I have to write a report based on a questionnaire (Lickert Scale) about levels of environmental concern vs egoistic concern.
The questionnaire was distributed amongst a group of 1st psych students. Below the questionnaire were further questions enquiring about gender, first language, employment, voluntary work etc. I am confused as to whether these are ALL considered independent variables, whilst the mean (catergorised- egoistic vs environmental) concern scores are considered dependent variables.
Psychology research: Confused on design and variables, can anyone help?
Those would be considered independent variables. The best way to think of it is this: What variable are you looking at as the output? What variable is the one you are looking at to answer the question? That is your dependent variable. All the ones that are "input" to answer that are independent.
Demographic questions are usually used to create groups of responders in order to compare one group to another (e.g. "Did men and women show the same level of observed difference?").
Reply:From my understanding of your description, these are the variables:
1. Demographic variables - such as gender, 1st language, employment etc. These variables can also be regarded as independent variables.
2. Dependent variables - egoistic concerns; environmental concerns.
The demographic variables can be independent (i.e. variables that have influence on other variables). Examples of analysis which you may consider:
- differences in egoistic concerns between male and female
- differences in environmental concerns between male and female
- differences in the two variables (environmental;egoistic) between employment types
You can also examine the relationships between the two concerns (egoistic and environmental concerns), whether they have positive (i.e high egoistic - high environmental, low egoistic - low environmental) or negative relationships (i.e in opposite directions: low egoistic - high environmental, vice versa).
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