Eating disorders in females. The “fear of negative evaluation” (FNE) scores for 11 bulimic...

Eating disorders in females. The “fear of negative evaluation” (FNE) scores for 11 bulimic female students and 14 normal female students, first presented in Exercise and saved in the BULIMIA file are reproduced at the bottom of the page. (Recall that the higher the score, the greater is the FNE.)

a. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the mean FNE score of the population of bulimic female students. Interpret the result.

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b. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the mean FNE score of the population of normal female students. Interpret the result.

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c. What assumptions are required for the intervals of parts a and b to be statistically valid? Are these assumptions reasonably satisfied? Explain.

Research on eating disorders. Data from a psychology experiment were reported and analyzed in The American Statistician (May 2001). Two samples of female students participated in the experiment. One sample consisted of 11 students known to suffer from the eating disorder bulimia; the other sample consisted of 14 students with normal eating habits. Each student completed a questionnaire from which a “fear of negative evaluation” (FNE) score was produced. (The higher the score, the greater was the fear of negative evaluation.) The data are saved in the BULIMIA file and displayed in the following table:

Based on Randles, R. H. “On neutral responses (zeros) in the sign test and ties in the Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test.” The American Statistician, Vol. 55, No. 2, May 2001 (Figure).

a. Construct a dot plot or stem-and-leaf display for the FNE scores of all 25 female students.

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b. Highlight the bulimic students on the graph you made in part a. Does it appear that bulimics tend to have a greater fear of negative evaluation? Explain.

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c. Why is it important to attach a measure of reliability to the inference made in part b ?