OK… So you’ve learned about correlational research. Let’s do some thinking.
Suppose a researcher conducted a study using multiple regression (something you’ll learn about) and she found out that two independent variables, sleep (measured in hours) and parenthood (measured by number of children living in the home), had a significant effect on a dependent variable, “fitness level.” The researcher discovered that the more sleep a person got and the less kids they had, the fitter they were. The researcher decided to further explore these two independent variables and discovered that the correlation coefficient (Pearson’s r) was r = – .93.
What is this correlation coefficient “telling” the researcher?
What issue may this create in reporting findings?
Admittedly, this requires quite the thinking cap if you’re new to this type of research. There are no bad answers. Give it a shot!
NO AI OR PLAGIARISM…
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