Carr - Perspectives on gratitude: an interdisciplinary approach

Psychologists, philosophers, theologians and educationalists have all lately explored various conceptual, moral, psychological and pedagogical dimensions of gratitude in a rapidly expanding academic and popular literature. However, while the distinguished contributors to this work hail from these distinct disciplines, they have been brought together in this volume precisely in recognition of the need for a more interdisciplinary perspective on the topic.

While further developing such more familiar debates in the field as whether it is appropriate to feel grateful in circumstances in which there is no obvious benefactor, whether it is proper to feel grateful to those who have benefited one only from a sense of duty and whether it makes sense to be grateful if so doing colludes with injustice, the essays in this collection explore a wide variety of fresh conceptual, psychological and moral issues. For example, in addition to identifying some new moral paradoxes about gratitude and seeking a generally more morally discriminating approach to gratitude education, relations are explored between gratitude and humility, forgiveness and appreciation, and the religious and spiritual dimensions of the concept are also given much overdue attention.

By virtue of serious academic attention to the study of gratitude within an interdisciplinary context, Perspectives on Gratitude will be of value to academics and graduate students in the fields of philosophy, psychology and theology, as well as other research-based disciplines.

David Carr is Professor of Ethics and Education at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, University of Birmingham, UK.

Perspectives on Gratitude

An interdisciplinary approach

Edited by David Carr

First published 2016
by Routledge
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2016 D. Carr

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available fromthe British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Carr, David, 1940- editor.
Title: Gratitude : An interdisciplinary approach /
edited by David Carr.
Description: New York :Routledge, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015033989
Subjects: LCSH: Gratitude.
Classification: LCC BJ1533.G8 G7325 2016 | DDC 179/.9--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015033989

ISBN: 978-1-138-83093-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-73689-1 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by HWA Text and Data Management, London

This volume is dedicated to the memory of Claudia Card (19402015), a distinguished philosopher and dear friend.

PART I
Gratitude and flourishing: psychology and morality

TERRANCE MCCONNELL

PHILIP C. WATKINS AND DUNCAN MCCURRACH

DAVID KONSTAN

PART II
Gratitude and related concepts

ROBERT C. ROBERTS

NANCY S. FAGLEY

SEAN MCALEER

PART III
Problems about gratitude

CLAUDIA CARD

PATRICK BOLEYN-FITZGERALD

SAUL SMILANSKY

PART IV
Spiritual and religious dimensions of gratitude

ROBERT A. EMMONS

JO-ANN TSANG AND STEPHEN R. MARTIN

DAVID CARR

PART V
Gratitude interventions in education and research

GIACOMO BONO AND CHRISTOPHER ODUDU

LIZ GULLIFORD AND BLAIRE MORGAN

ADAM DAVIDSON AND ALEX M. WOOD

DAVID CARR

Patrick Boleyn-Fitzgerald is theEdward F. Mielke Professor in Ethics in Medicine, Science, and Society at LawrenceUniversity. He has published on topics in ethics, bioethics, political philosophy,philosophy of law, and pedagogy and has a special interest in exploring ways thatBuddhism might inform contemporary accounts of virtue.

Giacomo Bono is Assistant Professor of Psychology at California StateUniversity Dominguez Hills, with expertise in gratitude, forgiveness, socialdevelopment, well-being, health promotion, and positive youth development. He iscurrently developing a preschool measure of gratitude and a gratitude curriculumtargeting preschool and grades 4 through 12 throughout the U.S.

David Carr is Emeritus Professor at the University of Edinburgh andcurrently Professor of Ethics and Education at the University of Birmingham JubileeCentre for Character and Virtues. He is author of four books, numerous philosophicaland educational papers and book chapters many concerned with the educationalpotential of art and literature for moral virtue and character and editor orco-editor of several collections of papers on philosophy and education.

Claudia Card was Professor of Philosophy at the University ofWisconsinMadison. She was the author of over one hundred important articlesand books on moral and feminist philosophy and Jewish studies includingConfronting Evils: Terrorism, Torture, Genocide (Cambridge2010), The Atrocity Paradigm: A Theory of Evil (Oxford 2002), andThe Unnatural Lottery: Character and Moral Luck (Temple 1996).She was a pioneering philosopher of gratitude and her chapter on this topic in thisvolume was one of her last essays.

Adam Davidson is a Masters student in positive psychology at theUniversity of East London, and he has three publications in this area. He isemployed as a researcher for Happiness Works, implementing positive psychology into business practice around the globe. He alsohas a masters degree in physics from the University of Bristol.

Robert A. Emmons is Professor of Psychology at the University ofCalifornia, Davis. He received his PhD degree in personality psychology from theUniversity of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. He is Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chiefof The Journal of Positive Psychology. His research focuses on thescience and practice of gratitude and thankfulness, especially on the effect ofgratitude on subjective well-being and human health and happiness, and thepsychology of grace.

Nancy S. Fagley is Associate Professor of Psychology at RutgersUniversity. Her research focuses on two areas: decision making and positivepsychology. In the area of decision making, her research focuses on advancingunderstanding of the framing effect on choice. In positive psychology, her researchfocuses on elaborating the theory of appreciation with a focus on itsdefinition and measurement, its causes and consequences, and effective techniques oractivities to foster feelings of appreciation.

Liz Gulliford has a long-standing interest in human strengths andcurrently works as a research fellow at the Jubilee Centre for Character andVirtues, University of Birmingham. She undertook her doctorate, an interdisciplinaryevaluation of positive psychological approaches to strengths and virtues atQueens College, Cambridge, where she examined forgiveness, gratitude, courageand hope. Her current focus of interest is the interconnections between the virtuesof gratitude, forgiveness, humility and compassion.