Independent and Dependent variables

• Operationalisation:

  • A term which describes when a variable is defined by the researcher in a way that there is no confusion about its meaning. It means that the variable can be researched in a valid way.
  • Operationalisation can be applied to independent variables (IV), dependent variables (DV) or co variables (in a correlational design)
• Independent Variable

  The independent variable is the variable that is changed.

  E.g. Bob is doing a study into whether people are aggressive on hot days.

  The independent variable would be the temperature outside (hot or cold)
• Dependent variable

  The dependent variable is the variable which is MEASURED.

  E.g. Bob is doing a study into whether people are aggressive on hot days.

  The dependent variable would be the number of swear words recorded in a town centre.

  We MUST make the dependent variable measurable (numerical) to get marks.
• Levels of Independent Variables

  In order to test the effect of an independent variable we need different experimental conditions.

  So we could:

  Use the same group of participants at different times

  OR

  Use two groups of participants one group is experimental condition and the other control condition.