Abstract: Gratitude is a heated spot in the research of personality psychology in western psychology recently. The social-cognitive model of gratitude considers that benefit appraisals mediated the relationship between trait and state levels of gratitude, and the relationship between different situations and state gratitude. Many reseachers tested the model and conducted deep research into the relationship between gratitude and subjective well-being, prosocial behavior and indebtedness. As the results show, gratitude is a robust predictor of well-being; grateful people tend to have more prosocial behaviors; and gratitude cannot be equated with indebtedness.

Key words: gratitude, the social–cognitive model, well-being, prosocial behaviors, indebtedness