Dr.Oswald conducts a study examining the relationship between the number of friends one has and the experience of daily stress and life satisfaction.She randomly samples 1,500 elderly men and women in the Memphis,Tennessee,area in the southern United States.Below are her findings.
-Life satisfaction and experience of daily stress: r = -.57 ( p = .01)
-Number of friends one has and experience of daily stress: r = .09,not sig.
-Number of friends one has and life satisfaction: r = .36 ( p = .04)

-Dr.Oswald realizes that the women in her study have more friends than the men in her study.This might result in which of the following?
A)Outliers due to subgroups
B)Larger effect sizes
C)More measured variables
D)Spurious associations due to subgroups

Question

Dr.Oswald conducts a study examining the relationship between the number of friends one has and the experience of daily stress and life satisfaction.She randomly samples 1,500 elderly men and women in the Memphis,Tennessee,area in the southern United States.Below are her findings.
-Life satisfaction and experience of daily stress: r = -.57 ( p = .01)
-Number of friends one has and experience of daily stress: r = .09,not sig.
-Number of friends one has and life satisfaction: r = .36 ( p = .04)

-Dr.Oswald realizes that the women in her study have more friends than the men in her study.This might result in which of the following?
A)Outliers due to subgroups
B)Larger effect sizes
C)More measured variables
D)Spurious associations due to subgroups

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The fact that women have more friends than men in the study may result in spurious associations due to subgroups. This means that any correlations or relationships found between variables (such as the relationship between number of friends and life satisfaction) may be influenced by the fact that women have a different number of friends than men. It is important to control for these differences in subgroup characteristics when analyzing data to avoid spurious associations.

DrOswald Conducts a Study Examining the Relationship Between the Number