7. A psychologist is interested in the effect of peer pressure on risk-taking behaviors of college students. The psychologist designs an experiment to determine this effect where 200 students (who volunteer to serve as participants) are randomly placed in one of two situations. In each situation, 5 participants sit in a room with 4 other people. The 4 other people are actually confederates of the experiment, and their behavior is determined before the experiment begins. Half of the participants witness the 4 other people in the room leaning back in their chairs (a behavior that involves the minor risk of falling over backward in the chair). The other half of the participants also witness the 4 confederates leaning back in their chairs but are further encouraged by the confederates to exhibit the same behavior (e.g., they tell the participants that leaning back is more comfortable, fun, etc). The behavior of each participant is observed to determine if they do or do not lean back in their chair during the experiment. For each group, the number of participants (out of the 5) who lean back in their chairs is recorded.

A. What is the independent variable of this study? What are the levels?

B. Is the independent variable manipulated by the experimenter? If so, what is the manipulation?

C. What is the dependent variable? How is it measured?

D. Is this a between-subjects or within-subjects design? What information did you use to make this decision? Provide the full name of the design.

E. Identify a potential confound in this research design. How could the experimenter control for this confound?