Exam 11: More About Correlational Studies

A correlational study ______ provide causal information about the relationship between the measures, it can only describe the relationship between the behaviors.

Whenever a strong relationship exists between variables, prediction of one variable from other variables ______.

Only a(n) ______ study has an independent variable.

Many ______ studies use surveys to measure behavior.

Explain the difference between a descriptive research question and a predictive research question. Provide an example of each type of research question.

Explain why correlational studies do not provide the best test of a causal research question.

It is ______ to conduct a study where some participants are assigned to a condition that may be harmful to them.

Hypothesized relationships are typically tested using correlational analyses such as ______.

Suppose that a researcher found that as introversion (as measured on a standardized questionnaire) of participants goes up, number of social activities attended per week goes up. This finding represents ______.

A correlational study showed that men who had one or more servings of tomatoes a week were 60% less likely to get prostate cancer. This means that tomatoes cause the reduction in cancer rates.

Correlation ______ equal(s) causation.

Correlation equals causation.

Explain the difference between a predictor and an outcome variable.

A relationship between variables characterized by an increase in one variable that occurs with an increase in the other variable is called ______.

A researcher may conduct a correlational study with the ultimate goal of predicting one behavior from another behavior.

For a variable to be an independent variable, it must be ______.

Manipulating a variable to test for a causal relationship often times is ______.

Suppose a study was conducted to examine the relationship between how often people exercise and how happy they are with their lives. Participants in this study were asked to report how many times a week they exercise for 30 minutes or more at a time and to complete a questionnaire with items that measure their quality of life (e.g., How many times in the past week do you remember feeling happy?). A positive relationship is found between the number of times per week people exercise and their quality of life score. Discuss why we cannot conclude a causal relationship between frequency of exercise and degree of happiness.

Correlational studies can provide good tests of causal research questions.

At times, correlational studies are the only options because we cannot subject study participants to factors that may negative impact their health for ______.