The Influence Of Trait Gratitude On The Helping Behavior Of College Students

With the rise of positive psychology,the topic of gratitude has been explored by an increasing number of researchers.Gratitude refers to a universal and stable trait to recognize and respond the roles of other people's grace in the positive experiences and outcomes that one obtains.Previous studies have found that trait gratitude is an emotional trait highly correlated with social behavior,which is positively correlated with individual prosocial behavior and negatively correlated with destructive behavior.As a typical pro-social behavior,the correlation between helping others and gratitude has also been confirmed by an increasing number of studies.Previous studies on gratitude and helping behavior mainly focused on the impact of gratitude on different individuals' helping behavior,the difference impact of gratitude and other positive emotional traits on individual helping behavior,as well as the combined impact of gratitude and other factors on individual helping behavior.These studies provide important research results and methods for further exploration of the mechanism of action that gratitude affect different individuals' helping behavior.On the basis of previous studies,this study focuses on further exploring whether traits of gratitude and characteristics of recipient have an impact on individual helping behaviors,and uses three experimental tasks with high ecological validity to investigate real helping behaviors under different conditions,rather than just examining the tendency of helping.In experiment 1,a 2(gratitude level: high;low)×2(the identity of the recipient:former benefactor;stranger)between-subject experiment was conducted to explore the effects of trait gratitude and the identity of the recipient on individual helping behavior,it was found that the trait of gratitude had a significant interaction with the identity of recipient.Specifically: high-trait grateful individuals have similar helping behaviors facing recipients of different identities,and low-trait grateful individuals have significantly more helping behaviors to former benefactor than stranger;In the face of former benefactor,there is no significant difference in helping behaviors between high-trait grateful individuals and low-trait grateful individuals.In the face of stranger,high-trait grateful individuals have significantly more helping behaviors than low-trait grateful individuals.In experiment 2,a 2(gratitude level: high;low)×2(the results after assistance:expressing thanks;not expressing thanks)between-subject experiment was conducted to explore the effects of trait gratitude and whether the recipient expressed thanks on the re-helping behavior of individuals.It was found that trait gratitude had a significant interaction with gratitude expressed by the recipient.Specifically: high-trait grateful individuals and low-trait grateful individuals showed many re-helping behaviors after the assistance was thanked,and low-trait grateful individuals showed significantly more re-helping behaviors after the assistance was thanked than the assistance was not thanked;After the recipient expressing thanks,the re-helping behaviors of high-trait gratitude individuals were significantly more than those of low-trait gratitude individuals.After the recipient not expressing thanks,there was no significant difference in the re-helping behaviors of individuals with different trait gratitude levels.In experiment 3,a 2(gratitude level: high;low)×2(the expression of observed object: express thanks;not express thanks)between-subject experiment was conducted to explore the effects of trait gratitude and the expression of observed object after receiving assistance on individual helping behavior,it was found that trait gratitude had a significant interaction with the expression of observed object after receiving assistance.Specifically: low-trait gratitude individuals showed more helping behaviors after observing the object expressing thanks than not expressing thanks,high-trait gratitude individuals have no significantly difference;For those who expressed thanks after receiving assistance,there is no significant difference in the helping behavior of individuals with different traits of gratitude.For those who not express thanks after receiving assistance,the helping behavior of individuals with high trait gratitude was significantly more than that of individuals with low trait gratitude.This study confirms the extended construction theory of gratitude and the moral emotion theory,and also reveals that individual helping behaviors are affected by different factors.This study has reference value for understanding the complex mechanism of individual helping behavior,promoting college students' prosocial behavior,and forming a helpful,friendly and harmonious social atmosphere.