Question

For each of the studies, please indicate the following:

1)Independent variable True/Quasi?                      

2)Is there more than one IV?                                   

3) The levels of the independent variable                

4) Dependent variable    

5) the level of measurement (NOIR) of the DV

6) Between (BS) or within-subjects (WS)?

7) What type of design is being used?

8) What is the appropriate statistic? (for correlation list all variables)

Study 12: A researcher is interested in the relationship between socio-economic status and domestic violence. She believes that there is a greater incidence of domestic violence in households below the poverty line. To assess this relationship, she surveys a random sample of households and asks two questions. First participants are asked to estimate their household income. Later in the survey participants are asked if their spouse has ever been physically violent towards them. How could the researcher determine whether there is a relationship between socio-economic status and incidence of domestic violence?

Answer 1

In this study the independent variable is the socio-economic status, which is reflected by the household income. The level of measurement for this variable is a Ratio variable. This is the only independent variable in this study.

The dependent variable is the amount of physical violence. This is an ordinal variable, which can have answers like never, not too much, often, very much etc.

This is a case of a between groups design, because here the violence levels are being compared between different groups: the ones with high income and the ones with low incomes.

In this study you need to conduct a hypothesis test, with the hypotheses stated as:

Null: Mean violence level for high income households is same as that of low income households

Alternate: Mean violence level for high income households is less than that of low income households

Here a 't' statistic would be useful.