MCAT Behavioral Sciences Question 228: Answer and Explanation

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Question: 228

4. Based on the design of the study described in the passage, what limits the researchers' abilities to draw conclusions about the causal relationship between socioeconomic status and psychotropic medication compliance?

  • A. Age at first diagnosis was not measured.
  • B. Participants were not randomly assigned to socioeconomic status.
  • C. The sample contained only Los Angeles metro area residents.
  • D. Severity of symptoms were not measured.

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

Causation is extremely difficult to determine when experimenting with humans, particularly because all of the variables in a given experiment must by controlled by the researcher, and subjects must be randomly assignment to experimental and control groups. Therefore, random assignment of subjects to a group (in this case, a socioeconomic status group) is one of the many variables that should have been controlled for in order to determine a causal relationship between socioeconomic status and psychotropic medication compliance (choice B is correct). While age at first diagnosis and symptom severity are important variables that could have been measured, neither specifically limits the researchers' abilities to draw conclusions about the causal relationship between socioeconomic status and psychotropic medication compliance (choices A and D are wrong). The fact that the sample only contained participants from the Los Angeles metro area limits the researchers' ability to draw conclusions about how their results might apply to the general population, not about causality (choice C is wrong).

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