Question

Experiment or an observational, if it is an experiment, identify the independent variable and note any possible

confounding variables.

A social scientist wishes to determine whether there is a relationship between the

attractiveness scores (on a 100-point scale) assigned to college students by a panel

of peers and their scores on a paper-and-pencil test of anxiety.

Answer 1

Here in this experiment attractiveness scores is an independent variable because it is not dependent on any other quality and is determined independently of other qualities that is it is calculated for each college student without considering the other factors.

Confounding variables are those variables whose influence changes the effect of a dependent and independent variable.

Here the confounding variables can be the following :-

a) number of hours a person sleeps because this will affect his mood and hence attractiveness and help become more stable and hence less anxious.

b) The type of friends he has because if his friends think a lot about being attractive then even he must be thinking of being more attractive and because of this he would be very anxious to his dressing style or style of living.

c)how happy or satisfied a person is about his life.

This will affect a lot because if he is happy he would naturally be attractive and less anxious because he is satisfied with his life.