感恩歷程初探

Abstract

幾乎在所有文化和大部分人類歷史當中，感恩皆被視為人格與社會生活中不可或缺的，感恩之經驗和表達亦對個體、社會有益，然而感恩卻是最未被研究的情緒之一。近年來陸續有研究指出感恩除了對心理和人際有益之外，感恩亦有助於生理功能與健康（Emmons, 2004），因此感恩之相關評估與介入技巧逐漸被發展出來，但各研究所使用的感恩定義不盡相同，各有其著重之處，仍未有較一致的共識。本研究透過回顧、整理各感恩定義，推論感恩應為連續歷程，進一步提出感恩歷程模式，以半結構式訪談及焦點詢問法，深入探討四位社區老年人之感恩經驗，訪談資料以內容分析及本研究所提之感恩歷程編碼分析整理。資料顯示，感恩經驗多在受到幫助或恩惠之後產生，而產生之閾值高低、持續程度或後續影響則有所差異，可能是由於性格、環境、價值觀等不同之緣故。感恩歷程各元素的描述難易、多寡亦有別，可能與具體程度、思考或說話習慣有關。研究結果回饋至原先的模型，部分歷程項目定義需做修改以更精準描繪感恩經驗。且本次研究亦發現，一個人之中心信念會影響其是否容易感恩，回顧感恩經驗時也容易提取許多相關想法或經驗，上述內容與感恩層級皆應納入感恩歷程方能對感恩做更全面的了解，並有助發展感恩之評估與介入。

In most culture and human history, gratitude is viewed as an essential part of personality and social life. The experience and expression of gratitude is beneficial for both individual and society. In spite of this, gratitude is one of the most under-researched emotions. In recent years, studies have pointed out that not only is gratitude beneficial for psychological health and interpersonal relationships, but also physiological health and functioning (Emmons, 2004). As a result, assessment and intervention for gratitude have been gradually developed. However, the definition of gratitude varies across different studies; researchers emphasize on different parts of gratitude and the definitions of gratitude have not yet reached a consensus. Through reviewing definitions of gratitude, this study infers that gratitude is a continuous process, and further proposed the gratitude process model. Semi-structured focusing interview method was adopted to deeply explore gratitude experience of four elderlies living in community. Interviews were processed by content analysis method and the gratitude process coding method proposed in this study. Results revealed that gratitude experience usually arise from being helped. Nonetheless, its threshold, duration and subsequent influence differed, which may due to different personalities, environments and values. The degree of difficulty and the amount of description also differed in each element of gratitude process, probably resulting from the differences in degree of concreteness, thinking and speaking habits. By virtue of the feedback from results, parts of the process definitions in the original gratitude process model require further modifications to depict the gratitude experience more accurately. This study also found that central beliefs influence how easily one feels gratitude; retrospect to one's gratitude experience also affects the retrieval of related experiences. These should all be included in the gratitude process model to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of gratitude, and facilitate the development of gratitude assessments and interventions.