I've encountered these terms 100s of times and looked up their definition and tried to understand them at least 15 times. I'm really trying to get them today:
Here's what I've come up with:
moderator can affect direction and size of an effect between 2 other variables (x1 and y) but it you remove the moderator(x2) the effect between x1 and y still remains.
A mediator explains the relationship between 2 variables (x1 and y). If you remove the effects of the mediator (x2) there no longer exists a relationship between x1 and y.
Please critique my thoughts and if you have anything to add that would be helpful please assume nothing about my intellect as I really want to grasp this one.
Here's what I've come up with:
moderator can affect direction and size of an effect between 2 other variables (x1 and y) but it you remove the moderator(x2) the effect between x1 and y still remains.
A mediator explains the relationship between 2 variables (x1 and y). If you remove the effects of the mediator (x2) there no longer exists a relationship between x1 and y.
Please critique my thoughts and if you have anything to add that would be helpful please assume nothing about my intellect as I really want to grasp this one.