scholarly journals Gratitude Enhances Work Engagement through Reduced Perception of Damage: A Case Study in Nepals’ Earthquake Disaster

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 206-212
Author(s):  
Kyungil Kim ◽  
Bojindra Prasad Tulachan ◽  
Yung-Ho Cho ◽  
Tae Hoon Kim

How important gratitude is in terms of helping people to overcome their mental discomfort and behave adaptively? Conflicting evidence has appeared about the effects of gratitude on work engagement, and other aspects of life. In the present study, gratitude intervention was introduced to test it in the Nepali population who experienced a natural disaster, the Gorkha earthquake in 2015. Positive and negative affect, work engagement, and perceived damage were measured before, during, and after the intervention. Participants were sampled from the employees of 5-star hotel in Kathmandu valley and were assigned to one of the three conditions: Gratitude, Job Diary, and No Exposure. In gratitude, they were asked to write the names of 3 grateful people. Participants of Job Diary were instructed to write 3 major duties. No intervention was given to participants in No Exposure. This exercise lasted for two weeks. Only those in Gratitude showed increased positive affect and work engagement and decreased negative affect during this intervention. These positive changes seemed related to decreased perceived damage of a natural disaster. Even though there have been mixed results about the effect of gratitude, findings of the present study showed that it is robust even against a real disaster. Conducting research with survivors against natural disasters is extremely difficult, but more effort should be made with those who have similar experiences.

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (03n04) ◽  
pp. 1550016 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANICA VUKADINOVIĆ GREETHAM ◽  
ABHIJIT SENGUPTA ◽  
ROBERT HURLING ◽  
JOY WILKINSON

Results from two studies on longitudinal friendship networks are presented, exploring the impact of a gratitude intervention on positive and negative affect dynamics in a social network. The gratitude intervention had been previously shown to increase positive affect and decrease negative affect in an individual but dynamic group effects have not been considered. In the first study, the intervention was administered to the whole network. In the second study, two social networks are considered and in each only a subset of individuals, initially low/high in negative affect respectively received the intervention as "agents of change". Data was analyzed using stochastic actor-based modeling techniques to identify resulting network changes, impact on positive and negative affect and potential contagion of mood within the group. The first study found a group level increase in positive and a decrease in negative affect. Homophily was detected with regard to positive and negative affect but no evidence of contagion was found. The network itself became more volatile along with a fall in rate of change of negative affect. Centrality measures indicated that the best broadcasters were the individuals with the least negative affect levels at the beginning of the study. In the second study, the positive and negative affect levels for the whole group depended on the initial levels of negative affect of the intervention recipients. There was evidence of positive affect contagion in the group where intervention recipients had low initial level of negative affect and contagion in negative affect for the group where recipients had initially high level of negative affect.


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 265-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohsen Joshanloo ◽  
Ali Bakhshi

Abstract. This study investigated the factor structure and measurement invariance of the Mroczek and Kolarz’s scales of positive and negative affect in Iran (N = 2,391) and the USA (N = 2,154), and across gender groups. The two-factor model of affect was supported across the groups. The results of measurement invariance testing confirmed full metric and partial scalar invariance of the scales across cultural groups, and full metric and full scalar invariance across gender groups. The results of latent mean analysis revealed that Iranians scored lower on positive affect and higher on negative affect than Americans. The analyses also showed that American men scored significantly lower than American women on negative affect. The significance and implications of the results are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (11) ◽  
pp. 2181-2192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam A. Rogers ◽  
Kimberly A. Updegraff ◽  
Masumi Iida ◽  
Thomas J. Dishion ◽  
Leah D. Doane ◽  
...  

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley M. Arens ◽  
Raluca M. Gaher ◽  
Hanako Shishido ◽  
Nicole L. Hofman ◽  
Jeffrey S. Simons

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Michael Furr ◽  
Timothy J. Huelsman ◽  
Elizabeth A. Schmidt

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