Excerpt from the Research Article

The married sample comprised members of 100 heterosexual couples (54% were women and 46% were men) from a European university. The dating sample also consisted of members of 100 heterosexual couples (59% were women and 41% were men) from the same European university. All the married and dating couples were European. A researcher selected subjects in a haphazard fashion and asked them to complete a short survey. The mean age of the sample was 26.7 years (SD = 2.6).

The Affectionate Communication Index is a 19-item index that assesses the amount of verbal and nonverbal affectionate communication and support on a 7-point scale, with anchors of 1 = partners always engage in this type of affectionate activity to 7 = partners never engage in this type of activity. Thus, lower scores indicate more affectionate communication. Table 1 shows the results for the nonverbal activities.

Table 1

Dating and Married Individuals' Reports of Nonverbal Affectionate Communication

Item		n	M	SD	t
Hold hands	Dating	100	3.7	1.9	3.31
	Married	100	2.9	1.7
Kiss on the lips	Dating	100	2.9	1.5	4.91
	Married	100	2.0	1.1
Kiss on the cheeks	Dating	100	3.6	1.6	4.51
	Married	100	2.7	1.3
Give massages to each other	Dating	100	4.2	1.8	5.01
	Married	99	2.5	1.8
Put arm around shoulder	Dating	100	3.6	1.8	4.61
	Married	92	2.5	1.5
Hug each other	Dating	100	2.5	1.6	2.0*
	Married	100	2.1	1.2
Sit close to each other	Dating	96	2.9	1.6	3.91
	Married	100	2.0	1.6
Look into each other's eyes	Dating	100	3.3	1.6	1
	Married	100	3.0	1.8
Wink at each other	Dating	100	4.7	2.3	1.7
	Married	96	4.2	1.9

*p < .05; 1p < .001. (Punyanunt-Carter, 2004)

1. How many of the differences in Table 1 are statistically significant at the .05 level but not significant at the .001 level?

2. For all items for which there are statistically significant differences, the means for dating couples are higher than the means for married couples. If you had planned this study, would you have hypothesized this result? Explain.

3. The table contains five types of statistics (n, M (), SD (), t, and p). Which three are descriptive statistics?

4. The table contains five types of statistics (n, M (), SD (), t, and p). Which two are inferential statistics?

5. The researcher states that she selected the individuals for this study "in a haphazard fashion." What is your understanding of this term?