Dr. Kline, an environmental psychologist, conducts a study to examine whether visiting zoos causes people to have more positive attitudes toward environmental conservation. He asks a group of 45 people attending the zoo on a Saturday morning about their attitudes. He finds that 69% of the people report having a positive attitude after their visit. Which of the following is true?
A)His control group is people who did not visit the zoo.
B)He does not have a dependent variable.
C)He can make a strong causal claim about the effect of zoo visits on environmental attitudes.
D)His study does not qualify as an experiment.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The study does not have a control group or manipulate any variables, so it is not an experiment but rather an observational study. This means that Dr. Kline cannot make causal claims about the effect of zoo visits on environmental attitudes as there could be alternative explanations for the observed correlation between visiting zoos and positive attitudes toward environmental conservation.

Dr Kline, an Environmental Psychologist, Conducts a Study to Examine