For this discussion, respond to the following sentence. Please explain how you believe it is valid, invalid, or undeterminable. In addition, discuss how you believe that this is a correlation or a causation.
Jill is conducting research. She believes that there is either a correlation or the causation between the amount of sleep someone receives to the amount of weight that someone can effectively lose. In her study she is measuring the amount of sleep compared to the amount of weight subjects lose over an extended period. Jill interviewed 20 participants (10 women and 10 men) who are college students. Through her study she has found that individuals who get at least 7 hours of sleep of night who have the same eating and physical fitness routine lost an average of 10 pounds more than those who received less than 7 hours of sleep over a 4-month period.
As mentioned above, do you believe that there is a correlation or causation between the amount of sleep and the amount of weight someone loses? Base your discussion on the information provided, and, any information in the lecture notes (e.g., effect size, sampling error, etc.). Could Jill make these assumptions accurately? What might Jill do differently to validate her study?
Key Concepts
Cause and effect relationships are important because it determines if two more variables are considered to be related.
A statistical correlation is measured by the use of a Correlation Coefficient, represented by the symbol (r), which is a single number that describes the degree of relationship between two variables
The use of a controlled study is the most effective way of establishing causality between variables.
The difference between the observed frequency O and what you would expect E is due to sampling error.
