SOCPSY 1Z03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Spurious Relationship, Confounding, Homicide
26 Sep 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Research methods: methods for testing casual relationships between phenomena, variable: any characteristic or attributes that varies. Causality x>y: temporal order- order of the variables may have been different than x causes y, co-variation (association or correlation) but- correlation does not equal causation, non-spuriousness- the presence of a third variable that is not clearly obvious. Spurious relationships: when an apparently casual relationship between two variables is actually just caused by a third variable ex the chalk, pushed by prof, has string attached being pulled by another person. !1: ice cream sales>homicide, a spurious relationship, the third variable is the weather changing which causes people to do more violent crimes, and also people eat more ice cream. The two are not actually related but it seems this way. Seat position (front/back) vs. grade - if you are more committed to the course, you tend to sit closer to the front, therefore getting better grades.
