Danica put spouses in separate rooms, asked them to complete relationship satisfaction ratings, and then videotaped all participants giving a brief speech, which she said their partners would later watch. After the speech, participants were provided with written false feedback presumably provided by their partners, and then they rated their relationship satisfaction again. Danica then assessed how evaluations of relationship satisfaction changed when participants received three different types of false feedback. In one condition, the feedback was positive and reassuring, in the second it was negative and critical, and in the third it was mixed. In this experiment, the independent variable is ________ and the dependent variable is ________.
A) the false feedback; the relationship satisfaction
B) the relationship satisfaction; the false feedback
C) the speech; the false feedback
D) the speech; the relationship satisfaction

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The independent variable is the false feedback given to the participants (positive, negative, or mixed), while the dependent variable is the participants' evaluations of their relationship satisfaction. The speech given by participants does not vary and is not manipulated, so it is not an independent variable.

Danica Put Spouses in Separate Rooms, Asked Them to Complete