Statistics for Psychology

1. A psychologist assigns teenagers to listen to rap music or classical music, and then the psychologist studies the amount of aggression displayed by those teenagers in a simulated conflict situation. What are the IV and the DV in this study?

2. It is a population fact that men and women differ in height. You draw a random sample of men and a random sample of women, measure their heights, and find that the average height of the men and women do not differ. Given that men’s and women’s heights really are different in their respective populations, what type of error occurred in your study—Type 1 or Type 2? Explain your answer.

3. There is no significant difference between male and female infants in the age at which they first walk. A pediatrician reviews the age of walking for all infants in her practice and is surprised to find a significant difference between males and females in the age at which they first walked. Given that this result is contrary to actual population fact, what type of error did this study lead to—Type 1 or Type 2? Explain your answer.