Question

A sociologist is interested in seeing if people's satisfaction with their married life (very satisfied, somewhat satisfied, fairly satisfied, not satisfied) is associated with their parent's marital status (divorced, widowed, still married).

Which is more naturally the explanatory variable?

A. Satisfaction with married life

B. Parent's marital status

Answer 1

Explanatory variable is this a math term?

Answer 2

oh is this like a statistics question

Answer 3

Any variable that explains the response variable. Often called an independent variable or predictor variable.

Answer 4

yes

Answer 5

so what is the response variable?

Answer 6

The outcome of a study. A variable you would be interested in predicting or forecasting. Often called a dependent variable or predicted variable.

Answer 7

i think the outcome is people's satisfaction with their married life

Answer 8

married life?

Answer 9

so... the explanatory variable is....

Answer 10

yea thanks

Answer 11

i think the explanatory variable would be parental's martial status

Answer 12

let me get a second opinion brb

Answer 13

thats what i had at first but then i was second guessing

Answer 14

the first thing i said is the outcome
and i think parental martial status explains our outcome

Answer 15

ok unfortunately i couldn't find another opinion
but i think i applied the definitions correctly
---
i'm going to look for examples
brb

Answer 16

so here is an example:
Consider a study performed by a medical center to determine which of two heart surgeries is most effective: angioplasty (running rubber tubes through the arteries) or bypass (rerouting arteries). The purpose of either procedure is to prolong the life of the patient. The study will certainly record the survival time of each patient (measured from the time of the surgery). This really is the outcome of the study; survival time is the response variable

Answer 17

ok i think i'm right lol :)

Answer 18

we clearly want to know people's satisfication with their married life
this is like totally the outcome
so it cannot be the response variable
the response variable is what will give us this outcome which is the parental martial status

Answer 19

it was parental martial status but thanks

Answer 20

i feel 98% sure

Answer 21

oops explanatory variable not response variable*

Answer 22

ok great

Answer 23

thanks again

Answer 24

sorry i was unfamiliar with these terms
thanks for giving me a higher vocabulary :)

Answer 25

lol no problem