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Gratitude and the Good Life pp 159–174Cite as

Does Gratitude Enhance Coping Ability?

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Abstract

In this chapter I investigate whether gratitude enhances well-being through promoting effective coping. New evidence suggests that positive emotion may be important in dealing with trauma. After reviewing the mechanisms by which positive emotion may benefit coping, I then turn to how gratitude may specifically provide benefits for coping. I first review literature showing that people often experience gratitude in the wake of trauma. Thus, if gratitude is an effective coping tool, it should be available to individuals in stressful situations. Research from a wide array of studies shows that effective coping is one of the most salient features of grateful people. I explore the “how” of grateful coping, and show that one reason that grateful people cope so effectively is because they positively reappraise negative events. I conclude by describing an experimental study showing how grateful processing of bad events helps bring closure, and decreases the negative affect and the intrusiveness associated with troubling memories.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

–Marcel Proust

Where we find difficulty we may always expect that a discovery awaits us. Where there is cover we hope for game.

–C. S. Lewis

It is possible to avoid all problems in life, to live a cowlike existence of tranquility and peace without sweat of any kind. This can be easily accomplished by having a prefrontal lobotomy or by perpetually ingesting alcohol, narcotics, or tranquilizers.

–Abraham Maslow

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA, USA

    Philip C. Watkins

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Watkins, P.C. (2014). Does Gratitude Enhance Coping Ability?. In: Gratitude and the Good Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7253-3_9

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