In a study which indicates that spending more hours on an appraisal assignment equates to higher customer satisfaction, the number of hours spent would be considered the _________ variable.

• A. Hours spent
• B. Customer satisfaction
• C. Quality of service
• D. Number of appraisers

Answer: (A)

In this study, the factor that’s being varied to see its effect is the number of hours spent on the assignment, while the outcome you measure is customer satisfaction. That makes the hours spent the independent variable, because it’s the input you change to observe a change in the result. Customer satisfaction is the dependent variable, the result you’re assessing. The other options don’t fit because customer satisfaction is the effect, not the cause; quality of service isn’t identified as the manipulated factor here; and the number of appraisers isn’t described as the variable being varied in this scenario.