Question

What is the independent and dependent variable, identify the scale of measurement, and note what the appropriate test should be to analyse any data that comes from the study below.

"Suppose a researcher wishes to examine whether social media use is associated with high levels of narcissistic traits among young adults. She can randomly select a sample of individuals ranging from 20-40 years. She can first assess the number of hours each individual typically spends on social media platforms in a week, and then administer the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. The researcher can then conduct a correlational analysis to check the direction and extent of correlation between the two variables."

Answer 1

Independent Variable:
Use of Social Media - Active time on different social media websites/app

Dependent Variable:

Level of Narcissistic Traits among young adults (participants)

Scale of Measurement

Ordinal Scale - The ordinal scale contains things that you can place in order. For example, hottest to coldest, lightest to heaviest, richest to poorest. Basically, if you can rank data by 1st, 2nd, 3rd place.

Data Analysis

Spearman rank correlation: Spearman rank correlation is a non-parametric test that is used to measure the degree of association between two variables. The Spearman rank correlation test does not carry any assumptions about the distribution of the data and is the appropriate correlation analysis when the variables are measured on a scale that is at least ordinal.