This chapter discusses, among other topics, categories of variables: situational, response, and subject variables, as well as independent, dependent, and extraneous variables. We discussed the fact that, for example, situational variables are not necessarily independent variables, etc. Are there cases in which subject variables can serve as dependent variables? Like what, for example?
A case in which a subject variable would be considered a dependent variable is with the case of fetal alcohol syndrome.
Would "crack babies" be another example since the degree of mental and physical impairment can be actually measured and even manipulated (though, of course, unethically)?
Subject variables are nonexperimental variables such as age, gender, personality, or marital status. If you were studying the effects of heart disease on a person's personality would that be considered a case in which the subject variables were the dependent variable. I think that it would if you were measuring the extent to which the disease had an impact on the person's personality. You could even stretch the experiment to see if the disease would have an impact on the person's marital status. In this case, it is my understanding that the independent variable would be the disease since it would have caused these behaviors and the dependent variable would be the person's personality.
Irvin, Karam, Freeman