Kennedy, Michelle (2009) The Role of Dispositional Gratitude and Dispositional Forgiveness in Relationship Satisfaction. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Gratitude and forgiveness have been shown to be adaptive dispositional characteristics necessary for optimal functioning of romantic relationships. Romantic relationship satisfaction is linked to these dispositional characteristics through positive empathic emotion, which has been shown to be one of the fundamental elements of relational well-being. The current study had two aims: the first was to investigate the relationships between dispositional gratitude and dimensions of dispositional forgiveness; and secondly, to identify the contributions of dispositional gratitude and dispositional forgiveness to the prediction of romantic relationship satisfaction. It was expected that gratitude would highly correlate with the three dimensions of forgiveness (i.e., Self, Other and Situations). Thus, it was expected that forgiveness would be predict gratitude. Lastly, it was anticipated that both gratitude and forgiveness would predict romantic relationship satisfaction. A convenience sample of 135 participants (37 males, 97 females) was drawn from the researchers’ professional, student, community, and social networks. Participants were currently involved in a romantic relationship of at least six months duration. Three measures were administered. These included the self-report six-item GQ-6 (McCullough et al., 2002) which measures the dispositional tendency to be grateful. The second measure was the relationship satisfaction subscale from the Investment Model Scale (Rusbult, Martz, & Agnew, 1998). The third measure was the Heartland Forgiveness Scale (Thompson et al., 2005) designed to measure three constructs of forgiveness: forgiveness of self, others, and situations. Consistent with the first hypothesis, Pearson product-moment correlation revealed that gratitude and situation forgiveness were highly correlated, as was forgiveness of others with gratitude. Regression analysis further revealed that forgiveness of situations significantly predicted gratitude. Gratitude and the dimensions of forgiveness did not predict romantic relationship satisfaction. Further exploration of the role forgiveness plays in association with dispositional gratitude is needed, particularly in relation to forgiveness of situations. Future research inclusive of both dispositional and state measures of gratitude and forgiveness is needed. Exploration of these associations may provide further information to better support relationship education programs which involve both the maintenance and crisis management of romantic relationships.
|
Statistics for this ePrint Item |
| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Psychology (Up to 30 Jun 2013) |
| Supervisors: | Nola Passmore |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Nov 2025 02:03 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Nov 2025 02:03 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52465 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Archive Repository Staff Only |
