Research Thesis

Department of Psychology

IIUI

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Topic:

GRATITUDE AND PROSOCIAL BEAVIOUR IN

UNDERGRADUATES IN ISLAMABAD

BY

NOOR UL WARA

NAZIA MEHAK

LISHBA KHALID

JAVERIA MUSHTAQ

ZAINAB

To

DR NAZIA (CHAIR PERSON PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT)

Department of Psychology

Faculty of Social Sciences

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 International Islamic University Islamabad

International Islamic University Islamabad

Acceptance by the Viva Voce Committee

______________________
Dean Faculty of Social Sciences

______________________
Chairperson Department of Psychology

_______________________
Supervisor

_____________________
External Examiner

____________________
Internal Examiner

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 DECLARATION

I, Ms. NOOR UL WARA Registration No. 894/FSS/ BS PSY/ F17 along with MS. LISHBA

KHALID Registration No. 935/FSS/BSPSY/F17, MS ZAINAB MAQBOOL Registration No.

936/FSS/BSPSY/F17, NAZIA MEHAK Registration No. 953FSS/BSPSY/F17, MS JAVERIA

MUSHTAQ Registration No. 943/FSS/BSPSY/F17 student of BS in the subject of

Psychology, session 2020-2021, hereby declare that the matter printed in the thesis titled:

GRATITUDE AND PROSOCIAL BEAVIOUR IN UNDERGRADUATES IN ISLAMABAD

is my own work and has not been printed, published and submitted as research work, thesis or

publication in any form in any University, Research Institution etc in Pakistan or abroad.

__________________

Signatures of Deponent

_______________________

Dated:

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 RESEARCH COMPLETION CERTIFICATE

Certified that the research work contained in this thesis titled: GRATITUDE AND

PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IN UNDERGRADUATES IN ISLAMABAD has been carried

out and completed by:

Ms. NOOR UL WARA Registration No. 894/FSS/BS PSY/F17

MS. LISHBA KHALID Registration No. 935/FSS/BSPSY/F17,

MS ZAINAB MAQBOOL Registration No. 936/FSS/BSPSY/F17,

NAZIA MEHAK Registration No. 953FSS/BSPSY/F17,

MS JAVERIA MUSHTAQ Registration No. 943/FSS/BSPSY/F17

Under my supervision:

____________________ _______________________

Date Supervisor

Associate Professor

Department of Psychology

International Islamic University

Islamabad

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All praises are for Allah almighty that has bestowed upon human being the crown of

creation and has endowed him with knowledge and wisdom. Firstly, I am thankful to

Allah Almighty for the strengths and His blessings upon me in completing this article. I

am thankful to my supervisor for guiding me and showing me path toward my goal. I

overall thankful to psychology department who give opportunity to experience or conduct

research other their supervision. In last I am grateful for my parents, colleagues and

friends for courage me to complete my article

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 DEDICATION

It is with my deepest gratitude and warmest affection that I dedicate this article to my

supervisor DR NAZIA who helped a lot in my research work and all my group members

Nazia, zainab, lishba, and javeria.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………10

Chapter 1…………………………………………………………………………….11

Introduction……………………………………………………………………….12

Literature Review…………………………………………………………………13

Rationale…………………………………………………………………………..17

Objectives…………………………………………………………………………17

Hypothesis…………………………………………………………………………17

Chapter ll……………………………………………………………………………..18

Methodology………………………………………………………………………….18

Research Design…………………………………………………………………..18

Research method…………………………………………………………………..18

Variables…………………………………………………………………………..18

Participants………………………………………………………………………..18

Operational Definitions……………………………………………………………18

Sampling…………………………………………………………………………...18

Ethical Considerations……………………………………………………………..19

Procedure…………………………………………………………………………..19

Questionnaires………………………………………………………………………19

Timelines of the study………………………………………………………………19

Chapter lll……………………………………………………………………………….19

Results……………………………………………………………………………………20

Results………………………………………………………………………………..20
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Chapter lV……………………………………………………………………………….21

Discussion……………………………………………………………………………… 21

Discussion………………………………………………………………………………

21

Limitations …………………………………………………………………………….21

Suggestions and Recommendations……………………………………………………21

Implications…………………………………………………………………………......21

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..21

References………………………………………………………………………………22

Appendices………………………………………………………………………………22

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 ABSTRACT

The point of examination was to examine whether a positive correlation exist between

gratitude and pro social behavior and whether it varies from gender to gender. The ability

to empathize, both in animals and in humans, determines how best to behave when

empathy for the stress of others is combined with driving for their well-being. In other

words, by helping others in times of stress, we may be helping ourselves.

People often do things for the benefit of others, and these actions are examples of good

behavior in society. Such behavior can manifest itself in many ways: helping someone in

need; sharing personal resources; volunteer time, effort and expertise; collaborating with

others to achieve certain common goals.

A total sample of 150 were taken out of which 50% were males and 50% were females. it

was hypothesized that there will be positive relation between one another. Results

demonstrate that both variables are positively significant to one another. Results support

hypothesis of current study.

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 INTRODUCTION
Gratitude is a positive emotion that is valanced and it can arise when another person a benefactor

does something kind for self[ CITATION Alg16 \l 1033 ]. Gratitude is sometimes expressed by

saying thank you to someone who has helped us or given us some kind of gift. It is also a

positive emotion. Gratitude is a selfless act and one must not only think about themselves and

this act is done unconditionally to show people that they are appreciated. For example, if

someone is sad and you write a note for them or you appreciate them in any kind of way it means

you are reminding the person their value and you are grateful for their existence. Gratitude

comprises of two stages: The one is the recognition of the goodness in our lives and then is that

how this goodness came to us externally. By this process we are able to recognize the luck of

everything that makes our life and ourselves much better. Researchers conceptualize gratitude as

both a state and a trait. State gratitude is an attribution-reliant or emotional psychological state

dependent on the capacity to be empathic, coming about because of both assessing a got benefit

as a positive result just as perceiving that this positive result originates from an outside source.

The appreciative feeling advances (upstream) correspondence, and Pro social behavior. Trait

gratitude can be seen as a more extensive life direction towards seeing and being thankful for the

positive on the planet. Consideration can coordinate to the sentiment of adequacy, to the

valuation for the seemingly insignificant details throughout everyday life, and to others in our

lives. People with an appreciative point of view on life are bound to show pro social behavior,

hypothesized to in any event halfway under recently settled relationship between gratitude and

wellbeing related results. The outcomes, recommending state and characteristic appreciation

being gainful for physical and emotional well-being of someone have prompted the improvement

of gratitude intercessions to diminish mental indications and increment physical and mental

prosperity. Prosocial behavior is intent to benefit others such as helping, sharing, donating,

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cooperating and volunteering[ CITATION Bri86 \l 1033 ]. Prosocial behavior refers to the

voluntary actions that are intended to help and benefit other individuals or group of

individuals[ CITATION Eis89 \l 1033 ]. It refers to the outcomes of a doer’s actions rather than

the motivations or personal gains behind those actions. Prosocial behaviors are those intended to

help other people. Pro social behavior is characterized by a concern for the rights, feelings, and

welfare of other people. Behaviors that can be described as pro social include feeling empathy

and concern for others and behaving in ways to help or benefit other. Prosocial behaviors refer to

"a broad range of actions intended to benefit one or more people other than oneself behaviors

such as helping, comforting, sharing and cooperation." [ CITATION Bat17 \l 1033 ]. Prosocial

behaviors are those that are meant to protect or further the welfare of others (Schwartz & Bilsky,

1990). Prosocial behavior has traditionally been paired with general personality traits like

honesty, humility, agreeableness, empathy, and other orientedness[ CITATION Pen05 \l 1033 ]

prosocial behavior can be categorized into three types (helping, sharing, and comforting) that

reflect responses to three distinct negative states (instrumental need, unmet material desire, and

emotional distress). Such personality constructs serve to enhance and maintain positive

interpersonal interactions with others. For example, honesty humility represents the inclination to

be fair, sincere, and authentic in interactions with others, whereas agreeableness represents the

inclination to be trusting, considerate and sympathetic toward others. Scoring high on those

personality traits can lead to various prosocial behaviors towards strangers and close others, such

as helping behavior, conflict-regulating, constructive, and accommodative behaviors (e.g.,

inclination to forgive). Furthermore, considering that they are morality-based aspects of

personality, agreeableness and especially honesty-humility are related to responsible and ethical

behaviors in various contexts.

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LITERATURE REVIEW
According to[ CITATION Emm00 \l 1033 ] gratitude is a very significant emotion in a day society.

Many religions of the world teach about gratitude. [ CITATION Emm00 \l 1033 ]in a study also

described gratitude as an emotional response to a gift. In two studies according to[ CITATION

Gra88 \l 1033 ], [ CITATION Pet96 \l 1033 ] the people who have been grateful because of a

benefit usually behave prosocially towards the benefactor. According to a small research on

gratitude and prosocial behavior by[ CITATION McC01 \l 1033 ] supports that gratitude is an

interpersonal emotion that people feel towards other people and not towards oneself.

One possible consequence of gratitude is prosocial behavior towards one’s benefactor.

According to Goranson and berkowitz (1966) in a research on reciprocation provides an

alternative to study gratitude. In this the participants receive a small gift or favor from the

experimenter and the participants were more involving. The reciprocity in responses of

participants function as a measure of gratitude’s prosocial effect but they didn’t include the

measures of gratitude.

According to [ CITATION McC01 \l 1033 ]in the article gratitude and prosocial behavior that

gratitude prompts individuals to behave prosaically. However, research supporting the prosocial

effect of gratitude has relied on scenario and self-report methodology. To address limitations of

previous research, this experiment utilized a laboratory induction of gratitude, a method that is

potentially more covert than scenarios and that elicits actual grateful emotion.

Prosocial responses to gratitude operationalized as the distribution of resources to another were

paired with a self-report measure of gratitude to test the prosocial effect of gratitude. To

investigate positive mood as an alternative explanation, this experiment compared responses of

individuals receiving a favor to responses of individuals receiving a positive outcome by chance.

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A total of 40 participants were randomly assigned to either a Favor or Chance condition.

Participants receiving a favor helped more and reported more gratitude compared to participants

in the Chance condition. Gratitude is a significant emotion in modern day society. Several world

religions teach about the importance of gratitude [ CITATION Emm00 \l 1033 ] and many people

claim that expressing gratitude brings them happiness (Gallup, 1998).Yet there has been a

paucity of psychological work on [ CITATION McC01 \l 1033 ]. Much research on gratitude uses

scenario and self-report methods, which introduce potential limitations of social desirability and

low psychological realism.

The current experiment addresses these limitations by pairing a laboratory induction of gratitude

with behavioral and self-report measures of gratitude. According to[ CITATION Bar06 \l 1033 ]

the capability of the emotion gratitude to shape the prosocial behavior was examined in three

studies that employ interpersonal emotion induction and requests for assistance. Study 1 signifies

that gratitude increases the efforts to assist a benefactor even when such kind of efforts are

costly and this increase differs from the effects of a general positive affective state. Study 2

reveals that gratitude’s ability to function as an incidental emotion by showing that it can

increase assistance provided to strangers. Study 3 on the other hand signifies that this incidental

effect dissipates if one is made aware of the true cause of the emotional state.

In[ CITATION Mik15 \l 1033 ] study, participants performed three rounds of a resource-

distribution task with a confederate and by some coincidence, got less cash than the confederate

in the first round. In the second round, the confederate in the gratitude condition gave most of the

money he or she had gained (9 out of 10 dollars) and wrote to the participant, “I saw that you

didn’t get a lot in the last round—that must’ve been a bummer”. In the control condition,

participants received $9 by some coincidence. All participants received $10 in the third round

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and were asked to distribute the money between themselves and the confederate and to write the

purpose behind their distribution decision. Participants in the gratitude condition gave more cash

to the confederate than participants in the chance condition and were more likely to write that

they were expressing appreciation or gratitude.

In spite of the fact that these two studies demonstrate that experimental manipulations of

gratitude can encourage prosocial behavior, they don't consider the likelihood that individuals

vary in their responses to getting an esteemed profit by others. For instance, one person may

react to the benefit with appreciation, whereas another may mistrust the benefactor’s intentions.

Hence, one person may express gratitude as a means of strengthening his or her relationship with

the benefactor, while another may believe that such an expression is a threat to his or her sense

of personal freedom and dignity (“I was so weak that I needed help”). In addition, the designers

of these studies did not consider that research participants may differ in relationship history, their

mental representations of other people, or their disposition to feel empathic concern for other’s

needs. Such individual differences may moderate people’s reactions to generous behavior and

the extent to which gratitude leads to prosocial behavior.

According to[ CITATION MaL17 \l 1033 ] the theoretical models suggest that gratitude increases

the prosociality. The study examined the strength of the association among the gratitude and

prosociality and it also identified the theoretical and methodological variables that moderate the

link. The studies revealed a positive and important correlation between gratitude and

prosociality. These associations were larger among the studies that examined reciprocal

outcomes relative to the nonreciprocal ones. According[ CITATION Gra10 \l 1033 ] the research

explaining why gratitude expressions motivate prosocial Behavior signifies that gratitude

expressions can enhance prosocial behavior through the agentic and communal mechanisms and

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experiments are also done that shows when the helpers are thanked for their efforts that they

made then they experience stronger feelings of self-efficacy and their self-worth and which in

return motivate them to engage in prosocial behavior. Despite the fact that studies has built up

that accepting articulations of appreciation increases prosocial behavior[ CITATION AMG10 \l

1033 ], little is thought about the mental systems that mediate this impact. We suggest that

appreciation expressions can improve prosocial conduct through both agentic and mutual

components, to such an extent that when partners are expressed gratitude toward for their

endeavors, they experience more grounded sentiments of self-adequacy and social worth, which

persuade them to take part in prosocial conduct. Gratitude articulations increase prosocial

conduct by empowering people to feel socially esteemed. Individuals who get kindness will in

general feel appreciation and act in a prosocial way toward third people. appreciation prompts

the development of solid mental bonds from a recipient to an advocate and that individuals

become more prosocial toward outsiders when the requirement for relatedness is fulfilled.

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RATIONALE
Many researches have explained that there is relation between gratitude and prosocial behavior.

The pro sociality is significantly an outcome of gratitude the more the person is grateful the more

he will be helping towards others. Gratitude is a positive passionate response to the receipt of an

advantage that is seen to have resulted from the honest goals of another. No study suggests that

gratitude or pro social behavior varies among male and female undergraduates.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK:

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OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the study are as follow:

● To explore the relationship between gratitude and prosocial behavior among

undergraduates.

● To investigate the impact of gratitude on prosocial Behavior.

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 ● To examine the role of Gratitude as a predictor of prosocial behavior.

● To explore the effect of demographic variables like gender and age among the

undergraduates in relation to study constructs.

HYPOTHESIS
The hypothesis of the study are as follows:

● Whether There is a positive correlation between Gratitude and Prosocial Behavior.

● Whether There is a difference between male and female sample on Gratitude and
Prosocial Behavior.
● Whether gratitude is a predicator of prosocial behavior .

OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS:
1. GRATITUDE: Gratitude is gratitude for what a person receives, whether visible or
intangible. Thankfully, people acknowledge the good in their lives. In good psychological
research, gratitude is strongly associated with the opposite of great happiness.
2. PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR: PRO Social behavior means “voluntary action intended
to help or benefit another person or group of people” (Eisenberg and Mussen 1989, 3).
This definition refers to the consequences of the actions of the maker rather than the
motive for those actions.

RESEARCH DESIGN
The present research was cross-sectional and study based, it was directed into one stage, for
example, testing speculation, that is the study inquire about in which a little example for example
(N=150) were college and universities.

SAMPLE
For the present investigation test was gathered from the students of various college and
universities of Islamabad, advantageous and purposive procedure was utilized for the present
research.

DEMOGRAPHIC SHEET
Information was collected in the form of name, gender, age, education, GPA and university,
Members were from different private and Government Colleges and universities.

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INSTRUMENTS
We used 2 scales in our study
1. The Gratitude Questionnaire-Six Item Form (GQ-6)

https://arc.psych.wisc.edu/self-report/prosocialness-scale-for-adults-psa/

Author of Tool: 
McCullough M., E
Key references: 
1. Gray, S. A., Emmons, R. A., & Morrison, A. (2001 August). Distinguishing gratitude
from indebtedness in affect and action tendencies. Poster presented at the annual meeting
of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.
2. McCullough, M. E., Emmons, R. A., & Tsang, J. (2002). The grateful disposition:
A conceptual and empirical topography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
82, 112-127.
3. McCullough, M. E., Tsang, J., & Emmons, R. A. (2004). Gratitude in intermediate
affective terrain: Links of grateful moods to individual differences and daily emotional
experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 295-309

Primary use / Purpose: 

The Gratitude Questionnaire-Six-Item Form (GQ-6) is a six-item self-report questionnaire
designed to assess individual differences in the proneness to experience gratitude in daily life.

2. Pro socialness’ scale for adults

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240218660_A_New_Scale_for
_Measuring_Adults'_Prosocialness

The Prosocialness Scale for Adults measures an individual’s prosocial behavior. There are 16
items. For each prosocialness item, participants indicate on a five-point Likert scale whether
the statement was never/almost never true (coded as 1), occasionally true (coded as 2),
sometimes true (coded as 3), often true (coded as 4), and almost always/always true (coded
as 5).

SCALES
There is one scale which you get a score by summing the responses and finding the mean.
and no items are reverse coded.

PROCEDURE :
We made the people fill the form with true responses. All the rules and regulations necessary
were jotted down in the google form. They all were instructed to thoroughly read the questions

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and give true responses. A total sample of 150 individuals were taken out of which half were
male and half were female. All the responses were recorded properly on excel.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATION
The information will be gathered for research reason and the data which is given by the members
won't be share with anyone and it will be classified. The character will stay covered up of
member. On the off chance that they need to stop or don't need fill the poll it is thoroughly up to
them. They won't be constrained.

RESULTS

Correlations

GA PSA

Pearson Correlation 1 .245**

GA Sig. (2-tailed) .003

N 150 150
**
Pearson Correlation .245 1

PSA Sig. (2-tailed) .003

N 150 150

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

GENDER AND GRATITUDE

Group Statistics

respodend of gender N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

Male 75 4.9578 .89337 .10316

GA
Female 75 4.8000 .84452 .09752

Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means

F Sig. t df Sig. (2- Mean Difference Std. Error Difference

tailed)

Equal
variances .009 .923 1.111 148 .268
assumed
GA
Equal
variances not 1.111 147.534 .268
assumed

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 GENDER AND PSA

Group Statistics

respodend of gender N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

Male 75 4.0483 .69023 .07970

PSA
female 75 4.0575 .72979 .08427

Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equalit

F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference

Equal variances assumed .270 .604 -.079 148 .937 -.00917

PSA
Equal variances not assumed -.079 147.543 .937 -.00917

DISCUSSIONS:
The aim of the study was to measure the relationship between gratitude and pro social
behavior among youth. In addition to the present study also explored the gender differences
regarding gratitude and prosocial behavior. The sample consisted of 150 college and university
students (private and government). The descriptive and alpha coefficient vale of the scale were
also computed . The alpha coefficient values showed the reliability was computed. It was
hypothesis that there will be a positive correlation between prosocial behavior and gratitude. In
consisted with the result of the present study also showed that there was correlation between
gratitude and pro social behavior.
Another purpose of the study was to explore the gender related prosocial behavior and gratitude.
Social preferences of women are more situationally specific than those of men; women are
neither more nor less socially oriented, but their social preferences are more malleable.” The
current paper illustrates that the social behavior of both genders is malleable, but each responds
to different details of the context. Hence the results showed little or no difference as prosocial
behavior is independent of genders.

Limitations:

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 In this study age range was limited. Sample was collected from limited university
students. Some students were not willing to share their information as they thought that is related
to their personal matters and some filled the form incorrectly. Secondly, This study can be
conducted on employees as well because they are in more practical field. As well as large sample
size will be more useful in future studies. And this study may be repeated at other universities.
Another issue faced was due to COVID 19. As most of the universities were shut down due to
covid , it was very difficult to online brief each individual and to convince them to fill the form
truly.
Suggestions and Recommendations
This study can be extended to males and other age groups to get more valid and reliable results.
A detailed and extended study can be performed to help students learn to overcome anxiety and
perform better.

References
Algoe. (2016). Putting the “You” in “Thank You”. Examining Other-Praising Behavior as the
Active Relational Ingredient in Expressed Gratitude. Social Psychological and Personality
Science, 658-666.
AM Grant, & Gino , F. (2010). Journal of personality and social psychology.
Bartlett, M. Y., & DeSteno, D. . (2006). Gratitude and prosocial behavior. helping when it costs
you. Psychological science, 319–325.
Batson, C. D., Manesi, Van Lange, & Pollet. (2017). The Handbook of Social Psychology.
Brief, A. P., & Motowidlo, S. J. (1986). Prosocial organizational behaviors. The Academy of
Management Review, 710-725.
Eisenberg, Nancy, & Mussen, P. H. (1989). The Roots of Prosocial Behavior in Children.
Emmons, R. A., & C. C. (2000). Gratitude as a human strength. Appraising the evidence.Journal
of Social and Clinical Psychology.

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Graham. (1988). Children's developing understanding of the motivational role of affect. An
attributional analysis. Cognitive Development.
Grant. , A. M., & Gino, F. . (2010). A little thanks goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude
expressions motivate prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 946-955.
Ma, L. K., Tunney, & Ferguson, E. . (2017). Does gratitude enhance prosociality? A meta-
analytic review. Psychological Bulletin.
McCullough, & Emmons. (2001). Is gratitude a moral affect? Psychological Bulletin.
Mikulincer, & Shaver, P. R. (2015). An attachment perspective on prosocial attitudes and
behavior.
Penner, L. A., Dovidio, J. F., Piliavin., J. A, . . . D. A. (2005). Prosocial . Multilevel perspectives.
Annual Review of Psychology, 365-392.
Peterson, B. E., Stewart, & A. J. (1996). Antecedents and contexts of generativity motivation
and. Psychology and Aging.
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