If Mountain Dew is given to a child and it causes them to be hyper, the pop represents the Independent Variable(IV) and the hyperactivity would be the Dependent Variable (DV). Hyperactivity DEPENDS on the pop. The INDEPENDENT VARIABLE is the item that has been changed in an experiment. Random Sampling is very important to research because it gives EVERYONE a CHANCE to be in the experiment. The group may still be biased, but at least everyone had a chance to be in the experiment. Observing you at home, school, work, or other normal conditions would be naturalistic observation. Surveys might give us a lot of data at a cheap cost, but they can also be false information based on lack of effort or honesty. Stanley Milgram DID NOT have actual physical shocks in his experiment. People believed it was unethical however because they were misled and may have been caused emotional harm.