Success Story
Our success story in Chapter 10 is the Oncologist and Ironman Athlete Lucy Gossage. You can find out more about Lucy at her website and more about her charity work at www.5kyourway.org and www.movecharity.org
People or stories included
Cicero who called gratitude: ‘not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others’: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero
Oprah Winfrey and her gratitude journal: https://www.oprah.com/spirit/oprahs-gratitude-journal-oprah-on-gratitude
Studies discussed
The study showing keeping a gratitude journal every day for three weeks saw people become better connected with their friends and more socially engaged: Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens. Journal of personality and social psychology, 84(2), 377-389.
The study finding those who were 10 per cent more grateful than the average person had 17.5 per cent more social capital: Wood, A. M., Maltby, J., Gillett, R., Linley, P. A., & Joseph, S. (2008). The role of gratitude in the development of social support, stress, and depression: Two longitudinal studies. Journal of Research in personality, 42(4), 854-871.
The 2004 study finding gratitude to be in the top three of twenty-four personality strengths that affect life satisfaction: Park, N., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. (2004). Strengths of character and well-being. Journal of social and Clinical Psychology, 23(5), 603-619.
Study showing gratitude helps us deal better with negative states like stress and depression: Geraghty, A. W., Wood, A. M., & Hyland, M. E. (2010). Attrition from self-directed interventions: Investigating the relationship between psychological predictors, intervention content and dropout from a body dissatisfaction intervention. Social science & medicine, 71(1), 30-37.
The interviews with parents who had been in Hurricane Andrew in Florida in 1992: Coffman, S. (1996). Parents’ struggles to rebuild family life after hurricane Andrew. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 17(4), 353-367.
The study of sixty-five people suffering from chronic pain found that keeping a daily gratitude diary slept longer each night: Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens. Journal of personality and social psychology, 84(2), 377-389.
The study highlighting that people who feel more gratitude visit their GP less often, have lower blood pressure and a lower risk of mental health problems: Aspinwall, L. G., & Tedeschi, R. G. (2010). The value of positive psychology for health psychology: Progress and pitfalls in examining the relation of positive phenomena to health. Annals of behavioral medicine, 39(1), 4-15.
The American study that found that when people kept a weekly gratitude journal, they exercised for forty minutes more per week: Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens. Journal of personality and social psychology, 84(2), 377-389.
The study of athletes benefiting from really trusting their coach: Hung Chen, L., & Wu, C. H. (2016). When does dispositional gratitude help athletes move away from experiential avoidance? The moderating role of perceived autonomy support from coaches. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 28(3), 338-349.
The study finding that keeping a weekly gratitude journal made individuals between 5 and 15 per cent more optimistic: Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens. Journal of personality and social psychology, 84(2), 377-389.
The study suggesting that fewer university students dropped out of their courses when they thought about gratitude: Hixenbaugh, P., Dewart, H., & Towell, T. (2012). What enables students to succeed? An investigation of socio-demographic, health and student experience variables. Psychodynamic Practice, 18(3), 285-301.
The study on body image which found those taught to be grateful were twice as likely to stick with the programme: Geraghty, A. W., Wood, A. M., & Hyland, M. E. (2010). Attrition from self-directed interventions: Investigating the relationship between psychological predictors, intervention content and dropout from a body dissatisfaction intervention. Social science & medicine, 71(1), 30-37.
The study finding those who keep a gratitude journal progress further with their goals: Emmons, R. A., & Mishra, A. (2011). Why gratitude enhances well-being: What we know, what we need to know. Designing positive psychology: Taking stock and moving forward, 248-262.
The study on military veterans which found those with a stronger sense of gratitude were less likely to develop PTSD: Kashdan, T. B., Uswatte, G., & Julian, T. (2006). Gratitude and hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in Vietnam war veterans. Behaviour research and therapy, 44(2), 177-199.
The study on kidney transplant recipients who have the most gratitude towards the donor and surgeon: Orr, A., Willis, S., Holmes, M., Britton, P., & Orr, D. (2007). Living with a kidney transplant: a qualitative investigation of quality of life. Journal of health psychology, 12(4), 653-662.
The study where participants wrote about a traumatic event and required significantly fewer visits to the medical centre for up to 5 months after they had written about it: King, L. A., & Miner, K. N. (2000). Writing about the perceived benefits of traumatic events: Implications for physical health. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 26(2), 220-230.
Study on the ages we can teach gratitude to: Layous, K., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2014). Benefits, mechanisms, and new directions for teaching gratitude to children. School Psychology Review, 43(2), 153-159.
The study highlighting children need to see their parents modelling gratitude: Hoy, B. D., Suldo, S. M., & Mendez, L. R. (2013). Links between parents’ and children’s levels of gratitude, life satisfaction, and hope. Journal of Happiness Studies, 14(4), 1343-1361.
The ‘attitude of gratitude’ workshops studied: Gabana, N. T., Steinfeldt, J., Wong, Y. J., Chung, Y. B., & Svetina, D. (2019). Attitude of gratitude: Exploring the implementation of a gratitude intervention with college athletes. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 31(3), 273-284.
The study finding gratitude could help to lower the blood pressure of people with hypertension: Shipon, R. W. (2007). Gratitude: Effect on perspectives and blood pressure of inner-city African-American hypertensive patients (Doctoral dissertation, ProQuest Information & Learning).
The 2003 ‘Counting blessings versus burdens’ study inding that keeping a gratitude journal led to 16 per cent fewer physical symptoms, 19 per cent more time exercising, 10 per cent less pain and 8 per cent more sleep: Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens. Journal of personality and social psychology, 84(2), 377-389.
The study finding that maintaining a gratitude journal can improve wellbeing by up to 10 per cent: Seligman, M. E., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions. American psychologist, 60(5), 410.
The study finding that gratitude visits helped reduce depressive symptoms of sufferers by up to 35 per cent and increased happiness over a month later: Seligman, M. E., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions. American psychologist, 60(5), 410.
The University of California, Berkeley study asking participants who were struggling with their mental health to write a gratitude-focused letter, but not to send it: Wong, Y. J., Owen, J., Gabana, N. T., Brown, J. W., McInnis, S., Toth, P., & Gilman, L. (2018). Does gratitude writing improve the mental health of psychotherapy clients? Evidence from a randomized controlled trial. Psychotherapy Research, 28(2), 192-202.
The survey suggesting up to 70 per cent of people don’t feel that discussions about their performance at work take meaningful elements into account: Shaw, D. G., & Schneier, C. E. (1995, September). Team measurement and rewards: how some companies are getting it right. Human Resource Planning, 18(3), 34+.
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