Gratitude and Quality of Life in a Personalist and Existential Approach

Abstract

In the article there is measured and discussed the relationship between dispositional gratitude and the holistic concept of quality of life in the personalist-existential approach, with a psychophysical, psychosocial, subjective, metaphysical and global dimension of the quality of life. The aim of this study is to identify the relationship between gratitude, measured with the GQ-6 Gratitude Questionnaire by McCullough, Emmon and Tsang in Polish adaptation of Kossakowska and Kwiatek, and quality of life, measured with the Sense of Quality of Life Questionnaire. The research questions was “Is gratitude related to the psychophysical, psychosocial, subjective, metaphysical and global dimensions of the quality of life in the personalist and existential concept?”. The study involved 148 students, aged 17–59 (M = 30.21; SD = 10.09). The results show the presence of low and moderate positive relationships between gratitude and quality of life in all dimensions. Moreover, the research discovered some gender differences in the correlations between gratitude and some dimensions of quality of life. Gratitude correlates with better quality of life in all spheres of human functioning – biological, social, subjective and metaphysical.