Article Review
“Beyond Reciprocity: Gratitude and Relationships in Everyday Life” an article by Sara B. Algoe, Jonathan Haidt and Shelly L. Gable is aiming to show how gratitude may shape new relationships and the quality of those relationships we choose to keep in the future. This seems to be becoming a more relevant topic because it is somewhat abstract, and could really show us how we create meaningful relationships with others and how first impressions mean more than we think. According to this article there has not been much research, either correlational or experimental, done on the effects of gratitude towards new and ongoing relationships. But what has been looked at is the motivations of the recipient of the gratuitous gesture to …show more content…
The were 278 Sisters that were used in the study in total but only 160 of those girls had a Big and Little relationship. The majority of them were white (92.4%), then Asian (3.8%) and the rest identified as other (3.9%) (Algoe et al., 2008). The research began during Big Sister week, where the older members of the sorority (Big Sisters) anonymously give the new members (Little Sisters) gifts, and at the end of the week the Big Sister is revealed and essentially this event should create a meaningful bond between the two. The findings were self reported by the new and existing members, once after the new Big was revealed and again a month later. They also reported on how they felt individually about the benefits of the gifting process during the four days of Big Sis. week. With the findings of the first data they hoped to see if the feelings they felt after the reveal of who the Big Sister was were just momentary or if they had a significant effect on the long term relationship between the two. The second data they were recording was more focused on what features of the whole exchange predicted the amount of gratitude felt towards the …show more content…
The little sister filled out a questionnaire online as soon as possible after each gift that was given to them by the big sister, usually completed two hours after each time, that included writing a small description of what happened, rating the benefits, and also rating the Big Sisters before the reveal. After the Big Sister week is over they have a ceremony where the Big Sister is revealed called “Revelations.” After Revelations they are sent a link through email for another questionnaire about their new Sister, and this one was usually completed within 24 hours. For the one month follow up they were asked to complete another questionnaire that was emailed to them as well, and this one asked about their feelings towards the same sister and any interactions they have had, this was also completed around 24 hours after it was sent.
Once all the information was gathered from the different sororities they were analyzed in two different ways to compress the findings. Since there were multiple participants in the study they used a multilevel random coefficient modeling to test the hypotheses, and a series of hierarchical linear modeling analyses to test for differences between sororities (Algoe et al., 2008). Some of the findings
“Beyond Reciprocity: Gratitude and Relationships in Everyday Life” an article by Sara B. Algoe, Jonathan Haidt and Shelly L. Gable is aiming to show how gratitude may shape new relationships and the quality of those relationships we choose to keep in the future. This seems to be becoming a more relevant topic because it is somewhat abstract, and could really show us how we create meaningful relationships with others and how first impressions mean more than we think. According to this article there has not been much research, either correlational or experimental, done on the effects of gratitude towards new and ongoing relationships. But what has been looked at is the motivations of the recipient of the gratuitous gesture to …show more content…
The were 278 Sisters that were used in the study in total but only 160 of those girls had a Big and Little relationship. The majority of them were white (92.4%), then Asian (3.8%) and the rest identified as other (3.9%) (Algoe et al., 2008). The research began during Big Sister week, where the older members of the sorority (Big Sisters) anonymously give the new members (Little Sisters) gifts, and at the end of the week the Big Sister is revealed and essentially this event should create a meaningful bond between the two. The findings were self reported by the new and existing members, once after the new Big was revealed and again a month later. They also reported on how they felt individually about the benefits of the gifting process during the four days of Big Sis. week. With the findings of the first data they hoped to see if the feelings they felt after the reveal of who the Big Sister was were just momentary or if they had a significant effect on the long term relationship between the two. The second data they were recording was more focused on what features of the whole exchange predicted the amount of gratitude felt towards the …show more content…
The little sister filled out a questionnaire online as soon as possible after each gift that was given to them by the big sister, usually completed two hours after each time, that included writing a small description of what happened, rating the benefits, and also rating the Big Sisters before the reveal. After the Big Sister week is over they have a ceremony where the Big Sister is revealed called “Revelations.” After Revelations they are sent a link through email for another questionnaire about their new Sister, and this one was usually completed within 24 hours. For the one month follow up they were asked to complete another questionnaire that was emailed to them as well, and this one asked about their feelings towards the same sister and any interactions they have had, this was also completed around 24 hours after it was sent.
Once all the information was gathered from the different sororities they were analyzed in two different ways to compress the findings. Since there were multiple participants in the study they used a multilevel random coefficient modeling to test the hypotheses, and a series of hierarchical linear modeling analyses to test for differences between sororities (Algoe et al., 2008). Some of the findings