Question: Asian culture and thinness. Asian culture does not emphasize thinness, but young Asians are often influenced by Western culture. In a study of concerns about weight among young Korean women, researchers administered the Drive for Thinness scale (a questionnaire) to 264 female college students in Seoul, South Korea. This scale measures excessive concern with weight and dieting and fear of weight gain. In you examined the distribution of Drive for Thinness scores among these college students. The study looked at several explanatory variables. One was Body Dissatisfaction, also measured by a questionnaire.
(a) Make a scatterplot of Drive for Thinness (response) against Body Dissatisfaction. The appearance of the plot is a result of the fact that both variables take only whole-number values. Such variables are common in the social and behavioral sciences.
(b) Add the least-squares line to your plot. The line shows a linear relationship. How strong is this relationship? Body Dissatisfaction was more strongly correlated with Drive for Thinness than any of the other explanatory variables examined. Rather weak relationships are common in social and behavioral sciences because individuals vary a great deal. Using several explanatory variables together improves prediction of the response.