Dr.Sparrow is a social psychologist who studies romantic relationships.Several researchers have found that there is a link between income and marital satisfaction (e.g. ,Dakin & Wampler,2008).Dr.Sparrow is curious as to whether there is a causal link between the two variables,such that having a higher income causes higher levels of marital satisfaction.He is confident that he cannot reasonably or ethically manipulate people's income level,so he decides to use a multivariate design.He is also curious as to whether there is a causal link between these two variables or if two other variables (number of arguments and life satisfaction)can explain the relationship.He measures his three variables in a sample of 124 married couples recruited from a local community center.Below are his results.

-Given Dr.Sparrow's design,which of the following problems is his study best able to overcome?
A)The ethical issue of manipulating income level
B)The issue of temporal precedence between his two variables
C)The issue of possible third variables
D)The issue of external validity of his findings

Question

Dr.Sparrow is a social psychologist who studies romantic relationships.Several researchers have found that there is a link between income and marital satisfaction (e.g. ,Dakin & Wampler,2008) .Dr.Sparrow is curious as to whether there is a causal link between the two variables,such that having a higher income causes higher levels of marital satisfaction.He is confident that he cannot reasonably or ethically manipulate people's income level,so he decides to use a multivariate design.He is also curious as to whether there is a causal link between these two variables or if two other variables (number of arguments and life satisfaction) can explain the relationship.He measures his three variables in a sample of 124 married couples recruited from a local community center.Below are his results.

-Given Dr.Sparrow's design,which of the following problems is his study best able to overcome?

-Given Dr.Sparrow's design,which of the following problems is his study best able to overcome?
A)The ethical issue of manipulating income level 
B)The issue of temporal precedence between his two variables 
C)The issue of possible third variables 
D)The issue of external validity of his findings

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Dr. Sparrow's multivariate design allows him to control for the effects of a possible third variable (in this case, number of arguments and life satisfaction) on the relationship between income and marital satisfaction. By measuring all three variables, he can statistically determine the unique effect of income on marital satisfaction, while accounting for the effects of the other variables.

DrSparrow Is a Social Psychologist Who Studies Romantic Relationships