Dr. Yondu believes that having good social skills improves emotional stability. He conducts an experiment in which 100 children are randomly assigned to one of two conditions. One group of children receives a social skills intervention, while the other group of children listens to an instructional talk about how to whistle. Both groups completed an emotional stability questionnaire four weeks later. What does Dr. Yondu's independent variable measure?

Question

a
The impact of nature
b
The impact of epigenetics
c
The impact of nurture
d
The impact of evolution

Answer 1

Dr. Yondu's independent variable measures:

c) The impact of nurture

In this experiment, the independent variable is the type of intervention that the children receive (social skills intervention vs. instructional talk about how to whistle), which reflects an environmental influence or "nurture" aspect in psychological development.