Question

A researcher is trying to determine if income (X₁) or number of friends (X₂) is more important in determining personal happiness (Y). Which of the following would be the most profitable course of action?

Select one:

a. examine the standardized partial slopes of X₁ and X₂ on Y

b. examine the unstandardized partial slopes of X₁ and X₂ on Y

c. compute the partial correlation coefficient for X₁ and X₂
controlling for Y

d. examine the partial slope of Y on each independent separately

Answer 1

The standardized partial slopes/coefficients make us to compare the relative importance of each independent variables on the dependent variable Y. Unstandardized coefficients are less useful for direct comparison when the measurement scales of the independent variables are different. In these cases a larger number may still point to a smaller effect, and to pinpoint the effect size of variables, we have to standardize the coefficients first which means they would both be in terms of standard deviations and so easily compared with each other.

Correct choice:

a. examine the standardized partial slopes of X₁ and X₂ on Y