8. The Attitude of Gratitude

In the book Gratitude in Education, Howells presents the notion of "gratitude for" and "gratitude to". (Howells, 2012). This is further discussed in her lecture ‘What is Gratitude’. Howell’s explains that people are at different stages of their gratitude journey and this is especially important to remember when teaching gratitude in an educational setting. She goes on to describe how gratitude practice is different in different cultures; drawing on her experiences in Africa where ‘gratitude to’ is an implicit character of many indigenous groups.

When discussing gratitude practice with the Wendy, the manager of the International Program at Immanuel College, she mentioned the huge variation within Asian Cultures. She found that some children, especially those from China, struggled socially in the Australian school system because people, particularly some teachers, found their attitude to be extremely rude. Upon investigation, Wendy discovered that the gratitude practice of please and thank you had not been taught to these students as children; it was very evident in the Chinese single child families. Wendy’s staff developed a program to teach the new arrivals when to say please and thank you but for many of the students it became a forced ‘Australian’ ritual and lacked sincerity. Howell's discussed the Australian Aboriginal cultures and The New Zealand Maori culture where gratitude is not practiced and cautioned the use of gratitude with these students in an educational setting. ( Howells, 2015, Gratitude and Relationships. ) It would seem that the staff teaching the Chinese students at Immanuel may require the education about gratitude, rather than the students, if the school is to be culturally sensitive.

In her Article ‘The Trouble with Thanks Giving Gratitude’, Kira Newman comments,

‘Even though I’ve advocated a number of evidence-based practices, I’m actually moving away from prescribing specific practices and exercises because it can lead to what I am calling ‘to-do list’ gratitude or ‘check-list’ gratitude,” pioneering gratitude researcher Robert Emmons explains in a recent blog post. “Practicing gratitude becomes a burden rather than a blessing, making life heavier rather than lighter.” (Newman, 2015)

Newman believes that gratitude should be sincere and not forced, her article gives some examples of how to develop ‘Gratitude as an Attitude’ These strategies include ‘Give(ing) people a chance to think before they thank’ (Newman, 2015) and asking people to consider what their life would be like without a certain person or people in it which she calls. ‘Mental Subtraction of Relationships’ (Newman, 2015)

Diminishing attitudes towards gratitude in England lead the University of Birmingham’s Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues to conduct a three-year study about the importance of gratitude. Dr Liz Gulliford, one of the researchers, commented,

“We will examine whether gratitude is deemed an important character attribute and how it is perceived in relation to other values such as honesty, justice and compassion” (BBC News, 2013)

The findings of the study were published in a report called ‘An Attitude for Gratitude’.

The report revealed that 80% of the British population believe that gratitude is lacking in society and they would like to see it promoted in education and in the workplace. There was also a recommendation that a questionnaire called the Multi-Component Gratitude Measure (MCGM) should be used for ongoing research into Gratitude Attitudes.

‘The MCGM incorporates a means of examining respondents’ conceptual understanding of gratitude, whilst also tapping grateful emotion, attitude towards gratitude and behaviours associated with gratitude.’ (Arthur, Kristjansson, Gulliford, & Morgan, 2015).

The Jubilee Project researched Gratitude within the Paradigm of Character Development. Howell’s indicated that gratitude is character forming by describing it as a ‘Trait or a virtue in a person’ (Howells, 2015, What is Gratitude?). Wendy commented that some Asian cultures do not develop gratitude characteristics and Newman believes that gratitude should be a sincere characteristic of a person and not forced. It would seem therefore that ‘Gratitude as an Attitude’ is what educators should be aiming for in character development of their students.

Arthur, J., Kristjansson, K., Gulliford, L., & Morgan, B. (2015). An Attitude for Gratitude. Birmingham: University of Birmingham.

BBC News. (2013, June 10). University of Birmingham Studies Gratitude Atitudes. Retrieved from BBC NEWS: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-22803754

Howells, K. (2012). Gratitude in Education. Rotterdam: Sense.

Howells, K. (2015). What is Gratitude? ESM704 Week 3 Lecture. Tasmania, Australia: University of Tasmania.

Howells, K. (2015). Gratitude and Relationships. ESM704 Week 6 Lecture. Tasmania, Australia: University of Tasmania.

Newman, K. (2015). The Trouble with Thanks Giving Gratitude. California: The Greater Good The Science of a Meaningful Life.