“Strengthen Your Marriage with Prayer” is a headline that appeared in the magazine Woman’s World ( November 1, 2010). The article went on to state that couples who attend religious services and pray together have happier, stronger marriages than those who do not. For each of the following study descriptions, answer these five questions:
Question 1: Is the study described an observational study or an experiment?
Question 2: Did the study use random selection from some population?
Question 3: Did the study use random assignment to experimental groups?
Question 4: Would the conclusion that you can “strengthen your marriage with prayer” be appropriate given the study description? Explain.
Question 5: Would it be reasonable to generalize conclusions from this study to some larger population? If so, what population?
Study 1: Married viewers of an afternoon television talk show were invited to participate in an online poll. A total of 1, 700 viewers chose to go online and participate in the poll. Each was asked whether they attended church regularly and whether they would rate their marriage as happy. The proportion of those attending church regularly who rated their marriage as happy was significantly higher than the proportion of those not attending church regularly who rated their marriage as happy.
Study 2: Two hundred women were selected at random from the membership of the American Association of University Women (a large professional organization for women). Each woman selected was asked if she was married. The 160 married women were asked questions about church attendance and whether or not they would rate their marriage as happy. The proportion of those attending church regularly who rated their marriage as happy was significantly higher than the proportion of those not attending church regularly who rated their marriage as happy.
Study 3: A researcher asked each man of the first 200 men arriving at a baseball game if he was married. If a man said he was married, the researcher also asked if he attended church regularly and if he would rate his marriage as happy. The proportion of those attending church regularly who rated their marriage as happy was significantly higher than the proportion of those not attending church regularly who rated their marriage as happy.