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=Robert A. Emmons=

Robert A. Emmons, Ph. D., is a professor of psychology of religion and health psychology at UC Davis (Davis, California). His work in research has greatly advanced the study of personality psychology, emotion psychology, and psychology of religion.

Background
Robert Emmons completed his undergraduate psychology degree in 1980 at the University of Southern Maine, Portland. He then went on to obtain a M.A. and Ph. D. in Personality Psychology at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1984 and 1986 respectively. He has taught at Michigan State University but has been a professor at University of California, Davis since 1988. He has written 5 books and over a 100 articles for scientific journals. He is Editor-In-Chief of The Journal of Positive Psychology.

Research
Emmons' research examines the psychology of gratitude and the psychology of individual goal setting and their connection with positive outcomes in a person's life. He was involved in a nearly $1 million research grant from 2006-2009 evaluating the affect of Young Life on teen's spiritual fruits such as kindness, generosity, and selflessness. Emmons is known for working on multiple research projects focused on gratitude. He is the top expert in the area of gratitude.

Emmons addresses many ways to stay grateful in different situations and has found through his research that gratefulness inspires happiness. He is focused on finding ways to engender gratefulness in youth. He has found that practicing acts of gratitude such as journalling things for which one is grateful for can promote well-being. Emmons continues to work with other experts in the field of personality psychology to improve the study of gratefulness.