Statistics question in psychology?
After a 6-8 month follow up it was determined that empathy correlated with patient outcome at .82 thus accounting for 67% of the variance in the criteria.
In reference to statistics in psychology… what does the above statement mean? It was a study done on alcoholic recovery… Does this mean that 67% of the patients that recovered was due to empathy demonstrated by the therapist?
Thanks
runefirenz said,
Wrote on August 14, 2010 @ 1:14 am
No it does not.
It is simply another measure for telling you how good your predictor is. As therapist empathy accounts for 67% of the variability in your data, it shows it is a good predictor.
But it also shows that a third of the variance is not accounted for by therapist empathy, suggesting that other factors influence patient outcome, maybe something like patient motivation.