Similarly, we need a measured operational definition when a construct variable like anxiety is a dependent variable. There are many possible measured operational definitions of anxiety too. One such definition might be “a heartbeat in excess of 120 beats per minute following 5 minutes rest on a sofa.” This definition could be used to explain what we mean by “anxiety” in a particular experiment. Notice that the components of the definition are observable dimension; we can readily determine a person’s pulse. We would expect to get good agreement on whether or not a person is “anxious” according to this definition.