Examples of independent and dependent variables in psychology

The type of soda – diet or regular – is the independent variable. The level of blood sugar that you measure is the dependent variable – it changes depending on the type of soda.

An example of a dependent variable is depression symptoms, which depends on the independent variable (type of therapy). In an experiment, the researcher is looking for the possible effect on the dependent variable that might be caused by changing the independent variable.

The independent variable (IV) in psychology is the characteristic of an experiment that is manipulated or changed by researchers, not by other variables in the experiment. For example, in an experiment looking at the effects of studying on test scores, studying would be the independent variable.