What is the INDEPENDENT variable, and DEPENDENT variable.?

Question

A social psychologist set up an experimental design where a well dressed business man and a bum crossed against a light (jaywalking), and found that the number of pedistrians who would follow the business man dramatically exceeded the number who would cross after the bum. What is the variable?


a. Number of pedestrians who crossed in each situation.
b. Height of the bum as compared to the businessman
c. Amount of traffic at the intersection
d. Perceived status

Answer 1

Hi there,
I'm a psychology major, rest assured!

1. The IV is perceived status.

How do I know? Well, what is the psychologist manipulating (to make the two conditions different)? In this case, the psychologist can't control how many people cross the street, how much traffic there is, etc. But the psychologist *is* controlling who crosses the street first - specifically, one person of lower status, and one person of higher status. The thing which the psychologist controls, and purposely makes different (e.g bum vs. businessman) is the IV.

Example: An experimenter wants to see what pizza is better. She makes one pizza with expensive sauce and one pizza with cheap sauce. The IV is type of sauce, because that's what makes the two conditions (pizzas) different.

2. The DV is number of pedestrians.

How do I know? The DV is what changes as a result of the IV. So if a bum vs. businessmen crosses the road, the amount of traffic won't change, the height of the two men won't change, etc. However, what *does* change is how many pedestrians follow.

Example: From the pizza experiment, people ate more slices of the pizza with expensive sauce on it than the cheap one. Since the difference between slices eaten was a result of the type of sauce, "number of slices eaten" is the DV.

Best of luck & happy learning!

Answer 2

Ghost orchid has it right, but given how many people gave incorrect information, I felt a need to further confirm it. The independent variable is the variable being manipulated. Here, the perceived status of the jaywalker (bum vs. businessman) is being manipulated, so D is the IV. The dependent variable is the variable that is being measured to see whether the independent variable had an effect. Since the experimental method calls for measuring how many pedestrians follow the jaywalker, A is the DV for this experiment.

Answer 3

The terms "dependent variable" and "independent variable" are used in similar but subtly different ways in mathematics and statistics as part of the standard terminology in those subjects. They are used to distinguish between two types of quantities being considered, separating them into those available at the start of a process and those being created by it, where the latter (dependent variables) are dependent on the former (independent variables). In traditional calculus, a function is defined as a relation between two terms called variables because their values vary. Call the terms, for example, x and y. If every value of x is associated with exactly one value of y, then y is said to be a function of x. It is customary to use x for what is called the "independent variable," and y for what is called the "dependent variable" because its value depends on the value of x.[1] Therefore, y = x2 means that y, the dependent variable, is the square of x, the independent variable.[1][2] The most common way to denote a "function" is to replace y, the dependent variable, by f(x), where f is the first letter of the word "function." Thus, y = f(x) = x2 means that y, a dependent variable, a function of x, is the square of x. Also, in this form, the expression is called an "explicit" function of x, contrasted with x2 − y = 0, which is called an "implicit" function.[

Answer 4

The independent variables are the business man and the bum. The dependent variable is the number of pedestrians who crossed.

Answer 5

Its A B C and D..really is, psychology might have it correct, but this is the absolute right answer. Because no one knows what the weather was like when either of the men crossed, traffic, people walking or anything else that might be against what psychology is saying

Answer 6

The perceived status. It varies.

The independent variable is the act of jaywalking.

(PS. Take my word here I have a degree in Psychology)

A

Answer 7

Deirdre is right, as far as a science experiment is concerned. Those would be the variables. I do not know what your professor believes is right though so good luck.

Answer 8

the dependent variable is a and i'd assume the closest answer to the independent variable would be d.

Answer 9

hmm... i'm gonna say A for manipulated

Answer 10

d.) perceived status.