An Example Of An Independent Variable

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1. Independent variable (pg. 39) – a type of variable that is controlled by the experimenter, and comes before the dependent variable. An example of an independent variable in a study would be the amount of time played by a college football player.
2. Dependent variable (pg. 39) – a type of variable that is influenced by the independent variable. An example of a dependent variable would be the amount of hits the football players takes compared to how much time they play.
3. Hypothesis (pg. 47) – a proposed statement of results made about a problem in a research study that is expected. An example of a hypothesis would be “If college football players play a full game of 60 minutes, then they are 70% more prone to concussions.”
4. Null hypothesis (pg. 49) – a type of hypothesis in which there is no relationship between the measured variables, and offers no support to the original hypothesis. An example of a null hypothesis would be that there was no relationship between time played and the number of concussions sustained by players who had high playing times.
5. Primary source (pg. 68) – the original document which was written firsthand and is directed to the readers. A researcher could find players who suffer from concussions and have them write down a journal on their physical and emotional feelings during a period of time while under concussion protocol to see how concussions affect different people. The journals the players write are the primary source of the research.
6. Participant (pg. 95) – a person who takes part of an experiment and is used for data collection. A participant for my research would be a student or NFL player who plays for various minutes and is subject to taking big hits.
7. Sample (pg. 95) – a mo...

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...ing, research is based off of two ends of a spectrum. For example, a researcher researching concussions could look at football players who are linebackers that play for the majority of the game and take a lot of hits, and compare them to punters or kickers who are only in the game for a few seconds and hardly come in contact with other players.
12. Sampling bias (pg. 112) – a sampling method can be called biased if the results of the research found favors the outcome the researcher is looking for. The researcher ultimately controls/influences whether the results are biased and potentially misleading. If a researcher thinks that football players are more susceptible to concussions, the researcher may only look at specific positions where the players take more hits to the head for their research which could affect the results looking at football players as a whole.

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