An Audience of 20-Year-Olds Finds a Series of Off-Color Jokes

Multiple Choice

An audience of 20-year-olds finds a series of off-color jokes highly amusing. A group of 50-year-olds finds the same jokes highly offensive. It is concluded that, as people age, their senses of humor become more rigid and narrow. The major difficulty in drawing conclusions of this sort is that ________.

A) longitudinal studies cannot distinguish between age differences and generational differences
B) cross-sectional studies cannot distinguish between age differences and generational differences
C) longitudinal studies cannot distinguish between age differences and differences in the time at which measurements are taken
D) cross-sectional studies cannot distinguish between age differences and differences in the time at which measurements are taken