Question

I NEED HELP WITH THIS QUESTION:

A psychology graduate student conducted a study at the entrance to a football game at the university. The entrance was specifically
for students who made the Dean's List for academic achievement during the previous semester. As they arrived, the graduate student
asked half of the students to record their attendance on an attendance sheet. The remaining half were allowed to enter the game without recording their attendance.The graduate student told every student to take one soda and one hamburger from a concessions table sponsored by the Dean's Office. She then returned to the sign-in table out of sight of the concessions. This gave the students the opportunity to take additional food. The graduate student measured the percentage of students who took additional free food. Her hypothesis was that students would take more food when they were not asked to sign in. The results are shown in the graph below assume all differences are significant.


Part A


Identify each of the following in this study:

-Confounding variable
-Independent variable

Explain why operational definitions are important when conducting research.
Provide an operational definition of the dependent variable


Part B

Explain how the data support or do not support the hypothesis

Explain why the students used in this study are not a representative sample of the school's overall population.

Explain why the study is not a naturalistic observation




I have a question as well: wouldn’t the independent variable be just the student who are asked to sign in? Because, isn’t the independent the one that is being changed and the dependent variable is the one responding to the change?

Answer 1

wouldn’t the independent variable be just the student who are asked to sign in? Because, isn’t the independent the one that is being changed and the dependent variable is the one responding to the change?

• A dependent variable is the variable that changes as a result of the independent variable manipulation. It's the outcome you're interested in measuring, and it “depends” on your independent variable.