Complete the following practice exercises and post your responses on the discussion board.

Part 1

a. What is the direction of the correlation?

b. Does obesity cause debt?  Defend your answer.

c. What are some potential 3rd variables? 

d. Identify the directionality problem. 

Part 2.

Are the following correlations positive or negative? 

a. A researcher finds that the more alcohol a student drinks the morning of an important exam, the lower that student’s exam grade will be. 

b. A researcher finds that as men decrease their intake of foods high in cholesterol, their chance of having a heart attack decreases. 

c. A study of married couples showed that the longer they had been married, the more similar their opinions on social and political issues were. 

d. A researcher is conducting a study investigating the relationship between ring size and IQ. In some subjects, as ring size increases, so does IQ. But in other subjects, as ring size decreases, IQ increases. And still in other subjects, as ring size increases, IQ decreases. And still in other subjects, as ring size decreases, IQ decreases. 

Part 3.

Find a research headline on any online news sources reporting a correlation.

a. Past the link to the article. 

b. Who was sampled (e.g. who were the participants)?

c. What were the variables and was the correlation positive or negative?

d. Did the article suggest a causal relationship, or were they careful to describe the relationship as a correlation.