Professor X is studying the effect of exposure to sexual content on sexual thoughts.She assigns students to one of two conditions.In the first condition,participants are exposed to explicit sexual content and then given a word-completion task,which involves filling in the letter missing from each word.Based on the letter added,the word could be of a sexual nature or not.For instance,b_d could be completed as "bed," indicating sexual thought,or as "bad," which has no sexual connotation.In the second condition,participants are not exposed to explicit sexual content but are assigned the same word-completion task.What is the independent variable?

A) sexual thought
B) the word-completion task
C) exposure to explicit sexual content
D) random assignment

Question

Maria Resendiz · Accepted Answer

Final Answer : C, Explanation :  The independent variable in this study is exposure to explicit sexual content. This is the variable that the researcher manipulates by assigning participants to either the first condition or the second condition. The word-completion task and sexual thoughts are dependent variables as they are expected to be influenced by the independent variable of exposure to sexual content. Random assignment is a control variable that helps to ensure that any differences between the groups are due to the independent variable and not other extraneous factors.

Definitions

Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

Related questions