Title of Resource Measuring Dependent Variables

Author(s) Gary Lewandowski

Institution Monmouth University

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This lecture introduces students to several different ways of

measuring behavior as the dependent variable. Several
types of behavioral measures are shown, including:
behavioral trace, behavioral observation, and behavioral
choice.
Measuring Dependent Variables; Measuring Behavior
glewando@monmouth.edu
Lewandowski, G. W., Jr. (2009, June). Two-group designs: A demonstration of the
effect of arousal on attraction. In A few of our favorite things: Activities and
demonstrations for teaching psychology. Symposium conducted at Eastern
Conference on the Teaching of Psychology, Staunton, VA.

TeachPsychScience.org is made possible with grant support from the Association for Psychological
Science (APS) Fund for Teaching and Public Understanding of Psychological Science to the site
creators Gary Lewandowski, Natalie Ciarocco, and David Strohmetz. All materials on this site have
been subjected to a peer review process. We welcome additional resources
(www.teachpsychscience.org/submissions).
2010 Gary Lewandowski. All Rights Reserved. This material may be used for noncommercial

Instructors:
The goal of this lecture is to get students to see other types of measuring
DVs, aside from self-report. This starts with a quick overview of the pros &
cons of behavioral measures, including the importance of methodological
pluralism, then provides an overview of different types of behavioral
measures (the related references provide a nice background of these
concepts)
Each example provides a citation, the research question, the DV, how the DV
was operationally defined, the procedure (where applicable), and simple
summary of the results. The last slide provides an opportunity for students to
generate their own ideas. In full, the lecture should take about an hour.
Related References:
Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., & Funder, D. C. (2007). Psychology as the
science of self-reports and finger movements: Whatever happened to actual
behavior? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2, 396-403.
Lewandowski, G. W., Jr., & Strohmetz, D. B. (2009). Actions can speak as loud

Building the
Better
Experiment:
Measuring DVs
Measure what is measurable, and make
measureable what is not so. ~ Galileo
"If you cannot measure it,
you cannot improve it." ~ LordKelvin

I. Measuring the Dependent

Variable
A. Self-Report
1. Pros
2. Cons

B. Behavioral Measures
1. Pros
2. Cons

C. Methodological Pluralism and

Triangulation

I. Measuring the Dependent

Variable

C. Overview: Three Types of Behavioral

Measures
1. Behavioral Trace
2. Behavioral Observations
3. Behavioral Choice

Behavioral Trace
RQ= Does political preference relate to littering?
DV= Littering
Operational Def: Throwing flier on the ground
Procedure=

Participant parked and went to vote

Experimenter placed a President Carter flier or Ford flier on
windshield
Fliers were also placed on the ground to simulate previous littering
Recorded the number of campaign flyers discarded in a parking lot
Asked who they voted for at the stop sign to exit parking lot

Results = More likely to litter when it was a candidate you didnt vote for
(Cialdini & Baumann,1981)

Behavioral Trace
RQ= What types of messages increase energy
conservation?
DV= Energy Usage
Operational Def: Electric Meter Reading
Procedure=

Participant received a message about energy conservation

Save energy: To protect the environment, to benefit society, to save
money, descriptive norm (others are doing it), or information only
3 meter readings were taken: Baseline, short-term, and long-term

Results = Finding out that others were conserving energy was the most
effective
(Nolan, Schultz, Cialdini, Goldstein, & Griskevicius, 2008)

Behavioral Trace
RQ= What types of messages help remedy a social
problem?
DV= Engaging in Antisocial Behavior
Operational Def: Stealing wood from National Forrest
Procedure=

Park visitors saw signs displaying one of several messages

Placing 20 pieces of petrified wood along the path in the park
At the end of predetermined time blocks, the researchers counted
how many pieces of wood remained

Results = Finding out that others werent stealing was the most
effective
(Cialdini, Demaine, Sagarin, Barrett, Rhoads, & Winter, 2006)

Behavioral Trace
RQ= Who is more likely to include indicators of
attainment?
DV= Indicators of attainment
Operational Def: Degree information, academic rank
Procedure=

Examined professors websites as well as email signatures.

Compared with productivity (# of citations, and years since
earning Ph.D.)

Results = Individuals with lower rates of publication and citations

included a greater number of indicators of attainment compared
to those with higher publication and citation rates.
(Harmon-Jones, Schmeichel, & Harmon-Jones, 2008)

Behavioral Trace
RQ= Are there general categories of music preference?
DV= Music Preference
Operational Def: Contents of online music library
Procedure=

Compare online music library to personality of participant

Results = Music preferences can be organized into four independent

dimensions:

Reflective and Complex

Intense and Rebellious
Upbeat and Conventional
Energetic and Rhythmic
(Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003)

Behavioral Observation
RQ= Does attachment style relate to interpersonal
distance?
DV= Interpersonal distance
Operational Def: How close a person moves a chair;
distance
equates to comfort with closeness.
Procedure=

Participants who were to be interviewed by a stranger had to

move a chair on wheels across the room in order to sit by the
interviewer
Experimenters then measured the distance between the chairs

Results = Avoidant attached were less tolerant of close interpersonal

physical proximity than were securely attached individuals.
(Kaitz, Bar-Haim, Lehrer, & Grossman, 2004)

Behavioral Observation
RQ= How do people react to a socially deviating person?
DV= Reactions
Operational Def: Interpersonal Closeness via Seat Choice
Procedure=

Participants entered a room with a row of eight chairs.

The last chair contained several articles apparently left by the
homeless person who purportedly had just stepped out of the room.
Experimenters noted the chosen chair

Results = Participants who had a negative attitude towards homeless

people and who were made to feel uncertain tended to choose a seat
further away from the target chair.

(Van den Bos, Euwema, Poortvliet, & Maas, 2007)

Behavioral Observation
RQ= Can situational factors subconsciously influence
our behavior?
DV= Activation of stereotype
Operational Def: Time until interruption
Procedure=
After sentence completion task, the participant had to find the
experimenter around the corner in another room.
When the participant found the experimenter they were engaged in
an unrelenting conversation with a confederate.

Results = Those in the rude condition interrupted faster and more

often.
(Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996)

Behavioral Observation
RQ= Do self-efficacy beliefs lead to consistent
behavior?
DV= Consistent Behavior (Self-efficacy Behavior)
Operational Def: Persistence on a task
Procedure=

Participants primed with either athlete or unemployed person

Participants then squeezed a hand grip- length of time squeezed
was measured

Results = Athlete-primed persistently squeezed for a non-significant

longer time- same amount of time between pre- and post test
(Hansen & Wnke, 2008)

Behavioral Observation
RQ= Does an affiliation motive lead to affiliative
behaviors?
DV= Affiliative Behavior
Operational Def: Nonconscious mimicry
Procedure=

Researchers recorded how much time participants spent mimicking

a confederate who was repeatedly touching his or her face
A follow-up did the same thing, but with foot-shaking behavior

Results = Results confirmed that participants primed with an affiliation

goal spent more time mimicking the confederates behavior than
participants who were not primed with a goal.
(Lakin & Chartrand, 2003)

Behavioral Observation
RQ= Does self-esteem related to defensiveness?
DV= Defensiveness
Operational Def: Time to read through feedback
Procedure=

Participants completed an online questionnaire about themselves

Told that the info would be sent to another participant who would
provide feedback
Gave participants either negative or positive social feedback to
read
Measured how long it took participants to read through their
feedback as an indication of defensiveness.

Results = Participants who report artificially high self-esteem, read

through the negative feedback more quickly and were considered
more defensive.

(Schrder-Ab, Rudolph, Wiesner, & Schtz, 2007)

Behavioral Choice
RQ= Does arousal influence attraction?
DV= Attraction
Operational Def: Calling a female confederate
Procedure=

Male participants met a female confederate on either a high

shaky bridge or a low sturdy bridge
The confederate gave her phone number and told participants
to call if they had any questions

Results = More participants from the high shaky bridge condition

called.
(Dutton & Aron, 1974)

Behavioral Choice
RQ= Can discrimination influence helping behavior?
DV= Helping
Operational Def: Making a phone call
Procedure=

Confederates called random telephone numbers and asked for the

participant (call-ee) to call the confederates significant other to
pass on a message.
Pretended to be either heterosexual or homosexual (based on
their significant others name).

Results = Homosexual callers received less help (with gay men

receiving less help than lesbian women). Lesbian women
received the same help from men and women participants. Gay
men were discriminated against by male participants only. Men
were less inclined to help overall.
(Gabriel & Banse, 2006)

Behavioral Choice
RQ= How does setting influence helping behavior?
DV= Helping
Operational Def: Donating money or signing a petition
Procedure=

After completing a questionnaire, both a petition and a flyer

for the Gay organization appeared. (all male participants)
The experimenter was either present (public setting) or absent
(private setting)
Participants then had the option of signing the petition and/or
donating money.

Results = More helping in public setting.

(Gabriel, Banse, & Hug, 2007)

Behavioral Choice
RQ=

Does attention to rewards lead a person to

pursue reward behavior?
DV= Reward behavior
Operational Def: Taking a piece of candy
Procedure=

Participants either paid attention to reward or neutral words.

Afterward, they had a chance to take or decline a Hersheys
kiss.

Results = Those who paid more attention to reward words were

more likely to take the candy.

(Goetz, Robinson, & Meier, 2008)

Behavioral Choice
RQ= Does seeing novel stimuli lead a person to seek
variety?
DV= Variety/uniqueness seeking
Operational Def: Choice of product
Procedure=

Participants saw displays of shapes that conveyed variety or similarity

Then had a choice:
Study 1: all of the same flavor of chocolate or three different flavors
Study 2: a uniquely wrapped chocolate from a set of five (four had the same
color wrapping, one was wrapped in a different color)
Study 3: same as Study 2 but with memo pads instead of chocolate

Results = Those exposed to variety subsequently made choices that

demonstrated variety seeking behavior.
(Maimaran & Wheeler, 2008)

Behavioral Choice
RQ= How does anger influence aggression?
DV= Aggression
Operational Def: Giving others an unpleasant stimulus
Procedure=

Male participants received either neutral or negative (angerinducing) feedback about an essay on a personally important topic
Next, as part of a taste perception task, participants had the
opportunity to choose the type and amount of beverage another
participant drank from six possibilities ranging from very
unpleasant (water with hot sauce or vinegar) to pleasant (water
with apple juice or sugar).

Results = Those receiving negative feedback reported more anger,

had greater left prefrontal brain activity, and chose unpleasant
beverages for the other participant to taste.
(Harmon-Jones & Sigelman, 2001)

Practice
Each of the following are commonly
measured through self-report.
Please devise a behavioral measure for
each.
a)
b)
c)
d)

Happiness
Job Satisfaction
Anxiety
Helping