88 Pain tolerance study. A study published in Psychosomatic Medicine (Mar./Apr. 2001) explored the relationship between reported severity of pain and actual pain tolerance in 337 patients who suffer from chronic pain. Each patient reported his or her severity of chronic pain on a seven-point scale 11 = no pain, 7 = extreme pain). To obtain a pain tolerance level, a tourniquet was applied to the arm of each patient and twisted. The maximum pain level tolerated was measured on a quantitative scale.

a. According to the researchers, “Correlational analysis revealed a small but significant inverse relationship between [actual] pain tolerance and the reported severity of chronic pain.” On the basis of this statement, is the value of r for the 337 patients positive or negative?

b. Suppose that the result reported in part a is significant at a = .05. Find the approximate value of r for the sample of 337 patients.