Yeo, Yet Phing and Mohd Hashim, Intan Hashimah (2014) What makes you feel grateful? A qualitative study to examine gratitude-eliciting events. In: International Social Development Conference 2014 (ISDC 2014), 12 – 13 August 2014, Bayview Hotel Langkawi, Malaysia.

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Abstract

Although many studies focusing on benefits of gratitude, only a few researchers have looked into factors of gratitude.These studies also tend to focus on the experience of gratefulness towards others’ help but not on the more comprehensive sources of gratefulness.Therefore, the aim of the present study is to examine all possible events or situations that can potentially elicit one’s gratefulness.Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 undergraduate students from a public university in Malaysia.The participants were asked to list down the events that could elicit their gratefulness.In addition, they were asked to indicate the most frequently occurring events and the events that elicited highest level of gratitude.The findings identified 7 domains and 25 categories (under the 7 domains) that developed from a total of 780 events reported by the participants.Findings showed that gaining something especially getting help from family would make people feel most grateful and it happens frequently.Furthermore, staying connected with people was also reported as happening frequently, which may be attributed to human’s motivation to maintain relationship with others.Moreover, individuals felt most grateful for others’ welfare and thank God for others related events.This implies that the members from collectivist culture (e.g., Malaysia) value others welfare over their own welfare.Lastly, the events were organised into a simpler version that consist of only 96 events that serve as a guideline for future researchers to develop measurement on gratitude-eliciting events.The limitations of present study and recommendations for future research were discussed.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Additional Information:	ISBN: 978-967-0474-74-8 Organized by: School of Social Development (SSD), UUM College of Arts and Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	gratitude, gratitude-eliciting events, sense of appreciation, family, positive psychology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions:	School of Applied Psychology, Social Work & Policy
Depositing User:	Mrs. Norazmilah Yaakub
Date Deposited:	29 Jan 2015 06:22
Last Modified:	26 May 2016 06:28
URI:	https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/13238

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