A psychologist records two measures from each adult in a community sample: the number of organised social activities they attended during the previous four weeks and their score on a loneliness questionnaire from 0 to 20. Adults who attended fewer activities generally had higher loneliness scores.
Explain two reasons why this result does not establish that attending fewer social activities causes greater loneliness.
139 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Psychology 7.2 Doing Research, covering 7.2.1 Experiments, 7.2.2 Interviews, 7.2.3 Questionnaires (Surveys), 7.2.4 Observations, 7.2.5 Case Studies, and 7.2.6 Correlations. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.