Gratitude to God and relational virtues

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite the flourishing psychological literature on gratitude that has accumulated over the past several decades, researchers have only recently started to programmatically study Gratitude to God (GTG). Given that gratitude has consistently demonstrated positive relationships with relational virtues, the current study examined the degree to which GTG is associated with forgiveness, relational humility, and altruism, above and beyond domain-general gratitude and religious commitment. Participants (N = 582 undergraduates) rated themselves on measures of religious commitment, domain-general gratitude, GTG, forgiveness, relational humility, and altruism. GTG positively predicted forgiveness over and above domain-general gratitude. GTG positively predicted relational humility over and above domain-general gratitude in participants with high levels of religious commitment. For altruism, neither GTG nor domain-general gratitude was a significant predictor, but religious commitment was a positive predictor. We conclude with a discussion of methodological limitations and suggestions for future research.