The Gratitude Expressing Of Undergraduates And Scale Development

In recent years,there has been an increasing interest in gratitude.However,the majority of researchers were paid their attention to the whole mechanism of gratitude,and the last part of gratitude,gratitude expressing,was ignored.In fact,the gratitude expressing is the joint between the obligers and beneficiaries,it also largely determines the whether the obligers experience the gratitude emotion of beneficiaries.Thus,the current research is aimed to explore the deposition,ways and influencing factors of gratitude expressing,and develop the scale of gratitude expressing.In the research method,we use both the qualitative study and quantitative study to achieve our research goals.The result showed that:1)Although many undergraduates report that their gratitude expressing is not as well as enough in interview,the quantitative result seems different.The average point of gratitude expressing is 3.81 which means the undergraduates is good at gratitude expressing.The reason for the gap between the qualitative result and quantitative result may contribute to the different research philosophy.Generally speaking,the level of undergraduates’ s gratitude expressing is not too bad.2)For the object of gratitude expressing,we could classify gratitude expressing into four dimensions: gratitude expressing to parents,gratitude expressing to classmates,and gratitude expressing to strangers.Each dimension has their own trait and expressions.Gratitude expressing to parents always follow the law of “allocated as needed”,it means the gratitude parents expressed as care about them in the life,give them help whenever they need,and do not consider the gains and losses.Gratitude expressing to the strangers always follow the law of “distribution on thebasis of the labor”,it means the gratitude to strangers expressed as clearly calculate the gains and losses in the relationship,give the match feedback according to effort and pay from the other sides.If they just do a small favor for you,you may just say a“thank you”,but if the give you a large heap,you need to give them a feedback which do not let them suffer loses.Gratitude to classmates are following the both laws we mentioned above.It is because the intimate degree of relation to classmates and teachers is between the first two kinds.You may calculate the gains and losses to ensure both you and the other sides were comfortable in this exchange,but you do not need to reply the other sides instantly or must give them the material feedback.You have the multiple selections to choose which one you want,like give the other sides an emotional support,chat with them when the other sides feel unhappy or give them a greeting in the festival.3)By interview,we also find that there are some deviant expressing behaviors.For instance,many interviewees report that their gratitude oral expressing behaviors to parents are lacking,but they also point out they think the oral expressing to parents are superfluous,because the parents will doubt the relationship between parents and kids if they do many oral expressing.4)We develop a gratitude expressing scales by literature analysis and half-structural interview for 10 university students.Then developed four dimensions scale of gratitude expressing: daily interaction,respect and care about,gratitude by substance and gratitude by words.The relative statistic indexes showed that our scale has great reliable and valid.5)We use our scale to test the effect of gender,major,students’ source,the only child and whether is the leader of the class.The result showed that whether is the leader of the class are significantly relative to undergraduates’ gratitude expressing.