Question

Researchers at a psychology clinic screen all new clients via phone interview, and over a few weeks have a list of 40 new clients who meet criteria for depression. twenty receive cognitive-behavioral treatment, and the other twenty are told that they are on a waiting list. the independent variable in this study is __________, and the dependent variable is __________.

Answer 1

The correct answers are treatment; depression levels.

Answer 1: The independent variable (IV) in this study is the treatment the clients receive; that is, whether or not they received cognitive-behavioral treatment. An IV is an experimental variable in a study that is controlled and manipulated in order to measure its effects on dependent variables or outcomes. 

Answer 2: The dependent variable (DV) in this study is the clients' depression levels. DVs refer to outcome variables or results that are obtained as a result of manipulating an IV. In this instance, the manipulation of the IV (whether the participants received cognitive-behavioral treatment or were instead wait-listed) led to the DV- clients' depression levels. Specifically the researchers were investigating whether receiving the treatment had an influence on clients' depression levels.