Abstract:

The main purpose of the current study is to determine the opinions of individuals who are in their emerging and middle adulthood periods about thankfulness and to elicit the similarities and differences between the opinions of these two groups. The current study employed the phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research designs. The current study was conducted with the participation of 20 individuals who were in their emerging adulthood period (18-25 years old) and 20 individuals who were in their middle adulthood period (26-45 years old); thus, a total of 40 participants, in the years 2019 and 2020. The participants were of the different ages, professions and education levels and lived in different regions of Turkey. The participants of the current study were selected by using the stratified purposeful sampling method, one of the purposive sampling methods. The data were collected by using the personal information form prepared by the researchers and a semi-structured interview form administered online. In the analysis of the collected data, content analysis method was used. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that the individuals who were in their emerging adulthood and middle adulthood periods have largely similar opinions about the definition of thankfulness, the situations where thankfulness is felt, expression of thankfulness, behavioural and emotional exhibition of thankfulness, its contribution to social life and obstacles to it. Yet, there are some points where the two groups of participants’ perceptions of thankfulness differ. These findings obtained in the current study were discussed in reference to the literature and suggestions were made in light of the findings.

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