratives, the willingness to express emotions, and changes in psychological needs. Journal of Personality, 77(3), 691–730. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00562.x
  • Kaufman, D., & Sweet, R. (1974). Contrast coding in least squares regression analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 11(4), 359–377. doi:10.2307/1162790
  • Kern, M. L., Eichstaedt, J. C., Schwartz, H. A., Park, G., Ungar, L. H., Stillwell, D. J., … Seligman, M. E. (2014). From “Sooo excited!!!” to “So proud”: Using language to study development. Developmental Psychology, 50(1), 178–188. doi:10.1037/a0035048
  • Konrath, S. H., Chopik, W. J., Hsing, C., & O’Brien, E. (2014). Dismissing attachment styles are increasing in American college students over time: A meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18, 326–348. doi:10.1177/1088868314530516
  • Lachman, M. E. (2015). Mind the gap in the middle: A call to study midlife. Research in Human Development, 12(3–4), 327–334. doi:10.1080/15427609.2015.1068048
  • Martínez-Martí, M. L., & Ruch, W. (2014). Character strengths and well-being across the life span: Data from a representative sample of German-speaking adults living in Switzerland. Frontiers in Psychology, 5(1253). doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01253
  • Mather, M., & Carstensen, L. L. (2005). Aging and motivated cognition: The positivity effect in attention and memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(10), 496–502. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2005.08.005
  • McCullough, M. E., Emmons, R. A., & Tsang, J. A. (2002). The grateful disposition: A conceptual and empirical topography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(1), 112–127.10.1037/0022-3514.82.1.112
  • McCullough, M. E., Kilpatrick, S. D., Emmons, R. A., & Larson, D. B. (2001). Is gratitude a moral affect? Psychological Bulletin, 127(2), 249.10.1037/0033-2909.127.2.249
  • McCullough, M. E., Kimeldorf, M. B., & Cohen, A. D. (2008). An adaptation for altruism: The social causes, social effects, and social evolution of gratitude. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 281–285.10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00590.x
  • Paolacci, G., Chandler, J., & Ipeirotis, P. G. (2010). Running experiments on Amazon mechanical turk. Judgment and Decision Making, 5(5), 411–419. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2010-18204-008&site=ehost-live[email protected]
  • Pavot, W., Diener, E., & Suh, E. (1998). The temporal satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 70(2), 340–354. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa7002_11
  • Peugh, J. L., & Enders, C. K. (2005). Using the SPSS mixed procedure to fit cross-sectional and longitudinal multilevel models. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 65(5), 717–741. doi:10.1177/0013164405278558
  • Reed, A. E., & Carstensen, L. L. (2012). The theory behind the age-related positivity effect. Frontiers in Psychology, 3. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00339
  • Ryan, L. H., Newton, N. J., Chauhan, P. K., & Chopik, W. J. (2017). Effects of pre-retirement personality, health, and job lock on post-retirement subjective well-being. Manuscript submitted for publication.
  • Ryff, C. D., Seeman, T., & Weinstein, M. (2013). National survey of midlife development in the United States (MIDUS II): Biomarker project, 2004–2009. doi:10.3886/ICPSR29282.v6
  • Sheldon, K. M., Jose, P. E., Kashdan, T. B., & Jarden, A. (2015). Personality, effective goal-striving, and enhanced well-being: Comparing 10 candidate personality strengths. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(4), 575–585. doi:10.1177/0146167215573211
  • Specht, J., Bleidorn, W., Denissen, J. J. A., Hennecke, M., Hutteman, R., Kandler, C., … Zimmermann, J. (2014). What drives adult personality development? A comparison of theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence. European Journal of Personality, 28(3), 216–230. doi:10.1002/per.1966
  • Specht, J., Egloff, B., & Schmukle, S. C. (2011). Stability and change of personality across the life course: The impact of age and major life events on mean-level and rank-order stability of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 862–882. doi:10.1037/a0024950
  • Srivastava, S., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2003). Development of personality in early and middle adulthood: Set like plaster or persistent change? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(5), 1041–1053. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.5.1041
  • Toussaint, L. L., Williams, D. R., Musick, M. A., & Everson, S. A. (2001). Forgiveness and health: Age differences in a U.S. probability sample. Journal of Adult Development, 8(4), 249–257. doi:10.1023/a:1011394629736
  • Tsang, J.-A. (2006). Gratitude and prosocial behaviour: An experimental test of gratitude. Cognition & Emotion, 20(1), 138–148.10.1080/02699930500172341
  • Tsang, J.-A. (2007). Gratitude for small and large favors: A behavioral test. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 2(3), 157–167. doi:10.1080/17439760701229019
  • Watkins, P. C. (2004). Gratitude and subjective well-being. In R. A. Emmons & M. E. McCullough (Eds.), The psychology of gratitude (pp. 167–192). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195150100.001.0001
  • Watkins, P. C., Van Gelder, M., & Frias, A. (2009). Furthering the science of gratitude. In S. J. Lopez & C. R. Snyder (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of positive psychology (pp. 437–445). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  • Watkins, P. C., Woodward, K., Stone, T., & Kolts, R. L. (2003). Gratitude and happiness: Development of a measure of gratitude and relationships with well-being. Social Behavior and Personality: An international journal, 31(5), 431–451.10.2224/sbp.2003.31.5.431
  • Wood, A. M., Froh, J. J., & Geraghty, A. W. A. (2010). Gratitude and well-being: A review and theoretical integration. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 890–905.10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.005
  • Wood, A. M., Joseph, S., Lloyd, J., & Atkins, S. (2009). Gratitude influences sleep through the mechanism of pre-sleep cognitions. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 66(1), 43–48.10.1016/j.jpsychores.2008.09.002
  • Wood, A. M., Maltby, J., Stewart, N., & Joseph, S. (2008). Conceptualizing gratitude and appreciation as a unitary personality trait. Personality and Individual Differences, 44(3), 621–632. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2007.09.028
  • 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(2), 281–290. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.8.2.281
  • Yap, S. C., Anusic, I., & Lucas, R. E. (2012). Does personality moderate reaction and adaptation to major life events? Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey. Journal of Research in Personality, 46(5), 477–488.10.1016/j.jrp.2012.05.005

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.