Gratitude and Purpose in Life
RESEARCH BRIEF
Gratitude involves noticing and appreciating the good things in our lives and thanking others, even under trying circumstances. Intentionally engaging in gratitude-related practices yields a whole host of benefits including happiness and life satisfaction (Emmons & McCullough, 2003; Lasota, 2023).
Research question: Does cultivating a grateful outlook foster a sense of purpose in life?
How researchers studied this question: Bronk and colleagues (2019) randomly assigned over 300 young adults to spend 15-20 minutes each day for a week doing online activities related to one of three themes. People assigned to the Purpose Toolkit learned about purpose in life, reflected on their values and goals; those assigned to the Gratitude Toolkit learned about gratitude, made lists of blessings and why, wrote gratitude letters; those in the control condition learned memory techniques. More recently, Czyżowska and Gurba (2022) randomly assigned 80 young adults to either a gratitude or control condition. Those in the control condition did not change their daily routine while those in the gratitude condition were asked to complete a daily gratitude journal for one week where they documented 3 things each day for which they were grateful, to whom they were grateful, and how they expressed that gratitude. In both studies, participants filled out a series of questionnaires related to purpose, gratitude, and other psychological attributes before and after the one-week interventions.
Answer: Yes, engaging in gratitude-cultivating activities and behaviors improves purpose in life. In the first study (Bronk et al., 2019), participants in both the purpose and gratitude conditions increased their search for and identified purpose while those in the control condition did not; those improvements were maintained a week later. Only those in the gratitude condition also demonstrated increases in hope and “prosocial intentions” (the likelihood of helping others in the future). In the second study, only participants who completed a daily gratitude diary demonstrated an increase in purpose in life a week later as well as decreases in anxiety/insomnia, depression, and perceived stress (Czyżowska & Gurba, 2022).
So What? Sometimes it’s difficult to discern one’s direction and purpose in life, especially on the heels of a big life transition when we aren’t quite ready for the self-reflection that will move us forward. The good news is that cultivating gratitude in the here and now seems to confer a sense of purpose in life and so maybe that’s the right place to start.
How about you? Might cultivating gratitude be your path to purpose?
Onward!
Sources:
Bronk KC, Baumsteiger R, Mangan S, Riches B, Dubon V, Benavides C, Bono G (2019). Fostering purpose among young adults - Effective Online Interventions. Journal of Character Education, 15(2), 21–38.
Find the abstract here: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1232557
Cunha LF, Pellanda LC, Reppold CT (2019). Positive Psychology and Gratitude Interventions: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 584. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00584.
Find the abstract here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30949102/
Czyżowska N, Gurba E (2022). Enhancing Meaning in Life and Psychological Well-Being Among a European Cohort of Young Adults via a Gratitude Intervention. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 751081. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.751081.
Find the abstract here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35058837/
Emmons RA, McCullough ME (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: an experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-89. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.84.2.377.
Find the abstract here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12585811/
Lasota A (2023). Crisis experience and purpose in life in men and women: The mediating effect of gratitude and fear of COVID-19. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20, 6490. doi:10.3390/ijerph20156491
Find the abstract here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37569030/