A researcher wants to examine the relationship between viewing television violence and behaving aggressively. He has participants decide whether they would prefer to view a violent or a nonviolent film, and subsequently records the number of aggressive behaviors they show in a competitive game. The researcher cannot legitimately make a causal statement based on his findings because the study __________.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The lack of random assignment means that participants were not randomly assigned to either the violent or nonviolent film condition, which makes it impossible to establish causality between the independent variable (viewing violent vs. nonviolent film) and dependent variable (aggressive behavior).

A Researcher Wants to Examine the Relationship Between Viewing Television