Gratitude scholarship, whether in the close relationships or developmental literature, currently lacks a coherent framework. The term gratitude is used for a wide variety of constructs, and there is rarely a clear link between conceptualization and operationalization. We think that gratitude should be considered a moral virtue, involving the desire to reciprocate in some kind or helpful way to one's intentional benefactors. Our goal is thus to provide a mid-range theoretical framework for the study of the development of gratitude as a virtue. The theory from which this framework is derived is cultural-ecological theory.

中文翻译：

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运用文化生态理论构建感恩美德发展的中档理论

感恩学术，无论是在亲密关系还是发展文学中，目前都缺乏一个连贯的框架。感恩一词用于各种各样的结构，概念化和操作化之间很少有明确的联系。我们认为感恩应该被认为是一种道德美德，包括以某种或有益的方式回报一个人的有意恩人的愿望。因此，我们的目标是为研究感恩作为一种美德的发展提供一个中等的理论框架。这一框架所依据的理论是文化生态理论。