Assessment, Statistics, and Research

  Scale name: Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test-Short Form (GRAT-S) Scale overview: The short form of the Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test (GRAT-S) is a self-report measure, which consists of 16 items assessing trait gratitude. The original GRAT scale by Watkins et al. (2003) consisted of 44 items rated on a five-point scale of agreement. The 16-item short form (GRAT-S) was used by Watkins et al. (2017) in a study about joy and gratitude. Response Type: The 16 items are rated on a 9-point scale of agreement from 1 = I strongly disagree to 9 = I strongly agree with the statement. Sample Scale items 1. I couldn't have gotten where I am today without the help of many people. 6. I really don't think that I've gotten all the good things that I deserve in life. (Reverse score)   Reliability: Watkins et al. (2017) reported GRAT-S Cronbach’s alpha = .84. Validity: The GRAT-S was positively correlated with the State Joy Scale and the Dispos...

  Scale name: State Joy Scale Scale overview: The State Joy Scale (SJS) is an 11-item self-report rating scale of joy with strong psychometric properties.   Response Type: There are two types of ratings. 1. Items 1-2 are rated on a 7-point frequency basis from 1 = Not at all to 7 = Frequently. See the article for the text for each of the numerical options. 2. Items 3- 11 are rated on a 7-point scale of agreement from 1 = Completely disagree to 7 = Strongly agree. Sample Scale items 1. In the past week, how often have you felt joyful? 7. Something happened this week that made me feel like celebrating.   Reliability: In study 1 of Watkins et al. (2017), Cronbach's alpha = .945. Validity: Factor analysis yielded a one-factor solution, which explained 65.17% of the variance. The State Joy Scale was significantly positively correlated with several measures including the following (correlations follow the scale names). Gratitude Questionnaire-6, ...

In this post, I refer to a set of items to assess gratitude. The  Gratitude Questionnaire  uses six items and was published by McCullough, Emmons, and Tsang in 2002. I have written elsewhere about gratitude . People high in the virtue of gratitude are often high in other virtues as well such as optimism and life satisfaction. They also tend to be more religious. In a previous post, The Psychology of Gratitude , I list some suggestions to increase gratitude. Reliability In previous research, the authors found support for one factor. Coefficient alpha , a measure of interitem consistency, ranged from .76 to .84 in samples reported by the authors  (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002; McCullough, Tsang, & Emmons, 2002). Rating the Scale Items When using the scale in surveys the items are rated on a 7-point scale from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). High scores indicate a higher level of self-reported gratitude. Here's the 7-point rating: 1 ...