TY - JOUR
T1 - Is Gratitude Always Beneficial to Interpersonal Relationships? The Interplay of Grateful Disposition, Grateful Mood, and Grateful Expression Among Married Couples
AU - Leong, Joyce L.T.
AU - Chen, Sylvia Xiaohua
AU - Fung, Helene H.L.
AU - Bond, Michael Harris
AU - Siu, Nicolson Y.F.
AU - Zhu, Jay Yijie
PY - 2020/1/1
Y1 - 2020/1/1
N2 - A growing body of research has documented positive outcomes of gratitude in personal and interpersonal domains. To uncover the dynamic process of gratitude and relational well-being, we examined the interplay of grateful disposition, grateful mood, and grateful expression in ongoing close relationships. Hong Kong Chinese couples (n = 100) participated in a three-wave study across three consecutive weeks. Adopting the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model, we found that at Time 1, grateful disposition not only predicted one’s own grateful mood but also the perceived grateful mood of one’s spouse, both of which predicted marital satisfaction. At Time 2, the couples were randomly assigned to two conditions over 2 weeks: having one spouse keeping a private gratitude journal or overtly expressing gratitude to the other. Couples’ grateful mood increased at Time 3, indicating the effectiveness of both interventions. However, the resulting changes in marital satisfaction differed for the beneficiaries (enactors) and benefactors (targets), such that husbands who perceived their wife’s expressed gratitude as less sincere declined in their marital satisfaction. The results reveal the boundary conditions in evaluating expressions of gratitude and improvement of relationships and provide implications for social exchange and couple therapy.
AB - A growing body of research has documented positive outcomes of gratitude in personal and interpersonal domains. To uncover the dynamic process of gratitude and relational well-being, we examined the interplay of grateful disposition, grateful mood, and grateful expression in ongoing close relationships. Hong Kong Chinese couples (n = 100) participated in a three-wave study across three consecutive weeks. Adopting the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model, we found that at Time 1, grateful disposition not only predicted one’s own grateful mood but also the perceived grateful mood of one’s spouse, both of which predicted marital satisfaction. At Time 2, the couples were randomly assigned to two conditions over 2 weeks: having one spouse keeping a private gratitude journal or overtly expressing gratitude to the other. Couples’ grateful mood increased at Time 3, indicating the effectiveness of both interventions. However, the resulting changes in marital satisfaction differed for the beneficiaries (enactors) and benefactors (targets), such that husbands who perceived their wife’s expressed gratitude as less sincere declined in their marital satisfaction. The results reveal the boundary conditions in evaluating expressions of gratitude and improvement of relationships and provide implications for social exchange and couple therapy.
KW - dyadic interdependence
KW - gratitude
KW - marital satisfaction
KW - sincerity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065415823&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0146167219842868
DO - 10.1177/0146167219842868
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 31046594
AN - SCOPUS:85065415823
SN - 0146-1672
VL - 46
SP - 64
EP - 78
JO - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
JF - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
IS - 1
ER -