Deters and Mehl (2013) studied the effect of Facebook status updates on feelings of loneliness. Eighty-six participants were randomly assigned to two groups. One group was instructed to post more social media status updates and the other group was not. The researchers measured participants’ loneliness using the UCLA Loneliness Scale, which consists of 10 items that ask participants to rate from 1 (“Never feel this way”) to 4 (“I often feel this way”) how often they experience specific feelings of loneliness (for example, “How often do you feel shut out and excluded by others?”). Participants who were instructed to post status updates had lower loneliness scores.

a. For the measurement in this study, identify whether it is discrete or continuous and list the scale of measurement.

b. What is the value of n?

c. Is this an experimental or nonexperimental study? Explain.

d. The group that was instructed to post more status updates is a(n) .