Suppose that I have a randomly selected sample of 42 American men. In this sample, the average number of hours worked per week is 45 with a standard deviation of 12. The average level of life satisfaction (on a scale from 1 = "hating life" to 10 = "loving life) is 5.00 with a standard deviation of 3.00. The correlation between hours worked and life satisfaction is .40. Please answer the following 10 questions based on these data.
a. What does this correlation coefficient tell you about the relationship between hours worked and life satisfaction? (Be thorough-tell me about the strength, direction, and for whom this information applies).
b. If we use an alpha level of .01, is this a statistically significant correlation? Calculate the statistics and wrap words around your results. (Be thorough-tell me all that you know).
c. Please give me one plausible (i.e., reasonable) EXPLANATION for why hours worked and life satisfaction are related to each other this way in this sample.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The Answer is a. It tells me that in THIS SAMPLE, the relationship between hours worked and life satisfaction is positive and moderate. On average, as the number of hours increases, so does life satisfaction.
b. t = .40

\surd

(40/.84)

\rightarrow

.40*

\surd

47.62

\rightarrow

.40 * 6.90 = 2.76. The critical t value (2 tailed, .01, 40 df) is 2.704. Because the observed value exceeds the critical value (just barely), I conclude that, on average, hours worked is positively related to life satisfaction in the population.
c. Maybe working more hours is related to making more money, and making more money is related to driving a better car. Everybody likes life better when they drive a better car, no?

Suppose That I Have a Randomly Selected Sample of 42