PSYC 2010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Multiple Correlation, Dependent And Independent Variables

• School: Auburn University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2010
• Professor: Seth A Gitter

Document Summary

Keep in mind correlations do not provide causation . Example: violent video game play is associated with aggression: directionality problem. Aggressive people tend to like violent video games more: c -> a & b. A spurious third variable causes both (parenting, peer group, etc. ) Example: correlation between eating ice cream and crime rate: there is a positive correlation but ice cream does not cause crime. The warmer weather is a better possibility: do not assume because there is correlation what we have hypothesized is the causation. They are a good start point for a study. Sometimes they are the only way to study a topic. If you don"t have the time, resources, or ability to run harder studies: want to test the relationship before spending resources, sometimes it is unethical (cancer and smoking; you cannot bring in people and make them smoke. Easiest to provide evidence for (if there is relationship between variables.