Although we have made some progress in understanding how
gratitude as a conscious cognitive strategy might affect psychological
well-being, many important questions remain to be asked.
For example, we have treated gratitude as a malleable characteristic
in our research, yet it may also possess trait-like qualities
(McCullough et al., 2002). To what degree would dispositional
gratefulness, or other individual differences, interact with a gratitude
manipulation to either strengthen or weaken the effect? Can
gratitude be cultivated equally well in men and women? It has
been argued that conventional, self-reliant men may be averse to
experiences and expressions of gratefulness to the extent that they
signify dependency and indebtedness (Solomon, 1995). Those
designing gratitude interventions may have to be sensitive to
different meanings that men and women might associate with
gratitude.