Question

Imagine a researcher wants to test the hypothesis that participating in psychotherapy will cause a decrease in reported anxiety. Describe the type of research design the investigator might use to draw this conclusion. What would be the independent and dependent variables in the research?

Answer 1

Correlational research

Explanation:

Research design can be defined as the methodology that the scientist uses for collecting, analyzing, and finally interpreting research data. There are three different classes of research design: 1-descriptive research, 2-correlational research and 3-experimental research. Correlational research is a type of design used to discover associations between variables and thus predict future outcomes. The independent variable is the variable that isn't being modified by any factor that the researcher is measuring, while the dependent variable is the variable being tested, which is dependent on the independent variable. In this example, anxiety is the dependent variable that is being measured, while psychotherapy treatment is the independent variable.