Investigating the Effectiveness of Emmons' Gratitude Education on Students' Psychological Capital and Emotional Independence

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of gratitude training on the psychological capital and emotional independence of adolescents. 40 high school students from Birjand city were selected using the available sampling method. The current research was a quasi experimental research with a control and an experimental group, which was conducted using Luthans Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ24) and Stenberg and Silverberg's Emotional Independence (1986). The gratitude educational package used in this research was taken from Ghamarani (2009), which was aligned with the purpose of the present research. The experimental group received the educational package of Emmons' gratitude for9 sessions and the control group did not receive any training. The research data was analyzed using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) explanation in SPSS software the results showed that after adjusting the pretest, the mean scores difference in psychological capital and emotional independence in the control and experimental groups was significant (p<0.05). The experimental group experienced more independence and higher psychological capital after receiving the educational package of gratitude It can be stated that the formation and expansion of a positive emotions such as gratitude can help the formation and development of other positive emotions and structures such as psychological capital and emotional independence in teenagers. Educating on gratitude is effective in increasing positive emotions.