The items are:

The items are:

1. In uncertain times, I usually expect the best      
2. It's easy for me to relax    
3. I'm always optimistic about my future
4. I enjoy my friends a lot
5. My life doesn't suck too much
6. I don't get upset too easily
7. Overall, I expect more good things to happen to me than bad

The participants rated each question on a -3 (definitely not) to a +3 (definitely) scale. The researcher believes that their "optimism program" helps people become more optimistic. The null hypothesis is thus that no difference exists between the treatment and control groups.

For this assignment I want you to answer the following questions:

1. Are any of the seven optimism-scale questions "bad"? Tell me which one, and tell me how you know it's bad. (Hint: there is 1 bad question). - 4 points
2. Run a split-half correlation on the remaining 6 items. What is the correlation? Does this indicate that the scale is acceptable? - 4 points
3. Run a t-test to see if there is a difference between the control group and the treatment group. What is the t-value, and should you "reject the null hypothesis"? - 2 points