The Broaden-And Theory of Gratitude: Testing a Model of Well-Being and Resilience on Turkish College Students

Abstract

The use of the positive psychology approach is increasing and this approach emerges as one of the sources that can effectively be used for the field of counseling. One of the main works of the positive psychology approach is the issue of positive emotions, development process of these emotions and benefits of positive emotions. The aim of the study was to test a hypothetical model developed to explain the effect mechanism of positive feelings on individuals' well-being and resilience. The sample consisted of 471 college students from three universities in Turkey. For data collection, Gratitude Scale, Life Orientation Test, Two-Dimensional Self-Esteem Scale, Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale, Balanced Measure of Psychological Needs Resilience Scale and Risk Factor Determining List were used. It was found that all the variables discussed in the model have significant positive relationships with each other. It was found that the proposed model was confirmed and the fit indices were found as at good level. Accordingly, gratitude as a positive emotion and a general life orientation, was found to contribute to the psychological needs satisfaction through the perceived social support and self esteem and need satisfaction enhances the individual's well-being and resilience levels. The research revealed that main proposals of Positive Activity Model and Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions were validated. This validated model may be implemented with experimental researches. Besides, the proposed model may be tested among different samples. © 2021, Ozgen Korkmaz. All rights reserved.