英文摘要 |
In positive psychology, gratitude is a vital topic in the 21st century. Previous studies about gratitude focus on individual differences and interpersonal networks. The empirical evidence supported the positive effect of gratitude on the two levels but leaves a research gap on how gratitude transferred from individual level to level of groups, and the process of transferring is a key to understand teamwork, which is crucial in sport field. This article aims to fill this theoretical gap by proposing a theory of gratitude at the group level and applying the theory to the field of sports. This article draws on theories in analyzing gratitude at the group level. The most notable theory is the model of contact-interpretation-reserve (Luria, 2019) for analyzing how individual differences converge to form the characteristics of a group through interaction and social exchange. In sum, gratitude is a multi-level concept that impacts not only the individual differences but also the group differences, as this article reveals. This finding shifts the studies of gratitude from the paradigms that concern individual levels to those that concern group levels to apply gratitude in studies of sports and contributes in creating a new approach for studying the concept of gratitude. |