01:830:101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 25: Random Assignment, Dependent And Independent Variables, Confounding

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: 01:830:101
• Professor: Wise

Document Summary

Independent variable- the variable a researcher manipulates and measures in an experiment. Dependent variable- the variable a researcher measures but does not manipulate. Example: professor elizabeth dunn conducted an experiment on spending and happiness. She gave each of the participants in her experiment and then told them they had to spend the money by the end of the day, one group on themselves and one on others. Dependent variable: the participant"s happiness (their happiness depends" on what happens on how participants spend their money). Random assignment- assigning participants to receive different conditions of an experiment by chance. This is important because if people were allowed to choose their groups, specific people would gear toward being in the spending on themselves" group while others found spending on others" more appealing. This means that there isn"t that much diversity in between the two groups. Confounds- factors that undermine the ability to draw casual inferences from an experiment.