Reference no: EM133381762

A researcher studies whether art classes improve the quality of life for senior citizens in an assisted living facility. She sets up "Art Month" and allows interested residents to sign up for one month of art classes. Everyone who signs up gets the art classes - those who do not sign up do not receive art instruction. At the end of the month, the researcher interviews each resident and asks a single open-ended question - "Tell me about the quality of your life." She audio-records the responses and then scores the answers for "positive life statements" and "negative life statements." She counts up the total number of positive statements and negative statements. Each resident's answers are then transformed into a single "Life Quality (LQ)" score by subtracting the total number of negative statements from the total number of positive statements (positive - negative). Thus, positive LQ scores indicate positive life quality, negative LQ scores mean negative life quality, and "0" means neutral (same number of + and - statements). Residents who attend the art classes produce higher average (mean) LQ scores. The researcher concludes that art instruction increases the quality of life for assisted living residents.

What would we need to do to better demonstrate that art instruction CAUSES better life quality? Describe the essential feature(s) of a new study that would allow a causal conclusion to be drawn.