A researcher is interested in studying changes in marital satisfaction over the course of marriage. She hypothesizes that marital satisfaction is highest when couples are newly married, that it decreases during the middle years of marriage, but rises again during later years of marriage. In order to test her hypothesis, she recruits fifty married couples within each of the following conditions: (1) married less than 10 years; (2) married 15-20 years; (3) married more than 25 years. All 150 couples (50 from each condition) complete a standardized measure of marital satisfaction.
What is the dependent variable?
A) Length of marriage
B) Passage of time
C) Marital satisfaction
D) Age of partners

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The dependent variable is the variable of interest that is being measured and compared between groups. In this study, the dependent variable is marital satisfaction, as it is the variable being measured and compared for changes over the course of marriage. The independent variables are the different conditions (lengths of marriage) that the couples are placed in. Therefore, the best choice is C.

A Researcher Is Interested in Studying Changes in Marital Satisfaction