Question

Compas and others (1994) were surprised to find that young children under stress actually

report fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression than we would expect. But they also noticed

that their scores on a Lie Scale (a measure of the tendency to give socially desirable

answers) were higher than expected. The population mean for the Lie scale on the Children’s

Manifest Anxiety Scale (Reynolds and Richmond, 1978) is known to be 3.87. For

a sample of 36 children under stress, Compas et al., found a sample mean of 4.39, with a

standard deviation of 2.61.

a. How would we test whether this group shows an increased tendency to give socially acceptable

answers?

b. What would the null hypothesis and research hypothesis be?

c. What can you conclude from the data?

Answer 1

a. How would we test whether this group shows an increased tendency to give socially acceptable

answers?

We can use the One-Sample t-test.

b. What would the null hypothesis and research hypothesis be?

The hypothesis being tested is:

H0: µ = 3.87

Ha: µ > 3.87

c. What can you conclude from the data?

The test statistic, t = (x - µ)/s/√n = (4.39 - 3.87)/2.61/√36 = 1.195

The p-value is 0.1200.

Since the p-value (0.1200) is greater than the significance level (0.05), we cannot reject the null hypothesis.

Therefore, we cannot conclude that this group shows an increased tendency to give socially acceptable answers.

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