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CHAPTER 5: Survey Research 177chaotic living conditions characterized by unpredictability, confusion, lack ofstructure, noise, overcrowding, and poor-quality housing can explain the relationshipbetween poverty and children’s psychological distress. This is shownin paths b and c in Figure 5.7.Consistent with their predictions, the results of their study indicated thatgreater poverty was associated with greater chaos in the home (path b). Also,greater chaos was associated with greater psychological distress (path c). Thefinal step in path analysis is to show that when the correlations between pathsb and c are taken into account using a statistical procedure, the correlation observedinitially for path a (between poverty and distress) becomes zero (i.e., norelationship). This is exactly what Evans and his colleagues found. Their pathanalysis allowed them to say that the relationship between poverty and children’sdistress can be explained by, or is mediated by, the degree of chaos in thehome.Although Evans and his colleagues did not describe potential moderatingvariables, we can offer a hypothetical illustration. Suppose the pattern of correlationsobserved in Figure 5.7 is different for boys compared to girls. We couldhypothesize, for example, that the mediating effect of chaos exists only for boysand not for girls. In this case we would be arguing that the sex of the child, boyor girl, is a moderating variable—that is, it affects the direction or strength ofthe correlations among poverty, chaos, and psychological distress. Other potentialmoderating variables might include population density (e.g., urban vs.rural) and the extent of resilience in the children’s personality (e.g., high vs. lowresilient). Can you develop hypotheses for how the relationships among poverty,chaos, and psychological distress may differ based on these moderatingvariables?Although correlational research is not an absolutely firm basis for makingcausal inferences, patterns of correlations observed in path analysis provide importantclues for identifying causal relationships among variables. The next stepfor researchers who wish to make causal inferences is to conduct experiments,as described in Chapters 6–8. For example, a laboratory manipulation of chaos(e.g., unpredictable outcomes, noise) might cause different levels of distressamong individuals from different economic backgrounds. This multimethodapproach would help to provide converging evidence regarding the causal roleof chaos in understanding the relationship between poverty and psychologicaladjustment.SUMMARYSurvey research provides an accurate and efficient means for describing people’scharacteristics (e.g., demographic variables) and their thoughts, opinions,and feelings. In addition, predictive relationships can be identified by assessingthe covariation (correlation) among naturally occurring variables. Surveys differin purpose and scope, but they generally involve sampling. Results obtainedfor a carefully selected sample are used to describe the entire population ofinterest. Surveys also involve the use of a predetermined set of questions, generallyin the form of a questionnaire.