Table 1. Descriptive statistics and contrast tests for Study 1.
| Experimental Conditions | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gratitude Experience | Gratitude Letter | Near-Miss Relief | Contrast 1 | Contrast 2 | Contrast 3 | ||||
| Contrast 1: +1 | Contrast 1: +1 | Contrast 1: -2 | |||||||
| Contrast 2: +1 | Contrast 2: 0 | Contrast 2: -1 | |||||||
| Contrast 3: 0 | Contrast 3: +1 | Contrast 3: -1 | |||||||
| M(SD) | n | M(SD) | n | M(SD) | n | t-contrast or F-statistic | t-contrast | t-contrast | |
| Grateful | 5.68 (1.60) | 53 | 5.97 (1.09) | 34 | 5.38 (1.37) | 50 | 1.84† | 1.02 | 2.20* |
| Indebted | 4.55 (1.96) | 53 | 4.59 (1.94) | 34 | 3.60 (1.73) | 50 | 2.89** | 2.57* | 2.38* |
| Guilty | 1.81 (1.42) | 53 | 1.82 (1.34) | 34 | 2.28 (1.51) | 50 | -1.80† | -1.66† | -1.43 |
| Moved | 4.23 (1.73) | 53 | 4.56 (1.56) | 34 | 3.58 (1.99) | 50 | 2.53* | 1.83† | 2.46* |
| Uplifted | 4.32 (1.70) | 53 | 4.88 (1.65) | 33 | 3.88 (1.78) | 50 | 2.33* | 1.30 | 2.59* |
| Connected to others | 5.33 (1.47) | 52 | 5.01 (1.51) | 34 | 4.40 (1.67) | 49 | 2.75** | 3.00** | 1.77† |
| Relieved | 4.30 (2.06) | 53 | 4.82 (1.69) | 33 | 5.04 (1.71) | 49 | 1.44 | 2.02* | 0.53 |
| Happy | 5.49 (1.54) | 53 | 5.74 (1.40) | 34 | 5.41 (1.38) | 49 | 0.53 | ||
| Worried/anxious | 2.17 (1.67) | 53 | 2.32 (1.77) | 34 | 2.48 (1.50) | 50 | 0.46 | ||
| Angry | 1.51 (1.34) | 53 | 1.59 (1.16) | 34 | 1.90 (1.28) | 50 | 1.30 | ||
| Frustrated | 1.85 (1.57) | 53 | 1.91 (1.42) | 34 | 2.30 (1.57) | 50 | 1.23 | ||
| Depressed/blue | 1.85 (1.54) | 53 | 1.91 (1.44) | 34 | 2.22 (1.66) | 50 | 0.80 | ||
| Joyful | 4.58 (1.83) | 53 | 5.21 (1.32) | 34 | 4.64 (1.54) | 50 | 1.75 | ||
| Nervous | 1.83 (1.40) | 53 | 1.91 (1.22) | 34 | 2.14 (1.47) | 49 | 0.68 | ||
| Inspired | 4.40 (1.80) | 53 | 5.24 (1.68) | 33 | 4.18 (1.77) | 50 | 3.84* | ||
| Scared | 1.94 (1.51) | 53 | 2.06 (1.56) | 34 | 2.20 (1.55) | 50 | 0.36 | ||
| Upset | 1.81 (1.48) | 53 | 1.79 (1.39) | 34 | 2.18 (1.51) | 50 | 1.04 | ||
| Unhappy | 1.91 (1.54) | 53 | 1.74 (1.05) | 34 | 2.22 (1.54) | 50 | 1.27 | ||
| Pleased | 4.72 (1.73) | 53 | 4.91 (1.58) | 34 | 4.62 (1.65) | 50 | 0.31 | ||
| Positive emotion composite | 4.78 (1.34) | 53 | 5.14 (1.05) | 34 | 4.57 (1.05) | 50 | 2.38† | ||
| Negative emotion composite | 2.12 (1.05) | 53 | 2.16 (0.97) | 34 | 2.35 (1.18) | 50 | 0.64 | ||
| Emodiversity: All emotions | 2.39 (0.28) | 52 | 2.43 (0.30) | 31 | 2.45 (0.50) | 46 | 0.34 | ||
| Emodiversity: Social emotions | 1.56 (0.18) | 51 | 1.55 (0.25) | 33 | 1.43 (0.41) | 49 | 1.85† | 1.90† | 1.58 |
Note: A t-contrast is provided for emotions on which we performed a focused test (bolded in the table). An omnibus F-statistic is reported for all other emotions. We expected the relief condition to be higher on “relieved,” so the contrast analyses are reversed for that variable. We found no significant differences between the two gratitude conditions on any of our hypothesized variables and therefore do not report those specific results. The degrees of freedom for the emodiversity are fewer than for the composites because the composites allow for missing items (we stipulated that at least 5 items needed to be present for the positive and negative composites), whereas the emodiversity equation does not tolerate any missingness.
†p ≤ .10.
*p ≤ .05.
**p ≤ .01.
***p ≤ .001.