Date of Award
2015
Rights
Access is available to all users
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Psychology
Abstract
"After one has experienced a trauma, an important aspect of recovery is posttraumatic growth. Posttraumatic growth helps people move past negative life events with good mental health. Research has indicated a relationship between post-traumatic growth and gratitude. However, there has been little investigation into the links between gratitude and post-traumatic growth. The current study asked participants to write about three different types of negative life events. These writing samples were then coded for the use of positive reappraisal. In addition to the writing samples, participants were asked to complete questionnaires assessing their gratitude, coping style and satisfaction with life. Results showed a positive relationship between an individual's level of gratitude and their positive reappraisal of painful open memories. As predicted, the results indicated that individuals high in trait gratitude showed more frequent use of positive reframing than those low in trait gratitude. Those who were high in trait gratitude and positive reframing also showed higher levels of life satisfaction, which suggests that the use of positive reappraisal may be an effective method of coping that can lead to posttraumatic growth."--Leaf iv.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Hutchison, Debra Elise, "How do grateful people cope?: exploring the mechanism of positive reappraisal" (2015). EWU Masters Thesis Collection. 293.
https://dc.ewu.edu/theses/293
