Dr Tropez Conducts a Study Examining the Relationship Between Exposure

question 61

Essay

Dr. Tropez conducts a study examining the relationship between exposure to religion in popular media and religiosity (defined as "the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods"). In his study, he randomly samples a group of 113 participants from his local community college. He generates a list of movies with religious themes (Year One, Dogma, Passion of the Christ) and asks participants to indicate how many they have seen. He then measures religiosity by asking participants how many times they have attended a house of worship (e.g., church, temple, synagogue, mosque) in the past year. He finds that having seen a higher number of religious-themed films is positively correlated with religious attendance.
What are the two aspects of external validity? Pose a question for each aspect of external validity as it relates to Dr. Tropez's study.

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Definitions:

Opportunity Costs

The cost of forgoing the next best alternative when making a decision or choosing between options.

Diminishing Marginal Utility

The principle that as a consumer consumes more of a good or service, the additional satisfaction gained from each additional unit decreases.

Command Systems

Economic systems where the government or a central authority makes all decisions about what goods and services are produced, how they are produced, and who gets them.

Pure Capitalism

An economic system characterized by private property rights and the market allocating resources with little government intervention.