8.2: Individual Differences as Confounding Variables

• What are some other confounding variables according to "individual differences?"

  1. Confounding From Individual Differences – These are any participant characteristic that can differ from one participant to another. These variables may produce differences between groups that can compromise research results.
  2. Confounding From Environmental Variables – These are any characteristic of the environment that may differ; any such variable may cause differences that cannot be attributed to the independent variable.
• Researchers have the opportunity and responsibility to create groups that are:

  1. Created Equally: The process used to obtain participants should be as similar as possible for all of the groups.
  2. Treated Equally: Except for the treatment conditions that are deliberately varied between groups, the groups of participants should receive exactly the same experience.
  3. Composed of Equivalent Individuals: The characteristics of the participants in any one group should be as similar as possible to the characteristics of the participants in every other group.