Being Grateful : Does it Bring Us Closer? Gratitude, Attachment and Intimacy in Romantic Relationships

To date, little is known about the function of gratitude in romantic relationships. Being grateful has been demonstrated to provide a number of positive benefits for individuals; however, few studies have explored how grateful experiences may be beneficial in enhancing romantic relationships. This study explored the extent to which adult attachment moderates the relationship between dispositional gratitude and the experience of intimacy within romantic relationships. A greater disposition toward gratitude was expected to result in more frequent experiences of gratitude. It was also anticipated that experiences of gratitude would be associated with feelings of closeness. Participants (n = 156) were required to be currently in a relationship of at least six months duration and completed a series of questionnaires assessing dispositional gratitude, attachment and emotional intimacy. Moderation analysis revealed that although a positive, weak correlation existed between dispositional gratitude and intimacy, attachment did not moderate this association. It was concluded that further investigation of the experience of gratitude is necessary to understand the function of gratitude in romantic relationships. Methods focusing on specific experiences of gratitude in romantic relationships, and the associated feelings of closeness experienced by each partner, may yield more conclusive findings and may provide support for therapeutic approaches focused on enhancing closeness between couples by increasing experiences of gratitude.

Being grateful : does it bring us closer? Gratitude, attachment and intimacy in romantic relationships

This study proposed that levels of dispositional gratitude influence experiences of intimacy within romantic relationships and that this influence is moderated by relationship attachment. Gratitude, in this study, was described as feelings of appreciation associated with the perception that one had been the focus of another’s intentionally beneficial actions. A greater disposition toward gratitude was expected to result in more frequent experiences of gratitude. It was also anticipated that experiences of gratitude would be associated with feelings of closeness toward the one responsible for the beneficial act. Participants (n=156) ranged in age from 18 – 70 and, although required to be currently in a relationship of at least six months’ duration, each was studied as an individual. Participants included both males and females, in same-sex or other-sex relationships, and completed a series of questionnaires assessing dispositional gratitude, attachment and emotional intimacy. Moderation analysis was conducted using hierarchical regression and revealed that although a positive, weak correlation exists between gratitude and intimacy, attachment did not moderate that association. However, the measures used did not elicit sufficiently divergent responses. Thus neither complete exploration of the proposed association between gratitude and intimacy, nor of the moderation of that association by attachment were possible. In conclusion, further investigation of experiences of gratitude, particularly in relation to enhancing feelings of closeness, is necessary to understand the function of gratitude in romantic relationships. Methods focusing on specific experiences of gratitude in romantic relationships and the associated feelings of closeness experienced by each partner may yield more conclusive findings. In addition, such findings may provide support for therapeutic approaches focused on enhancing closeness between couples by increasing experiences of gratitude.

The role of customer gratitude in strengthening seller-buyer relationships

Despite its emphasis on relationships between buyers and sellers, and the effect of emotion on behaviours, marketing literature has not yet investigated customer gratitude as an element of relational exchange. Gratitude is a significant component of personal relationships and may offer important insights into how perceptions of relationship marketing investments impact customer trust in, satisfaction with and affective commitment to a seller. In addition, customer gratitude may provide a more complete explanation of how marketing investments work. Consequently, this research contributes to marketing literature by investigating customer gratitude as a mediating mechanism in the relationship between customer perceptions of relationship marketing investments and customer trust in, satisfaction with and affective commitment to the seller: all dimensions of relationship quality.

The role of customer gratitude in making relationship marketing investments successful

This paper recognises that customer loyalty is important for many competitive organisations, and that retail firms make investments to build and maintain loyal relationships with their existing and potential customers (e.g. loyalty programs). However, there has been little focus on the mechanisms by which these relationship investments operate to achieve customer loyalty. This paper examines one mechanism, namely customer gratitude, which works to make a firm’s relationship marketing investment a success or a failure. Using data from 1600 undergraduate students, this study empirically confirms the mediating role of customer gratitude between the customers’ perceptions a firm’s relationship marketing investments and customers’ perceptions of the value of the relationship with the firm. Further, a significant moderating effect of perceived benevolence on the relationship between customers’ perceptions a firm’s relationship marketing investments and customer gratitude was identified. For theorists, this customer gratitude model offers a better psychological explanation of how relationship marketing investments operate to improve the value that customers place on their relationships with retailers. Our research suggests that managers should invest resources to stimulate customer gratitude in order to build strong customer–seller relationships.

A Monumental Gratitude attempted, In a Poetical Relation of the Danger and Deliverance of Several of the Members of Yale-College, in Passing the Sound, from South-hold to New-haven, Aug. 20th. 1726.

One of 10 photostat copies reproduced from the original in a private collection, June, 1925.

The continuance of peace and increasing prosperity a source of consolation and just cause of gratitude to the inhabitants of the United States. A sermon, delivered February 19,1795 ; being a day set apart by the President, [for thanksgiving and prayer through the United States.

Evans 29830

Hálapénz a magyar egészségügyben = Gratitude money in the Hungarian health sector

A tanulmány szerzői lakossági és orvosi minta kikérdezése alapján arra keresik a választ, hogy a valóságban mennyire elterjedt a hálapénz adása és elfogadása a magyar egészségügyben, miként szóródik az egyes orvosi szakmák között, és mekkora az egyes beavatkozási formák hálapénzára. A kapott eredmények szerint, a hálapénzárak nyilvánossá tételének korlátai ellenére a piac szereplői többé-kevésbé egyöntetűen ítélik meg, mi mennyibe kerül. A szerzők megbecsülik az egy év leforgása alatt kifizetett hálapénz összegét. Ennek alapján arra a következtetésre jutnak, hogy az "átlagorvos" hálapénzből származó bevétele bő másfélszerese hálapénz nélkül vett jövedelmének. __________ The authors examine the incidence, in the Hungarian health sector, of gratitude payments from patients to doctors, based on a questionnaire administered to samples of the public and of the medical profession. They look at how the payments are distributed among the branches of medicine, and what payment is customary for various medical treatments. The survey findings show that although there are constraints on public knowledge of the size of gratitude payments, market actors more or less agree in their estimates of what provisions cost. Based on this, the authors conclude that the income the "average" doctor receives from gratitude payments is at least one-and-a-half times as much as his or her income apart from gratitude money.

Whe' yu' from?

"Whe' yu' from?" The question was put to me as I wandered, camera in hand, in the old square of Spanish Town, Jamaica's former capital. The local man, lounging in the shade of one of the colonial Georgian buildings that enclose the square, was mildly curious about what he took to be a typical white tourish photgraphing the sights of the decayed historic town. At that time, my home was in Kingston where i lived with my wife and baby son. I was then working in the Jamaican Government Town Planning Department in a job that took me all over the island. Turning to my questioner, I replied, "Kingston". There was a brief pause, and then the man spoke again: "No Man! Whe' yu' really from?" I still have difficulties when asked this question. Where am I from? What does this question mean? Does it refer to where I was born, where I spent my previous life or where I live now? Does it have a broader meaning, an enquiry about my origins in terms of background and previous experience? The following chapters are my attempt to answer these questions for my own satisfaction and, I hope, for the amusement of others who may be interested in the life of an ordinary English boy whose dream to travel and see the world was realized in ways he could not possibly have imagined. Finding an appropriate title for this book was difficult. Thursday's Child, North and South and War and Peace all came to mind but, unfortunately for me, those titles had been appropriated by other writers. Thursdays's Child is quite a popular book title, presumably because people who were born on that day and, in the words of the nursery rhyme, had 'far to go', are especially likely to have travellers' tales to tell or life stories of the rags-to-riches variety. Born on a Thursday, I have travelled a lot and I suppose that I have gone far in life. Coming from a working class family, I 'got on' by 'getting a good education' and a 'good job'. I decided against adding to the list of Thursday's Children. North and South would have reflected my life in Britain, spent in both the North and South of England, and my later years, divided between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres of the globe, as well as in countries commonly referred to as the 'advanced' North and the 'underdeveloped' South. North and South has already been appropriated by Mrs Gaskell, something that did not deter one popular American writer from using the title for a book of his. My memories of World War Two and the years afterwards made War and Peace a possible candidate, but readers expectnig an epic tale of Tolstoyan proportions may have been disappointed. To my knowledge, no other book has the title "Whe' Yu' From?". I am grateful to the Jamaican man whose question lingered in my memory and provided the title of this memoir, written decades later. This book is a word picture. It is, in a sense, a self-portrait, and like all portraits, it captures something of the character, it attempts to tell the truth, but it is not the whole truth. This is because it is not my intention to write my entire life story; rather I wish to tell about some of the things in my experience of life that have seemed important or interesting to me. Unlike a painted portrait, the picture I have created is intended to suggest the passage of time. While, for most of us in Western society, time is linear and unidirectional, like the flight of an arrov or the trajectory of a bullet, memory rearranges things, calling up images of the past in no particular order, making connections that may link events in various patterns, circular, web-like, superimposed. The stream of consciousness is very unlike that of streams we encounter in the physical world. Connections are made in all directions; thoughts hop back and forth in time and space, from topic to topic. My book is a composition drawn from periods, events and thoughts as I remember them. Like life itself, it is made up of patches, some good, some bad, but in my experience, always fascinating. In recording my memories, I have been as accurate as possible. Little of what I have written is about spectacular sights and strange customs. Much of it focuses on my more modest explorations includng observations of everyday things that have attracted my attention. Reading through the chapters, I am struck by my childhood freedom to roam and engage in 'dangerous' activities like climbing trees and playing beside streams, things that many children today are no longer allowed to enjoy. Also noticeable is the survival of traditions and superstitions from the distant past. Obvious too, is my preoccupation with place names, both official ones that appear on maps and sign boards and those used by locals and children, names rarely seen in print. If there is any uniting theme to be found in what I have written, it must be my education in the fields, woods and streets of my English homeland, in the various other countries in which I have lived and travelled, as well as more formally from books and in classrooms. Much of my book is concerned with people and places. Many of the people I mention are among those who have been, and often have remained, important and close to me. Others I remember from only the briefest of encounters, but they remain in my memory because of some specific incident or circumstance that fixed a lasting image in my mind. Some of my closest friends and relatives, however, appear nowhere in these pages or they receive only the slightest mention. This is not because they played an unimportant roles in my life. It is because this book is not the whole story. Among those whe receive little or no mention are some who are especially close to me, with whom I have shared happy and sad times and who have shown me and my family much kindness, giving support when this was needed. Some I have known since childhood and have popped up at various times in my life, often in different parts of the world. Although years may pass without me seeing them, in an important sense they are always with me. These people know who they are. I hope that they know how much I love and appreciate them. When writing my memoir, I consulted a few of the people mentioned in this book, but in the main, I have relied on my own memory, asided by daiary and notebook entries and old correspondence. In the preparation of this manuscript, I benefited greatly from the expert advice and encouragement of Neil Marr of BeWrite Books. My wife Anne, inspiration for this book, also contributed in the valuable role of critic. She has my undying gratitude.

Construction Prices : the Market Effect

Teachers of construction economics and estimating have for a long time recognised that there is more to construction pricing than detailed calculation of costs (to the contractor). We always get to the point where we have to say "of course, experience or familiarity of the market is very important and this needs judgement, intuition, etc". Quite how important is the matter in construction pricing is not known and we tend to trivialise its effect. If judgement of the market has a minimal effect, little harm would be done, but if it is really important then some quite serious consequences arise which go well beyond the teaching environment. Major areas of concern for the quantity surveyor are in cost modelling and cost planning - neither of which pay any significant attention to the market effect. There are currently two schools of thought about the market effect issue. The first school is prepared to ignore possible effects until more is known. This may be called the pragmatic school. The second school exists solely to criticise the first school. We will call this the antagonistic school. Neither the pragmatic nor the antagonistic schools seem to be particularly keen to resolve the issue one way or the other. The founder and leader of the antagonistic school is Brian Fine whose paper in 1974 is still the basic text on the subject, and in which he coined the term 'socially acceptable' price to describe what we now recognise as the market effect. Mr Fine's argument was then, and is since, that the uncertainty surrounding the contractors' costing and cost estimating process is such that the uncertainty surrounding the contractors' cost that it logically leads to a market-orientated pricing approach. Very little factual evidence, however, seems to be available to support these arguments in any conclusive manner. A further, and more important point for the pragmatic school, is that, even if the market effect is as important as Mr Fine believes, there are no indications of how it can be measured, evaluated or predicted. Since 1974 evidence has been accumulating which tends to reinforce the antagonists' view. A review of the literature covering both contractors' and designers' estimates found many references to the use of value judgements in construction pricing (Ashworth & Skitmore, 1985), which supports the antagonistic view in implying the existence of uncertainty overload. The most convincing evidence emerged quite by accident in some research we recently completed with practicing quantity surveyors in estimating accuracy (Skitmore, 1985). In addition to demonstrating that individual quantity surveyors and certain types of buildings had significant effect on estimating accuracy, one surprise result was that only a very small amount of information was used by the most expert surveyors for relatively very accurate estimates. Only the type and size of building, it seemed, was really relevant in determining accuracy. More detailed information about the buildings' specification, and even a sight to the drawings, did not significantly improve their accuracy level. This seemed to offer clear evidence that the constructional aspects of the project were largely irrelevant and that the expert surveyors were somehow tuning in to the market price of the building. The obvious next step is to feed our expert surveyors with more relevant 'market' information in order to assess its effect. The problem with this is that our experts do not seem able to verbalise their requirements in this respect - a common occurrence in research of this nature. The lack of research into the nature of market effects on prices also means the literature provides little of benefit. Hence the need for this study. It was felt that a clearer picture of the nature of construction markets would be obtained in an environment where free enterprise was a truly ideological force. For this reason, the United States of America was chosen for the next stage of our investigations. Several people were interviewed in an informal and unstructured manner to elicit their views on the action of market forces on construction prices. Although a small number of people were involved, they were thought to be reasonably representative of knowledge in construction pricing. They were also very well able to articulate their views. Our initial reaction to the interviews was that our USA subjects held very close views to those held in the UK. However, detailed analysis revealed the existence of remarkably clear and consistent insights that would not have been obtained in the UK. Further evidence was also obtained from literature relating to the subject and some of the interviewees very kindly expanded on their views in later postal correspondence. We have now analysed all the evidence received and, although a great deal is of an anecdotal nature, we feel that our findings enable at least the basic nature of the subject to be understood and that the factors and their interrelationships can now be examined more formally in relation to construction price levels. I must express my gratitude to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' Educational Trust and the University of Salford's Department of Civil Engineering for collectively funding this study. My sincere thanks also go to our American participants who freely gave their time and valuable knowledge to us in our enquiries. Finally, I must record my thanks to Tim and Anne for their remarkable ability to produce an intelligible typescript from my unintelligible writing.

Australia’s film industry owes a debt to Gough Whitlam

Filmmakers and audiences – indeed Australian arts and screen culture more broadly – owe a deep debt of gratitude to Gough Whitlam and the government he led. Although the foundations had been laid by Whitlam’s predecessors John Gorton and Billy McMahon, the Australian film revival of the 1970s only really took shape after Whitlam became Prime Minister in 1972...

The quality of life and caregiving burden among caregivers of people with dementia in Hanoi, Bac Ninh and Hai Phong, Vietnam

This three phase study aimed to describe dementia carer's quality of life (QoL) and perceived burden, and explore the associations between family carer characteristics, burden and perceived QoL in Vietnam. Dementia carers in the capital, Hanoi, in Phase 1 (N= 153) and from Hanoi, Hai Phong and Bac Ninh in Phase 2 (N=347) completed questionnaires. Survey results showed dementia carers reported low QoL, predicted by high perceived burden. Other carer characteristics including age, gender, family income and perceived experience were significantly associated with QoL. Filial piety contributed to only a single domain of QoL. Phase 3 employed qualitative methods to explore the specific issues faced by daughter carers. Findings suggested that filial gratitude and positive aspects of the role may influence the caring experience of daughter carers. Further investigation of the specific support needs of general dementia carers, and daughter carers in particular, in Vietnam is warranted.