University of Worcester Worcester Research and Publications
 
  USER PANEL:
  ABOUT THE COLLECTION:
  CONTACT DETAILS:

Taking 'Thanks' for Granted: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Gratitude in the UK and Australia

Morgan, Blaire ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6294-0511, Gulliford, L. and Waters, L. (2021) Taking 'Thanks' for Granted: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Gratitude in the UK and Australia. Cross-Cultural Research. ISSN ISSN: 1069-3971 Online ISSN: 1552-3578

[thumbnail of CCR-21-0036.R2_Proof_hi.pdf] Text
CCR-21-0036.R2_Proof_hi.pdf - Accepted Version
Restricted to Repository staff only

Download (665kB) | Request a copy
[thumbnail of Open Access article]
Preview
Text (Open Access article)
10693971211067048.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Examinations of the influence of culture on how gratitude is experienced are sparse, as are studies that simultaneously explore developmental differences in understandings of gratitude. This paper presents three studies that examine whether perceptions and experiences of gratitude differ across children, adolescents and adults in two individualistic, WEIRD and Commonwealth cultures – Australia and the UK. Studies 1a (N=88, ages 17-39) and 1b (N=77, ages 17-25) provide initial insights into ‘features of gratitude’ in Australia through two stages of a prototype analysis. These features are compared to a previous prototype study of gratitude in the UK (Morgan, Gulliford & Kristjánsson, 2014), alongside a further comparison to the US (Lambert et al., 2009). Study 2 employs vignettes to examine how perceptions of the benefactor, benefit and mixed emotions influence the degree of gratitude experienced across adolescents and adults in Australia (N=1937, ages 11-85), with a comparison to the UK (N=398, ages 12-65). In Study 3, factors examined in Study 2 are adapted into accessible story workbooks for younger children (Australia N=135, ages 9-11; UK N=62, ages 9-11). Results across these studies demonstrate similarities and differences in understandings and experiences of gratitude across cultures. While adults across Australia and the UK responded similarly to gratitude scenarios, cross-cultural differences are observed between children and adolescents in these two countries. Developmental differences are noted in relation to more sophisticated reasoning around gratitude, such as recognition of ulterior motives. These findings highlight the need for gratitude research and interventions to be cross-culturally, and developmentally, responsive.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Uncontrolled Discrete Keywords: gratitude, virtue, cross-cultural, developmental, prototype analysis, vignettes, mixed emotion, IRWRG
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: College of Business, Psychology and Sport > School of Psychology
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Blaire Morgan
Date Deposited: 02 Dec 2021 16:29
Last Modified: 14 Feb 2023 13:41
URI: https://worc-9.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/11536

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item
 
     
Worcester Research and Publications is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.