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Grateful' reference

Glossary

Definitions of the terms used across Grateful', with linked research.

For the practice rather than the vocabulary, see the gratitude journal prompts.

  1. Affect labelingAffect labeling is the act of putting an emotion into words; a 2007 imaging study found naming a feeling lowered amygdala response to negative images.Read the card →
  2. Broaden-and-build theoryBroaden-and-build theory proposes that positive emotions widen what you notice and consider doing, and that this widening accumulates lasting resources.Read the card →
  3. Duration neglectDuration neglect is the finding that how long an experience lasted barely affects how good or bad you remember it being afterwards.Read the card →
  4. Fading affect biasThe fading affect bias is the tendency for the unpleasantness of a bad memory to drain away faster over time than the pleasantness of a good one.Read the card →
  5. Gratitude journalingGratitude journaling is the practice of writing down specific things you are grateful for on a regular schedule — most often a short list of three items.Read the card →
  6. Habit stackingHabit stacking is attaching a new behaviour to an existing reliable cue, so the cue does the remembering instead of your intention.Read the card →
  7. Hedonic adaptationHedonic adaptation is the drift back toward your ordinary level of happiness after your circumstances change, for better or for worse.Read the card →
  8. Mood rating scaleA mood rating scale turns how you feel into one number on a fixed range — usually 0 to 10 — so the same question asked daily gives comparable answers.Read the card →
  9. Negativity biasNegativity bias is the tendency for bad events to hit harder and register faster than good events of the same size.Read the card →
  10. Peak-end ruleThe peak-end rule is the pattern that people judge a past experience by its most intense moment and by how it ended, rather than by its length.Read the card →
  11. SavoringSavoring is the deliberate attending to a good experience, while it happens or afterwards, so that the feeling registers and lasts.Read the card →
  12. Three good thingsThe three good things exercise is writing down three things that went well each day, plus why each one happened, every night for about a week.Read the card →
  13. Toxic positivityToxic positivity is the insistence on a positive frame regardless of circumstance, treating negative feeling as a fault to correct rather than a fact.Read the card →