A researcher wants to know whether writing an essay on a controversial topic will have an effect on the attitudes held by people.First,she administers an attitude survey that covers a number of topics,including electronic voting machines.She then randomly assigns subjects to write an essay either supporting or opposing electronic voting machines.One week later,she administers the same attitude survey and compares those responses to the responses from the first time the survey was administered.In this experiment,the independent variable (IV)is ________.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The independent variable is what is being manipulated or changed in the study to see if it has an effect on the dependent variable (the measure being taken). In this case, the independent variable is whether the subjects wrote an essay supporting or opposing electronic voting machines. The attitude survey and controversial topic may be considered control variables, as they are being used to measure attitudes and keep other variables constant. The students' attitudes are the dependent variable, as they are being measured to determine if they change based on the manipulation of the independent variable. Random assignment is a method used to control for extraneous variables and ensure that the groups are equivalent at the start of the study.

A Researcher Wants to Know Whether Writing an Essay on a Controversial