A researcher is studying stress and various factors that seem to be related to it, in women with terminally ill spouses. Among other things, the researcher finds out that depression contributes to total stress; depression contributes to lack of exercise; exercise contributes to depression; exercise relieves stress; guilt contributes to depression; exercise has no effect on guilt, but it affects total stress; stress worsens depression; and stress decreases motivation to perform exercise. This is an example of what problem commonly encountered in regression analyses?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This scenario describes a situation where multiple variables are interrelated, influencing each other in various ways (e.g., depression and exercise both affect and are affected by stress). This interrelation among independent variables is a classic example of multicollinearity, a problem in regression analyses where it becomes difficult to isolate the effect of each variable due to their high correlation with each other.

A Researcher Is Studying Stress and Various Factors That Seem