The Impact Of Gratitude On Prosocial Behavior

With the rise of positive psychology in the last three decades, research on gratitude is gaining attention in the field of psychology. Gratitude has a positive effect on pro-social behavior. Previous studies have neglected the influence of the cognition of grace and trait gratitude on pro-social behavior. In this study the pro-social behavior as the dependent variable includes four kinds of behavior, and they respectively are the return to the benefactors, the help to strangers, the reciprocal help to the benefactors, and the reciprocal help to strangers. The influence of cognitive and trait gratitude on pro-social behavior was investigated by story-scenario experiment. In this study, two kinds of conditions that affect the cognition of grace were selected (that is the degree of return and the value of grace), and two experiments are designed. In experiment one, I used a 2 (expectation of return: yes, no) × 2 (trait gratitude: high , low) experimental design between subjects; In experiment two, I used a 2 (the value of grace: large, small) × 2(trait gratitude: high, low) experimental design between subjects.The results were as follows:1.The effects of trait gratitude on gratitude emotion, indebtedness and four kinds of pro-social behavior. The scores of pro-social behavior of those with high trait gratitude were significantly higher than those with low trait gratitude.2.The effects of beneficiaries cognitive of expect the degree of return was significantly in gratitude emotion, indebtedness, the return to the benefactors and the reciprocal help to the benefactors. The score of the return and the reciprocal help to the benefactors in the scenario where the benefactors are not expected to return was higher than the score in the scenario where the benefactors expect to return.3.The effects of the value of grace was significantly in gratitude emotion,indebtedness and the reciprocal help to the benefactors. The score of the reciprocal help to the benefactors in the scenario where the large grace of value was higher than the score in the scenario where the small grace of value.The conclusions were as follows:1.The trait gratitude can influence the pro-social behavior to strangers. The trait gratitude, the expectation degree of return and the value of grace can influence the individual to the pro-social behavior to benefactors.2.Gratitude emotion and indebtedness have similarities and differences. As the value of grace increases, the individuals feelings of gratitude and indebtedness increases. As the expectation degree of return increase,the individual's feelings of indebtedness increase, but gratitude decreases.