Deck 6: Correlational Methods and Statistics

Question 1

A correlation coefficient of 0.00 is to _____ as a correlation coefficient of -1.00 is to _____.

A)no relationship; a weak relationship
B)no relationship; a perfect relationship
C)a weak relationship; no relationship
D)a perfect relationship; no relationship

Answer 1

B

Question 2

General State University recently decided to discontinue its use of the GRE as an admissions tool for its graduate programs because they observed no correlation between GRE scores and subsequent GPAs.Ninety percent of the grades awarded in the graduate programs at General State University are A's.What General State has failed to consider in this situation is the issue of

A)curvilinear relationships.
B)causality.
C)the third variable problem.
D)restrictive range.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

An indication of the strength of the relationship between two variables is the _____.

A)slope
B)sign
C)scatterplot
D)magnitude

Answer 3

D

Question 4

A correlation coefficient of +1.00 is to _____ as a correlation coefficient of -1.00 is to _____.

A)a perfect relationship; a perfect relationship
B)a perfect relationship; no relationship
C)a straight linear relationship; a curvilinear relationship
D)a curvilinear relationship; a straight linear relationship

Question 5

A correlation coefficient of _____ indicates that the variables form a perfect linear relationship.

A)+1.00
B)?1.00
C)0.00
D)both +1.00 and -1.00

Question 6

A variable that is truncated and has limited variability is said to have

A)directionality.
B)a third variable.
C)causality.
D)a restricted range.

Question 7

Which of the following correlation coefficients represents the variables with the weakest degree of relationship?

A)+.99
B)?1.00
C)+.01
D)?.59

Question 8

Two variables increasing and decreasing together is to _____ as two variables moving in opposite directions is to _____.

A)no relationship; a curvilinear relationship
B)a curvilinear relationship; a negative relationship
C)a positive relationship; a negative relationship
D)a negative relationship; a positive relationship

Question 9

The problem of _____ can often be identified by using a _____.

A)causality; point biserial correlation
B)directionality; phi coefficient
C)third variables; partial correlation
D)restrictive range; point biserial correlation

Question 10

In the case of a positive relationship,as scores on X _____,scores on Y _____.

A)increase; decrease
B)decrease; increase
C)decrease; decrease
D)none of the options is correct

Question 11

Per the text,we would expect the correlation between smoking and lung cancer to be _____ whereas we would expect the correlation between mountain elevation and temperature to be _____.

A)curvilinear; negative
B)positive; negative
C)negative; positive
D)positive; curvilinear

Question 12

Which of the following correlation coefficients represents the variables with the strongest degree of relationship?

A)+.99
B)?1.00
C)+.01
D)?.59

Question 13

If the points on a scatterplot are clustered in a pattern that extends from the lower left to the upper right,this would suggest that the two variables depicted are

A)normally distributed.
B)positively correlated.
C)regressing toward the average.
D)negatively correlated.

Question 14

When there is a _____ relationship,as scores on X increase,scores on Y also increase.

A)positive
B)negative
C)curvilinear
D)zero

Question 15

If the points on a scatterplot are spread all over the graph,this would suggest that the two variables depicted are

A)normally distributed.
B)positively correlated.
C)strongly related.
D)not correlated.

Question 16

Jim thought that the strong negative correlation that he observed between depression and self-esteem meant that having a low self-esteem led to high levels of depression.Jim is misinterpreting the correlation by assuming

A)causality.
B)directionality.
C)that there is a third variable.
D)both causality and directionality.

Question 17

When there is a _____ relationship,as scores on X increase,scores on Y decrease.

A)positive
B)negative
C)curvilinear
D)zero

Question 18

In the case of a negative relationship,as scores on X _____,scores on Y _____.

A)increase; decrease
B)increase; increase
C)decrease; decrease
D)none of the options is correct

Question 19

The _____ indicates the magnitude of a correlation coefficient.

A)slope
B)sign
C)absolute value
D)none of the alternatives is correct

Question 20

The problem of a correlation between two variables being dependent on another variable is called

A)the third variable problem.
B)causality.
C)directionality.
D)restrictive range.

Question 21

In a recent study it was found that the correlation between self-esteem and depression was ?.64.Explain what this means.Calculate the coefficient of determination for this correlation and explain what information this provides.

Question 22

Suppose that the correlation between height and weight for adults is +.75.What proportion (or percent)of the variability in weight is accounted for by the relationship with height?

A)75%
B)25%
C)56%
D)unable to determine

Question 23

Pam is interested is assessing the degree of relationship between gender and test grades in her psychology class.Pam should use the _____ correlation coefficient to assess this.

A)partial
B)point-biserial
C)phi
D)Pearson product-moment

Question 24

Explain how curvilinear relationships can be a problem when interpreting correlation coefficients.

Question 25

If a correlation coefficient that you expected to be fairly high turns out to be very low,you should investigate whether there is a

A)restrictive range on one or both variables.
B)curvilinear relationship between the variables.
C)third variable inhibiting the relationship.
D)restrictive range on one or both variables and a curvilinear relationship between the variables.

Question 26

_____ is a procedure which allows us to predict an individual's score on one variable based on knowing one or more other variables.

A)Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient
B)Coefficient of determination
C)Regression analysis
D)Point-biserial correlation coefficient

Question 27

In a recent study it was found that the correlation between self-esteem and depression was ?.64.Tom interprets this to mean that low levels of self-esteem lead to high levels of depression and vice versa.How is Tom misinterpreting these data?

Question 28

The _____ is a measure of the proportion of variance in one of the variables that is accounted for by the other variable.

A)Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient
B)coefficient of determination
C)point-biserial correlation coefficient
D)Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient

Question 29

Two interval/ratio variables are to _____ coefficient and one interval/ratio variable and one nominal variable are to _____ coefficient.

A)Pearson product-moment correlation; Spearman rank-order correlation
B)Spearman rank-order correlation; Pearson product-moment correlation
C)Phi; Spearman rank-order correlation
D)Pearson product-moment correlation; point-biserial correlation

Question 30

Explain when each of the correlation coefficients listed below should be used.

Question 31

Two nominal variables are to _____ coefficient and two ordinal variables are to _____ coefficient.

A)Pearson product-moment correlation; Spearman rank-order correlation
B)Spearman rank-order correlation; Pearson product-moment correlation
C)Phi; Spearman rank-order correlation
D)Point-biserial correlation; Spearman rank-order correlation

Question 32

Assume that the regression equation for the relationship between SAT scores and IQ scores is y=9 + .105x.What would you expect the IQ score to be for the following individuals given their SAT scores?

Question 33

Explain when each of the correlation coefficients listed below should be used.

Question 34

If both variables are measured on a nominal scale,what type of correlation coefficient is appropriate?

A)Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficient
B)phi coefficient
C)point-biserial correlation coefficient
D)none,because correlations cannot be computed on nominal data

Question 35

What is a person-who argument?

Question 36

Imagine that you assessed the relationship between the variables of nutrition and general health.Draw the scatterplot depicting what this relationship would look like.

Question 37

What is the third variable problem and how does the partial correlation technique help with this problem?