PSYC 222 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Selection Bias, Pellagra

• School: Xavier University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 222
• Professor: Dulaney Cynthia

Document Summary

Myth: deficient oculomotor eye movements cause reading problems. Fact: slow word recognition lead to erratic eye movements. Goldberger disproved that pellagra was caused by inadequate sanitation because he ate the human excrement to test it. Pellagra arose because both variables (sewerage quality and ses) are related to a third variable (diet) Spurious correlations: correlations that arise not because a causal link exists between the two variables that are measured, but because both variables are related to a third variable. Myth: private school education causes superior test scores. Chapter 5: correlation and causation: birth control by the toaster method. (li, 1975) one of the most strongly related variables to contraceptive use = number of electrical appliances in the home. The nature of the relationship is what s relevant, not the strength between variables. More likely ses is related to contraceptive use, not number of appliances in home. No matter how strong the correlation, a relationship does not indicate a causal connection.