The Linguistic Patterns of the Grateful and Envious Disposition: Cognitive and Emotional Processes Underlying Narratives

Abstract

The present study aimed at exploring the association between specific linguistic patterns characterising narrative accounts of feeling grateful and envious, and levels of dispositional gratitude and envy, respectively. A convenience and purposive sample of 56 Italian participants was recruited (50% female; Mage = 44,16 years, SD = 16,07). A structured interview was used to collect narratives about the experience of gratitude and envy; as well, measures of dispositional gratitude (GQ-6) and envy (DES) were administered. Specificity analyses were performed through T-Lab software to compare the vocabularies referring to high and low levels of dispositional gratitude and envy, in both gratitude- and envy-related narratives. The results highlight three distinctive elements across narratives, which shed light on the potential diverse nature of grateful and envious disposition in terms of mentalisation processes, perception of social comparison and coping strategies. Limitations and potential implications for future research are discussed.