Question: Eating disorder study. Data from a psychology experiment were reported and analyzed in 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 the fear of negative evaluation.) The data are displayed in the table at the bottom of the page.
(a) Construct a stem-and-leaf display for the FNE scores of all 25 female students.
(b) Highlight the bulimic students on the graph, part a. Does it appear that bulimics tend to have a greater fear of negative evaluation? Explain.
(c) Why is it important to attach a measure of reliability to the inference made in part b?