Hey, guys and gals. First of all, I apologize for very likely sounding completely moronic; I'm sure that will be the case. I need some help, though, because I am struggling with a particular class in which statistics is a big part of the course. I am writing a research topic proposal that deals with the physiology of stress. Specifically, I aim to conduct quantitative research through an online survey of voluntary participants in which my sample will consist of two groups: those identifying as chronically stressed, and those who do not. My intent is to see if those reporting to be chronically stressed of an ongoing nature also report increased instances of physical illness/disease in comparison to the non-chronically stressed group to show a possible correlation that will warrant further research.
My questions are these:
1: If I am going to take into consideration various factors that would contribute to physical illness/disease (smoking, alcohol/drug dependence, certain diseases that run in a participant's family, etc), I would be dividing the sample into subgroups to get more accurate results from the data collected in relation to my objective, yes? So, this would be stratified random sampling?
2: In analyzing the data collected, would I use pearson r correlation coefficient in calculating the the data? See? So moronic, I know. I'm sorry!
Please help?
My questions are these:
1: If I am going to take into consideration various factors that would contribute to physical illness/disease (smoking, alcohol/drug dependence, certain diseases that run in a participant's family, etc), I would be dividing the sample into subgroups to get more accurate results from the data collected in relation to my objective, yes? So, this would be stratified random sampling?
2: In analyzing the data collected, would I use pearson r correlation coefficient in calculating the the data? See? So moronic, I know. I'm sorry!
Please help?