Question

A research team hypothesizes that setting weekly scheduled online interactions versus not setting such interactions can boost the wellbeing of people who are living on their own during the stay at home order.

a. How would committing a Type I error translate to this research question? Discuss both aspects involved in the process of committing a Type I error with regards to this particular question. Your answer should look something like "A Type I error would be committed if the researchers…… but……..". Make sure your sentence includes the phrase "setting weekly scheduled online interactions" (I want to see you think about Type I error beyond rejecting/failing to reject the null hypothesis)
b. What would decrease the chances of committing a Type I error (I’m looking for two factors and you need to explain how these factors should be manipulated to decrease Type I error, e.g. a larger ___)?

Answer 1

Type I error occurs when the null hypothesis, H0, is rejected, although it is true.

Here the null hypothesis, H0 is:

H0: Setting weekly scheduled online interactions will boost the well being of people who are living on their own during the stay at home order.

a) A Type I error would be committed if the researchers conclude that setting weekly scheduled online interactions will not boost the well being of people who are living on their own during the stay at home order, but in reality it will

b) Two factors affecting type I error:

1) When the sample size, n, is too large it increases the chances of a type I error. Thus, a sample size should be small to decrease type I error.

2)A smaller level of significance should be used to decrease type I error. When a larger level of significance is used it increases type I error.