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1. A criminologist interested in teen-age marijuana use conducted surveys of stu

ID: 2934665 • Letter: 1

Question

1.      A criminologist interested in teen-age marijuana use conducted surveys of students from two different high schools. At Partytime High, the mean number of times the students have smoked MJ is 9.8 times in the past 6 months. For Funtime High, the mean number of times students report smoking MJ in the past 6 months is 4.6. The researcher wants to know if there is a statistically significant difference between the two schools in marijuana smoking by students.

a.       What is the independent variable in this problem?

b.      What is the dependent variable in this problem?

c.       What type of t test (independent or dependent samples) should be used for analyzing the data Why?

d.      Would a one-tail or two tailed test be appropriate? Why?

Explanation / Answer

a. The independent variable in this problem is smoking MJ. (Ans).

b. The dependent variable in this problem is number of times the students have smoked MJ. (Ans).

c. Since, the two high schools are independent, the samples drawn from these schools are independent of each other. So, we should use independent 2-sample t-test to analyze the data i.e. to study whether there is significant difference in number of times MJ has been smoked. (Ans).

d. Since, we are interested in studying the difference between the two samples in terms of average of number of times MJ has been smoked, we should apply two-tailed test. (Ans).