The Secret to Unlocking Lifelong Happiness
It is easier than you think and anyone can have it
Happiness is an emotional quality that has become increasingly important in American culture and around the world. It has long been thought that an individual can reach a state of happiness by achieving idealistic goals⁵. However, current research suggests happiness may have a stronger correlation to being grateful for what we currently possess and where we currently are in life than other extrinsic objectives⁶.
Psychology, a field that once only focused on our hidden egos and the darkest parts of our minds, has greatly expanded its reach over the past 20 or so years. One discipline, the study of positive psychology, has grown significantly within that time. This flourishing field undoubtedly encompasses feelings of, you guessed it, gratitude. Gratitude is viewed as a positive and highly respectable emotion within the teachings of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu religions¹. Over the years gratitude has been defined in several different ways. Gratitude has been labeled as, “a positive emotional reaction to the receipt of a benefit that is perceived to have resulted from the good intentions of another”². Gratitude has also been interpreted as a moral affect that induces ethical behavior¹. Both definitions are analogous and applicable to the overall encompassing features of “gratitude” or the feeling of being grateful.
Gratitude and happiness are both positive emotions that promote pro-social behavior. However, gratitude is unique because it results from being thankful and actively expressing appreciation. This conscious effort to be grateful for the ‘little things’ may promote several emotions of well-being, including happiness. The attainability of happiness is extremely important because many people feel that it is the key to success and even life itself⁵.
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder - G.K. Chesterton
Several studies have been done to test the influence of gratitude on various affects and individual well-being. In 2003 Emmons and McCullough conducted a three-part study to further explain these affects. In the first study, participants were divided into hassles, gratitude, and life events conditions. The participants were asked to recall events that corresponded with their assigned conditions once a week over the course of nine weeks. The data showed that the gratitude condition elicited higher levels of gratitude overall. Relative to the life events condition, the gratitude and hassles conditions had corresponding and antithetical effects. The study found that the gratitude condition had a more positive outlook on their lives and was more hopeful about the future. Interestingly, this study also found the gratitude condition to have an increase in physical well-being⁶.
In the second part of this three-part study, participants wrote in journals daily instead of weekly. The gratitude condition reported higher levels of positive emotions, such as happiness and thankfulness, in comparison to the other two groups, further supporting the first study's findings⁶.
The third study took a sample of adults with neuromuscular disease, assuring that all participants were in a less than ideal living condition, and participants rated their daily experiences for 21 days. The participants were divided into a control and a gratitude condition. The gratitude condition wrote about things they were grateful for while the control wrote about anything they wanted. The gratitude condition showed an increase in positive emotions and a decrease in negative emotions further strengthening the evidence for a positive relationship between gratitude and subject well–being. It is evident that the general findings from this three-part study by Emmons and McCullough provided strong support for the correlation between gratitude and happiness⁶.
Another study in 2003 by researchers, Watkins, Woodward, Tamara, and Kolts found similar results regarding the relationship between gratitude and happiness. The results suggested that gratitude associated more with positive emotions than negative emotions. A significant negative correlation between gratitude, anger, resentment, and narcissism was found as well. Researchers also found a linear correlation between gratitude, religiousness, and feelings of being in control of one’s own life⁷.
The researchers went a step further to test if practices of gratitude might enhance mood. Participant mood was measured before and after the respondents were assigned to complete a gratitude-reflecting task. The results identified a significant negative correlation between gratitude and depression. Meaning that as feelings of gratitude increase, feelings of depression decreased⁷.
Next, participants were instructed to think, write an essay, or write a letter about something or someone they were grateful for. All three gratitude conditions showed an increase in positive emotions after completing their gratitude task when compared with the control condition⁷.
Yet another study offered additional support for a relationship between gratitude and happiness. The researchers engineered a three-part study to investigate the possible positive relationship between gratitude and happiness as well as the possible negative correlation between gratitude and several negative emotions⁴.
The study found gratitude to be significantly correlated with life satisfaction, happiness, optimism, and several other positive emotions. The researchers also found a strong negative correlation between gratitude and several negative emotions, including envy and materialism. The researchers predict that when participants report a more grateful outlook they will correspondingly report feeling happier⁴.
Results for all of these studies support the theory that expressing gratitude can lead to significantly higher levels of positive emotions (energetic, enthusiast, interested, strong, joyful) than not expressing gratitude, there could be some emotional or physical benefits to regular expressions of gratitude⁶, and that the mind is a very, very powerful tool. In one of the previously mentioned studies, participants showed an improvement in mood after being instructed to just simply think about something they felt grateful for⁷. Isn’t that astounding? Furthermore, the thinking condition of this study showed the strongest increase in positive affect and the strongest decrease in negative affect when compared to the other two conditions, letter and essay⁷.
Being aware that correlation is not causation, future research may want to investigate if happiness is a cause of increased gratitude or if the opposite is true. Also, later studies may want to find a reliable way to test for gratitude and happiness that has more internal validity than self-reported surveys. As self-reported surveys may be affected by social desirability bias.
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” — Voltaire
In conclusion, happiness is rated one of the most important goals for American citizens and there are several theories, books, and media outlets that attempt to explain how to attain happiness in life. These studies, along with others, can help individuals understand that happiness may just be an aftereffect of practicing thoughts of gratitude.
One should practice gratitude daily. This practice is simple and it does not mean you have to sit and write for hours about all of the grandiose things you are grateful for until you run out of things to think of. These studies show it is much simpler than that. Simply sitting in a calm and quiet place for 5-10 minutes a day and just thinking about the things you are grateful for could lead you to a happier and healthier you.
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” — Robert Brault
References
[1] McCullough, M. E., Kilpatrick, S. D., Emmons, R. A., & Larson, D.B. (2001). Is gratitude a moral affect?. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 249–266. doi: 10.1037//0033–2909.127.2.249
[2] Tsang, J. (2006). Gratitude and prosocial behavior: An experimental test of gratitude. Cognition and Emotion, 20, 138–148. doi: 10.1080/02699930500172341
[3] Algoe, S. B., Haidt, J., & Gable, S. L. (2008). Beyond reciprocity: Gratitude and relationships in everyday life. Emotion, 8, 425–429. doi: 10.1037/1528–3542.8.3.425
[4] McCullough, M. E., Emmons, R. A., & Tsang, J. (2002). The grateful disposition: A conceptual and empirical topography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 112–127. doi: 10.1037//0022–3514.82.1.112
[5] Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success?. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–55. doi: 10.1037/0033–2909.131.6.803
[6] Emmons, R.A., McCullough, M.E. (2003). Count blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personal and Social Psychology, 84, 377–389. doi: 10.1037/0022–3514.84.2.377
[7] Watkins, P. C., Woodward, K., Stone, T., & Kolts, R. L. (2003). Gratitude and happiness: Development of a measure of gratitude, and relationships with subjective well-being. Social Behavior and Personality, 31, 431–452.