Twenty patients recovering from anxiety were treated using mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Over the course of the eight-week program, each patient's weekly mindfulness practice (in hours) was recorded. At the end of the program, they also completed a standardized resilience questionnaire, scored from 0 (extremely low resilience) to 20 (extremely high resilience).
The researchers correlated each patient's weekly practice hours with their final resilience score. The results are shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Scattergram showing the relationship between weekly mindfulness practice hours and final resilience scores
| Weekly mindfulness practice (hours) | Final resilience score |
|---|---|
| 1 | 4 |
| 2 | 5 |
| 2 | 7 |
| 2 | 8 |
| 3 | 9 |
| 3 | 11 |
| 4 | 7 |
| 4 | 11 |
| 5 | 11 |
| 5 | 13 |
| 5 | 15 |
| 6 | 12 |
| 6 | 15 |
| 7 | 14 |
| 7 | 16 |
| 7 | 17 |
| 8 | 16 |
| 9 | 17 |
| 9 | 18 |
| 10 | 19 |
Outline the type of relationship shown in Figure 1 and suggest why it would not be appropriate for the researchers to conclude that more mindfulness practice increases resilience.
Correlations Questions
Practise AQA A Level Psychology Correlations with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 30 questions, matched to the AQA A Level Psychology (7182) specification and written in Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.