Life Satisfaction Theory

Gratitude and Life Satisfaction
Throughout the scientific literature, there have been a couple of hypotheses on how gratitude is related to life satisfaction. One is the broaden-and-build theory. Gratitude is a positive-valence emotion and according to the said theory, positive emotions broaden thinking so as to engage in activities that will build skills or resources available for utilization during a demanding event. As a person’s behavioral and skills repertoire expands, it will lead to an increase in well-being as well (Fredrickson, 2004a).
Another explanation was offered by Wood et al. (2010) in which they proposed gratitude as “a life orientation towards noticing and appreciating the positive in life”. Gratitude as a life orientation

Personality is also a key factor and traits such as openness to experience and extraversion are linked to success of positive interventions (Senf & Liau, 2013). Demographic variables also relate to the effectiveness of treatment outcomes (Boehn et al. 2011). Age has been found to be related as well due to the findings of Sin and Lyubomirski (2009) which revealed that older people benefit from interventions than younger people. Lastly, Person-activity fit is the appropriate match of the activity and the nature of the individual. It is known that emotions, behavior, and values vary across culture. Westerners, for example, value autonomy and personal achievement while Easterners value social harmony and cohesiveness (Kitayama et al. 2000). Proctor et al. (2011) tested a character-based intervention to increase life satisfaction among adolescents. The intervention utilizes positive traits or values that each individual possesses identified using the Values-In-Action Strengths Classification by Park, Peterson, and Seligman (2004). The results of the study revealed that those who participated in the intervention showed improved life satisfaction than those who did not.