Gratitude is conceptualized as a moral affect that is analogous to other moral emotions such as empathy and guilt. Gratitude has 3 functions that can be conceptualized as morally relevant: (a) a moral barometer function (i.e., it is a response to the perception that one has been the beneficiary of another person's moral actions); (b) a moral motive function (i.e., it motivates the grateful person to behave prosocially toward the benefactor and other people); and (c) a moral reinforcer function (i.e., when expressed, it encourages benefactors to behave morally in the future). The personality and social factors that are associated with gratitude are also consistent with a conceptualization of gratitude as an affect that is relevant to people's cognitions and behaviors in the moral domain.

Because forgiveness theory has tended to neglect the role of dispositional factors, the authors present novel theorizing about the nature of vengefulness (the disposition to seek revenge following interpersonal offenses) and its relationship to forgiveness and other variables. In Study 1, vengefulness was correlated cross-sectionally with (a) less forgiving, (b) greater rumination about the offense, (c) higher negative affectivity, and (d) lower life satisfaction. Vengefulness at baseline was negatively related to change in forgiving throughout an 8-week follow-up. In Study 2, vengefulness was negatively associated with Agreeableness and positively associated with Neuroticism. Measures of the Big Five personality factors explained 30% of the variance in vengefulness.

An established method for assessing empathic accuracy was used to examine the consequences of accurate understanding during the early years of marriage. Structural equation modeling analyses simultaneously examined within-individual and across-partner associations among variables (actor effects and partner effects). During the first year of marriage, actor effects and partner effects were observed for two presumed consequences of empathic accuracy-accommodative behavior and couple well-being. Actor effects, partner effects, or both were observed for three possible determinants of empathic accuracy-commitment level, partner perspective-taking, and psychological femininity. Levels of empathic accuracy reliably declined following the first year of marriage, as did the strength of the above-noted associations with empathic accuracy.

Narcissism is a set of traits that are motivated by the desire to establish and maintain a grandiose self-image. Consistent with this conceptualization, the authors hypothesized that narcissistic people perceive themselves to be the victims of other people's inter-personal transgressions more frequently than do less narcissistic people. In a 14-day diary study, the authors found that narcissism (particularly in its exploitiveness/entitlement dimension) was associated positively with the number and frequency of transgressions that respondents reported. The narcissism-victimization relationship appears to result, at least in part, from biased recall or self-presentation. The exploitiveness/entitlement dimension of narcissism may be particularly useful for explaining why narcissistic people report higher rates of interpersonal transgressions in their daily lives.

This article surveys the current attitudes of rehabilitation specialists regarding spirituality and religiousness. The existing data on the associations of spirituality and religiousness with measures of physical and mental health and well-being in people with disabilities are described. The role of religion-spirituality in the lives of caregivers for people with disabilities is addressed, as are professionals' attitudes toward considering patients' religious and spiritual involvement in the course of rehabilitation. Finally, the potential ways to use patients' spirituality and religiousness in assessment and intervention are discussed, and directions for future research are proposed.Religion holds considerable importance for many Americans. For example, 92% of the U.S. population is affiliated with a religion (Kosmin & Lachman, 1993). According to a recent survey, 96% of Americans believe in God or a universal spirit, 42% indicate that they attend a religious worship service weekly or almost weekly, 67% indicate that they are members of a church or synagogue, and 60% indicate that religion is "important" or "very important" in their lives (Gallup, 1995). Almost three quarters of Americans say that their approach to life is grounded in their religious faith (Bergin & Jensen, 1990; Princeton Religious Center, 1994a, 1994b. The religiousness of the U.S. population is unmatched by almost any other industrialized nation (Gallup, 1979).