Suppose that you are conducting an experiment to see whether receiving negative feedback from an authority figure will increase eating behavior. After writing an essay, half of your research participants are given negative feedback from a professor, and half are given encouraging feedback. All participants are then placed in a room with a large container of cookies and their eating behavior is observed. In this study, an operational definition for the dependent variable might be ____.
A) whether participants received critical or encouraging feedback
B) the number of words in each participant's essay
C) the number of cookies each participant ate
D) how many minutes the professor spent giving each participant feedback

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The dependent variable in this study is the eating behavior of the participants, which is observed and measured by the number of cookies each participant eats. A and D are not relevant as they pertain to the independent variable (the type of feedback) and a procedural detail (how long the feedback was given). B is not relevant to the study at all.

Suppose That You Are Conducting an Experiment to See Whether