...------------------------------------------------- Causation and Correlation ------------------------------------------------- Courtney Clark July 19, 2015 psy/285 Taryn Stevenson July 19, 2015 psy/285 Taryn Stevenson 1. 2. 3. Home > 4. Health & Medicine > 5. Disease 6. > 7. Causation and Correlation 1. < Back to Health & Medicine Causation and Correlation Correlation does not imply causation * By missweetie * May 11, 2012 * 511 Words * 146 Views There are many similarities between causation and correlation but there are also just as many differences. Causation is when one or more factors contribute to the effect. As said in the PowerPoint review, for example, if you switch a light switch on it causes the light turns on. The one factor of flipping the light switch on causes the effect of the light to turn on. Correlation is when two or more factors contribute to one effect. There is two different types of correlation. One type of correlation is high correlation which is when the factors all match up in a row to cause the effect. Low correlation is when the results of one factor are scattered but a pattern can be recognized. The similarities between causation and correlation are that they both require factors that can point to a result. But remember that correlation is not causation. One factor does not mean it will make the effect happen. The difference between causation and correlation is causation has a direct factor...
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...Causation and Correlation Jennifer PSY/285 Darren Iwamoto July 17, 2013 Causation and Correlation Correlation does not imply causation. According to “statistical Language Correlation and Causation” (Correlation is a statistical measure (expressed as a number) that describes the size and direction of a relationship between two or more variables. A correlation between variables, however, does not automatically mean that the change in one variable is the cause of the change in the values of the other variable.) And (Causation indicates that one event is the result of the occurrence of the other event; i.e. there is a causal relationship between the two events. This is also referred to as cause and effect.) Causation and correlation can be difficult to discern from one another because they are so closely related to one another. Wealthy People are thin. Causation or correlation? The statement “Wealthy people are thin” is a correlation. Not all wealthy people are thin however there may be more thin wealthy people versus non wealthy people due to the fact that wealthy people can afford personal trainers, better food, and healthier lifestyles. People with long hair do better on audio memory tests. Causation or correlation? The statement “People with long hair do better on audio memory tests” is in fact a correlation, it is not a very strong correlation but it is indeed one. Ice cream melts when heated. Causation or correlation? The statement “Ice cream melts...
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...might suggest that the treatment or finding does not make enough of a difference to justify its use or to be practical. Yes, it is possible for a study to have statistical significance but not a practical significance. If the source of the data can benefit from the results of the study, it is possible that an element of bias is introduced so that the results are favorable to the source. A voluntary response sample is a sample in which the subjects themselves decide whether to be included in the study. A voluntary response sample is generally not suitable for a statistical study because the sample may have a bias resulting from participation by those with a special interest in the topic being studied. Even if we conduct a study and find that there is a correlation, or association, between two variables, we cannot conclude that one of the variables is the cause of the other. There does appear to be a potential to create a bias. There does not appear to be a potential to create a bias. There does not appear to be a potential to create a bias. There does appear a potential to create a bias. The sample is a voluntary response sample and is therefore flawed. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. The sample is a voluntary response sample and is therefore flawed. 11. The sampling method appears to be sound. 12. The sampling method appears to be sound. 13. Because there is a 30% chance of getting such results with a diet that has no effect, it does not appear to have statistical significance...
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...Correlation does not imply causation From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Correlation does not imply causation" is a phrase used in science and statistics to emphasize that correlation between two variables does not automatically imply that one causes the other (though correlation is necessary for linear causation, and can indicate possible causes or areas for further investigation... in other words, correlation can be a hint).[1][2] The opposite belief, correlation proves causation, is a logical fallacy by which two events that occur together are claimed to have a cause-and-effect relationship. The fallacy is also known as cum hoc ergo propter hoc (Latin for "with this, therefore because of this") and false cause. By contrast, the fallacy post hoc ergo propter hoc requires that one event occur before the other and so may be considered a type of cum hoc fallacy. In a widely-studied example, numerous epidemiological studies showed that women who were taking combined hormone replacement therapy (HRT) also had a lower-than-average incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD), leading doctors to propose that HRT was protective against CHD. But randomized controlled trials showed that HRT caused a small but statistically significant increase in risk of CHD. Re-analysis of the data from the epidemiological studies showed that women undertaking HRT were more likely to be from higher socio-economic groups (ABC1), with better than average diet and exercise regimes. The use of HRT...
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...closely resembles spaghetti and meatballs that “changes results of carbon dating with his Noodly Appendage”. Henderson prophesies that intelligent design uses ambiguous references to a creator; therefore any conceivable entity could fulfill that role. After receiving no reply from the board of education he posted his letter virally gaining significant public interest. As Henderson’s letter grew in popularity, the satirical nature of his argument caught global attention and received many supporters. According to Pastafarian beliefs, pirates are the original Pastafarians, and are divine beings. The inclusion of pirates was first found in Henderson’s letter to the Education Board, where he uses this as an effort to illustrate that correlation does not imply causation. Henderson correlates global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes and all other natural disasters to the dying numbers of pirates. Instead, Pastafarians believe that they were "peace-loving explorers and...
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...credit. You will have only one attempt at correcting this so if you have questions, be sure to contact me. 1. Report the sample you selected and the question that was explored in the study. The sample selected here was ‘hours of study’ (x-variable) The question explored was: what kind of dependence does hours of study have on student’s exam score. 2. Report the r2 linear correlation coefficient and the linear regression equation produced in the Excel spreadsheet. From the excel plot, linear correlation coefficient, r2 or R2 = 0.785 and the linear regression equation is: y = 1.5608x + 55.767 3. What would be the value of Pearson’s r (simply the square root of r2)? Pearson correlation coefficient, r = sqrt(r2) = sqrt(0.785) = 0.886 4. Would Pearson’s r be positive or negative? What does this imply about the relationship between the factors in this study? As evident from the orientation of the scatter diagram (see ex.), r is positive here. r is a measure of the linear correlation (dependence) between two variables x and y, giving a value between +1 and −1 inclusive, where 1 is total positive correlation, 0 is no correlation, and −1 is total negative correlation. 5. What is the implication of any...
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...Question 1: According to the text organizational behavior is a field of study devoted to understanding, explaining, and ultimately improving the attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups in organizations. Organizational behavior is related to human resources, which focuses on the applications of organizational behavior, because if used effectively human resource management is responsible for molding the perceptions of employees to help an organization reach their mission. It is the responsibility of human resources to manage the concerns and issues of the well-being of its employees, ultimately leaving employees with a positive attitude and being more productive so that they are eager to adequately perform and fulfill their duties. Not only is organizational behavior related to human resource management, but it is also related to organizational strategy, which according to the book is devoted to exploring the product choices and industry characteristics that affect an organization’s profitabailtiy. Organizational behavior is related to organizational strategy because the job performance of employees affects the overall success of an organization. Also, it is related because organizational behavior should focus on organizing and managing the employees knowledge and skills so that they can implement the organization’s strategy in their daily task so that the organization can compete. ------------------------------------------------- Question 2: Ex #1) The Rule...
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...Introduction One of the problems linked with the assessment of research based on statistical analysis involves the determination of whether a true cause and effect connection between variables exists, or is it just a statistical relationship known as correlation. While there may be correlation between variables, there is not a causal relationship unless the variation in the independent variable or variables actually causes the variation in the dependent variable. Often correlation is misinterpreted as causation, as is the case in the examples presented in this essay. The first example is from a journal article that says watching TV increases a persons risk of heart disease and non-cancer related deaths. The second two examples are related to transportation, one saying that speeding causes car crashes and the other saying population in a traffic analysis zone (TAZ) causes trips produced. Although correlation is necessary it is not sufficient, it is important that a true causal relation exists before making conclusions. Body (Example A) The first study is presented in the journal, Circulation-Journal of the American Heart Association with the title, Television Viewing time and Mortality: The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab). The baseline data for the study was gathered between the years of 1999 and 2000. The locations for data collection were chosen based on Census Collector Districts in each of the Australian states and in the Northern...
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...Each of these things needs to be done to have a good organization. Departmentalization is needed to do each group jobs efficiently. It can and does cause problems between workers. Such as when another group of workers is supposed to do a job and fail to do so, it then may fall onto another set of workers to complete. Where I work we are required to do housekeeping, v and our own job s of taking care of our patients. This causes problems because when we don’t have time to do something such as the nightly cleaning of the wheelchairs, and lifts. It causes upper management to get mad because it wasn’t done. Matrix organizations, is taking employees from every department and making a group that lets their upper management know how everything is going for those in their respectively departments. This does not make them tattle tells, as I am sure a lot of people would call them. They are there to help the upper management learn if changes need to be made to help the employees do a better job. These can cause problems because the other employees in a group may think the person doing the reporting is doing nothing but trying to get the other employees in trouble. Project teams are employees from all parts of the organization, and are grouped together to do a set project. This can be good for each group to interact with those outside of their normal groups. Project teams can cause problems though when those chosen don’t get along well, are not being corruptive with those who...
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...fallacy of composition. People should jump our of their own world to see the whole economics, so that people could get a better view and make good decisions. People should not let the fallacy confuse them. The fourth one is post hoc fallacy. Sometimes, people think event A is the cause of event B because A precedes B. But not all the situation are the same. There is an example that the Great Depression. Many people don’t think that the weaknesses in the economy caused the Great Depression, they think the stock market crash caused it. People should not look at the whole situation to find the cause of an event.The last one is correlation. Many people think that if variable X increases and Y also increases, it is increases in X cause increases in Y. That is not always correct. X and Y are two conjoint things, they have correlation between them, but not causation. Those are five common pitfalls to avoid when people are applying the economics...
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...Correlation and Causation The Link Between Sleep and Weight Correlation is the association between two variables, when there is an increase or decrease in one variable what effect does it has to the other variable (Triola, 2010). In this research the author looks on the relationship between a person who do not sleep or get quality sleep and their body weight. There was a study which highlighted a correlation between lack of sleep and increase in body weight. In the study with the women 40 – 60 years old, it was concluded that after studying their eating and sleeping pattern for 5-7 years women who had trouble falling asleep gained approximately 11 pounds. In the other study with the younger men, they studied their sleeping patterns for two consecutive days one day eight hour sleep and the other day four hour sleep. The researchers reported an increase in calorie intake (approximately 560 more) after sleeping for four days significantly more than the person who slept for eight hours. The two variables we have in this scenario is lack of sleep and increase in body weight, for these two variables to be correlated they must be linked or dependent on each other. Although the writer shows studies to show that when there is lack of sleep there is increase in appetite there can be other variables that determine the results such as location, body mass, individuals’ state of mind and age. According to the text the relationship between these two variables is weak and negative. The study...
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...question that was explored in the study. * There is a correlation between x and y. The scatter chart shows that the more hours a student studies the higher their grade percentage will be. 2. Report the r2 linear correlation coefficient and the linear regression equation produced in the Excel spreadsheet. * The linear correlation coefficient is positive. * The r^2 linear correlation coefficient is 0.785 * The linear regression equation is y=1.5608x+55.767 3. What would be the value of Pearson’s r (simply the square root of r2)? * R^2 is 0.785, which means that 78.5% of the total variation in y can be explained by the relationship between x and y. The other 21.5% remains unexplained. 4. Would Pearson’s r be positive or negative? What does this imply about the relationship between the factors in this study? * Pearson’s r is positive and equal to 1.0. Since Pearson r is positive this implies that there is a strong correlation between x and y. 5. What is the implication of any correlation found between the variables in the study you picked? * X & Y have a strong positive correlation. It seems the more hours put into studying the better the grade percentages will be. 6. Does this correlation imply a causal relationship? Explain. * There is a casual relationship, because on the graph it shows positive correlation, because the slopes are increasing. That implies if you spend more time studying your results are a higher grade...
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...Difference Between Causation and Correlation Causation vs Correlation The two terms “causation” and “correlation” are usually interchanged, yet they are not interchangeable. Particular confusion arises in their understanding in the fields of health and scientific studies. EXAMPLE No 1: Every time we see a link between an event or action with another, what comes to mind is that the event or action has caused the other. This is not always so, linking one thing with another does not always prove that the result has been caused by the other. Causation Causation is an action or occurrence that can cause another. The result of an action is always predictable, providing a clear relation between them which can be established with certainty. Causation involves correlation which means that if an action causes another then they are correlated. The causation of these two correlated events or actions can be hard to establish but it is certain. Establishing causality between two correlated things has perplexed those that are involved in the health and pharmaceutical industries. The fact that an event or action causes another must be obvious and should be done with a controlled study between two groups of people. They must be from the same backgrounds and given two different experiences. The results are then compared and a conclusion can then be drawn from the outcome of the study. The process of observation plays a significant role in these studies as the subjects must be observed...
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...Alcohol is a depressant that slows down the body’s reactions. It also affects the working of the brain and the nervous system. The more a person drinks, the more their ability to make important decisions become impaired. After just one drink a person can lose their ability to perform everyday tasks. There are many causes of people drinking, but the major two are causal drinking and peer pressure. Causal drinking occurs when a person goes to a party or bar and he or she does not intend on drinking, but they do anyway. The next cause is peer pressure. Why does peer pressure cause drinking? The first reason is when someone’s friends keep going on at them until they drink. The second reason is when someone’s friends’ drink, they think it is cool and they don’t want to be left out, so they drink too. The effects alcohol can have on a body are numerous. It increases the workload of the heart, causing irregular heartbeat and high blood pressure. It poisons the liver, causing extensive damage and failure. It can stop the kidneys from maintaining a proper balance of body fluids and minerals; it can also affect the brain, causing unclear thinking. Large amounts of it can cause unconsciousness or death. Even knowing this some people will still make bad and dangerous choices when it comes to alcohol. One of the most dangerous things you can do is, driving under the influence (D.U.I). Not only are you endangering yourself, you are endangering your passenger, other road users, and pedestrians...
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...Alcohol is a depressant that slows down the body’s reactions. It also affects the working of the brain and the nervous system. The more a person drinks, the more their ability to make important decisions become impaired. After just one drink a person can lose their ability to perform everyday tasks. There are many causes of people drinking, but the major two are causal drinking and peer pressure. Causal drinking occurs when a person goes to a party or bar and he or she does not intend on drinking, but they do anyway. The next cause is peer pressure. Why does peer pressure cause drinking? The first reason is when someone’s friends keep going on at them until they drink. The second reason is when someone’s friends’ drink, they think it is cool and they don’t want to be left out, so they drink too. The effects alcohol can have on a body are numerous. It increases the workload of the heart, causing irregular heartbeat and high blood pressure. It poisons the liver, causing extensive damage and failure. It can stop the kidneys from maintaining a proper balance of body fluids and minerals; it can also affect the brain, causing unclear thinking. Large amounts of it can cause unconsciousness or death. Even knowing this some people will still make bad and dangerous choices when it comes to alcohol. One of the most dangerous things you can do is, driving under the influence (D.U.I). Not only are you endangering yourself, you are endangering your passenger, other road users, and pedestrians...
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