Document Type : Research Article
Authors
1 MSc. in general psychology, faculty of educational science and psychology, Allameh tabataba’I university, Tehran, Iran
2 PhD student general psychology, faculty of educational science and psychology, Allameh tabataba’I university, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Introduction
Appreciation is a structure that has attracted the attention of many psychologists and they consider it a cognitive and emotional state that affects the depth of people's relationships. The depth of people's relationship with each other is an important predictor in connection with the stability of people's social relationship. And requested and unrequested gift giving is a question that has occupied the minds of researchers. In fact, a better understanding of the relationship is created when there is a match between the image of the giver and the appreciation of the gift. The matching of the image of the giver and the recipient has a strong effect on appreciation, which is greatly influenced by environmental factors. Also, people's perception regarding their relationship history and future expectations is effective on their sense of appreciation. Gift-giving failures are surprisingly common, with an estimated 40-50% returning at least one store-bought gift each year. Gift givers expect the recipient to accept the purchased gift. Between the person who buys the gift and the person who ultimately wants to use the gift, there are differences in the perception of the value and philosophy of that gift. The present study aimed to determine the role of explicitness in gift giving on the level of appreciation of individuals, taking into account the depth of their relationship in the two roles of partner and close friend.
Method
The research method was descriptive and correlational. It was used to investigate the level of appreciation of people when they receive and giver a birthday gift, wanted and unsolicited gift, from their partner and close friend, and to measure the mediating role of the depth of the relationship. therefore 629 individuals aged 21 to 50 volunteered, and the level of appreciation of each individual was measured in four scenarios designed in two explicit and implicit situations, with each person initially designated as a gift giver and then as a gift receiver. People were first in the role of gift giver and then in the role of gift receiver. Also, in this study through the relationship quality questionnaire of Pierce & Sarason )1991(, the relationship depth score of the people was obtained. A statistical analysis of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was performed using the SPSS-16 software.
Results
The results of the statistical technique of analysis indicated that the main effect of the role factor on the level of appreciation was statistically significant ([F(1, 2512) = 364.583, P < 0.05, η² = 0.127]). Additionally, the main effect of the type of relationship on the level of appreciation was also statistically significant ([F(1, 2512) = 11.956, P < 0.05, η² = 0.005]). Moreover, the interaction between role and type of relationship was significant as well ([F (1, 2512) = 49.19, P < 0.05, η² = 0.019]). The results of the mean comparisons (Table 8) show that the level of appreciation is higher for the gift-giver than for the gift-receiver. Furthermore, the comparison based on the relationship type indicates that among gift-givers, the level of appreciation is higher for a close friend than for a romantic partner, while among gift-receivers, this level is higher for a romantic partner. Additionally, the comparison based on the depth of the relationship shows that within the groups of close friends and romantic partners, the level of appreciation is higher in deeper relationships compared to those with lower relationship depth.
Discussion
The findings showed that explicitness in gift giving is correlated with the level of appreciation of the partner and close friends. therefore, People who have deeper relationships express more explicitness in giving and receiving gifts. in this scenario the explicitness in gift giving has a stronger role in relation to the partner. People who have a deeper relationship with their partner are more likely to ask for the requested gift. In fact, the depth of the relationship has a direct relationship with appreciation. These results showed that buying an expensive gift does not make people happy, but a gift that people themselves want or need makes them grateful.
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