Castiel is a psychologist who is interested in seeing how autonomic nervous system responses are related to subjective feelings of fear. Half the participants in Castiel's experiment watch a 10-minute graphic and violent video and the other half watch a 10-minute video of a baby kitten. While the participants are watching the video, Castiel gathers measurements of their skin conductance. After they finish watching the video the participants answer a questionnaire about their level of fear after watching the video as well as how they generally react to horror movies.
-Castiel measured the participants' general violent tendencies in an attempt to control for ________.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Castiel measured the participants' general violent tendencies to control for confounding variables, which are variables other than the independent variable that might cause the effect being measured, in this case, the relationship between autonomic responses and feelings of fear. By controlling for general violent tendencies, Castiel aims to ensure that any observed differences in fear or autonomic responses are due to the content of the video rather than participants' predisposition to violence.

Castiel Is a Psychologist Who Is Interested in Seeing How