COMM 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Dependent And Independent Variables, Call Screening

• School: Irvine Valley College
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: COMM 1
• Professor: Rybold

Document Summary

Identify/describe attitudes or behaviors (in a given population) [what people think. Examine relationships between the attitude/behavior variables measured. Do a, b, and c, together predict y? (perhaps a better combination) Mail surveys (send it out, have them fill it out, and mail it back) Make it easy to complete and return. Include persuasive cover letter and/or do advance mailing. Higher response rate (harder to shut the door than throw away an e -mail) Depends on your hypothesis/research question and how your variables are measured. When both independent variable and dependent variable are nominal/categorical (discrete variables) E. g. , gallup survey on support for legalization of marijuana (2009) If independent variable is categorical, but dependent variable is interval/ratio data (continuous): Dependent variable uses likert, semantic difference items, etc. Compare mean (average) dependent variable scores for the different independent. E. g. , research question: does political ideology (independent variable) predict support for legalization (dependent variable) independent variable: political ideology.