McCullough M E, Kilpatrick S D, Emmons R A, Larson D B
National Institute for Healthcare Research, Rockville, Maryland, USA.
Psychol Bull. 2001 Mar;127(2):249-66. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.127.2.249.
Gratitude is conceptualized as a moral affect that is analogous to other moral emotions such as empathy and guilt. Gratitude has 3 functions that can be conceptualized as morally relevant: (a) a moral barometer function (i.e., it is a response to the perception that one has been the beneficiary of another person's moral actions); (b) a moral motive function (i.e., it motivates the grateful person to behave prosocially toward the benefactor and other people); and (c) a moral reinforcer function (i.e., when expressed, it encourages benefactors to behave morally in the future). The personality and social factors that are associated with gratitude are also consistent with a conceptualization of gratitude as an affect that is relevant to people's cognitions and behaviors in the moral domain.
感恩被概念化为一种道德情感，类似于同理心和内疚等其他道德情感。感恩有三种可被概念化为与道德相关的功能：(a) 道德晴雨表功能（即，它是对自己是他人道德行为受益者这一认知的反应）；(b) 道德动机功能（即，它促使感恩的人对恩人及其他人表现出亲社会行为）；以及 (c) 道德强化功能（即，当感恩被表达出来时，它鼓励恩人在未来做出道德行为）。与感恩相关的人格和社会因素也与将感恩概念化为一种与人们在道德领域的认知和行为相关的情感相一致。
