1193 A Prototype Analysis of Gratitude: Varieties of Gratitude Experiences Nathaniel M. Lambert Florida State University Steven M. Graham New College of Florida Frank D. Fincham Florida State University stress disorder (Masingale et al., 2001, as cited in Emmons & McCullough, 2004), decreased materialism (Lambert, Fincham, Stillman, & Dean, 2009), lower depression (Woodward, Moua, & Watkins, 1998), and strengthened social bonds (Emmons & Shelton, 2002; McCullough et al., 2001; McCullough & Tsang, 2004). Lambert and colleagues (Lambert, Clark, Durtschi, Fincham, & Graham, 2009; Lambert & Fincham, 2009) found that participants randomly assigned to express gratitude to a friend twice a week for 3 weeks reported more willingness to voice relationship concerns, had higher positive regard for the friend, and perceived greater communal strength than those in control condi- tions. Thus, considerable evidence suggests that grati- tude is important for psychological well-being. The potential positive effects of gratitude on indi- viduals and society are numerous and researchers have recently begun to explore them. Along with the bur- geoning research on this construct comes the need for greater precision in defining it. The purpose of the present research is to examine how laypersons concep- tualize gratitude via prototype analysis. By doing so we intend to gain insight into whether lay concepts of gratitude match those of researchers. Authors’ Note: We thank Tyler Stillman for assistance with data preparation and Olya Lambert, Elaina Plunkett, Andrea Roth, and Melissa Weiler for assistance with the coding. Correspondence con- cerning this article should be addressed to Nathaniel M. Lambert, Family Institute, Sandels Building, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, 32306; e-mail: nlambert@fsu.edu. PSPB, Vol. 35 No. 9, September 2009 1193-1207 DOI: 10.1177/0146167209338071 © 2009 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc. The present research tested the hypothesis that concepts of gratitude are prototypically organized and explored whether lay concepts of gratitude are broader than researchers’ concepts of gratitude. In five studies, evi- dence was found that concepts of gratitude are indeed prototypically organized. In Study 1, participants listed features of gratitude. In Study 2, participants reliably rated the centrality of these features. In Studies 3a and 3b, participants perceived that a hypothetical other was experiencing more gratitude when they read a narrative containing central as opposed to peripheral features. In Study 4, participants remembered more central than peripheral features in gratitude narratives. In Study 5a, participants generated more central than peripheral fea- tures when they wrote narratives about a gratitude incident, and in Studies 5a and 5b, participants gener- ated both more specific and more generalized types of gratitude in similar narratives. Throughout, evidence showed that lay conceptions of gratitude are broader than current research definitions. Keywords: gratitude; benefit-triggered gratitude; generalized gratitude; prototype analysis; positive psychol- ogy; interpersonal exchange T he emergence of positive psychology has focused on several constructs that have received limited atten- tion. One such construct is gratitude. Gratitude appears to have important implications for well-being; it has been shown to predict higher levels of prosocial behav- ior (McCullough, Kilpatrick, Emmons, & Larson, 2001) and sense of coherence (Lambert, Graham, Fincham, & Stillman, in press), and lower levels of posttraumatic