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CHAPTER 2: The Scientific Method 35STRETCHING EXERCISEIn this exercise we ask you to respond to thequestions that follow this brief description of aresearch report.A relatively new area of psychology called “positivepsychology” focuses on positive emotion,positive character traits, and positive institutions;the goal of research in positive psychology is toidentify ways to foster well-being and happiness(Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005). Onearea of research focuses on gratitude, the positiveemotion people feel when they are given somethingof value by another person (Bartlett & DeSteno,2006). Some research suggests that people whofeel gratitude are more likely to act prosocially—that is, to behave in ways that benefit others.Bartlett and DeSteno (2006) tested the relationshipbetween gratitude and participants’ likelihoodof helping another person in an experimentinvolving confederates (people working with theexperimenter to create an experimental situation;see Chapter 4). Each participant first teamed upwith a confederate to complete a long, boringtask involving hand-eye coordination. Afterward,for one third of the participants their computerscreen was designed to go blank and they wereinstructed they would need to complete the taskagain. The confederate, however, induced anemotion of gratitude by fixing the problem, savingthe participant from having to redo the task.The situation differed for the other participants.After finishing the task, another one third of theparticipants watched an amusing video withthe confederate (positive emotion) and the finalone third of the participants had a brief verbalexchange with the confederate (neutral emotion).After completing some questionnaires, the confederateasked each participant to fill out alengthy survey for one of her classes as a favor.Bartlett and DeSteno found that participants inthe gratitude condition spent more time workingon the survey (M 20.94 minutes) than participantsin the positive emotion (M 12.11 min) andneutral emotion (M 14.49 min) conditions.1 Identify the independent variable (including itslevels) and the dependent variable in this study.2 How could the researchers determine that it wasgratitude, not simply feeling positive emotions,that increased participants’ willingness to help theconfederate?Key Conceptsapparently understood even though neither party in the conversation knowsexactly what the words mean. That is, people frequently communicate withone another without being fully aware of what they are talking about! This maysound ridiculous but, to illustrate our point, try the following.Ask a few people whether they believe that intelligence is mostly inheritedor mostly learned. You might try arguing a point of view opposite to theirs justfor the fun of it. After discussing the roots of intelligence, ask them what theymean by “intelligence.” You will probably find that most people have a difficulttime defining this concept, even after debating its origins, and people will providedifferent definitions. That is, “intelligence” means one thing to one personand something else to another. Clearly, in order to attempt to answer the questionof whether intelligence is mostly inherited or mostly learned, we need tohave an exact definition that all parties involved can accept.The study of “concepts” is so important in psychological science thatresearchers refer to concepts by a special name: constructs. A construct is aconcept or idea; examples of psychological constructs include intelligence,depression, aggression, and memory. One way in which a scientist gives meaningto a construct is by defining it operationally. An operational definitionexplains a concept solely in terms of the observable procedures used to produce