Question

Identify the most likely type of causal relationship between each of the following pairs of variables and justify your answer. Assume that a strong correlation has been observed with the first variable as the independent variable.

a) Hours spent studying Disney facts and scores on a Disney quiz, Justify your selection.

Cause and Effect

Common Cause Factor

Reverse Cause and Effect

Accidental

Presumed

b) Number of Disney themed parties a person holds and number of times a person has been to Disneyland, Justify your selection

Cause and Effect

Common Cause Factor

Reverse Cause and Effect

Accidental

Presumed

c) Cheese Consumption per capita and number of Disney movies produced per decade, Justify your selection.

Cause and Effect

Common Cause Factor

Reverse Cause and Effect

Accidental

Presumed

d) Length of hair and time since last hair cut, Justify your selection.

Cause and Effect

Common Cause Factor

Reverse Cause and Effect

Accidental

Presumed

Answer 1

1) Hours spent studying Disney facts and scores on a Disney quiz.

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE:=Hours spent studying Disney facts

score on disney quiz is quite likely to increase as you invest time in hours studying Disney facts.Thus the positive correlation thus obtained is most likely due to a CAUSE and EFFECT.

b) Number of Disney themed parties a person holds and number of times a person has been to Disneyland,

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE:Number of Disney themed parties a person holds.

now here the correaltion does not seem to be due to the reason that there fondness of Disney characters/field and hence this is the common reason of Number of Disney themed parties a person holds and number of times a person has been to Disneyland.

thus its a COMMON CAUSE FACTOR for positive correlation.

c) Cheese Consumption per capita and number of Disney movies produced per decade

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: Cheese Consumption per capita

A positive correlation here do exist but it is likely entirely coincidental. And thus is accidental as there seems no connection that these two factors affect or is commonly affected by some external factor.

thus its ACCIDENTAL

d) Length of hair and time since last hair cut,

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE : length of hair.

in this case, the dependent and independent variable are reversed in the process of estabilishing casuality . there is a positive correlation but its more logiacal to see that time since last hair cut more generally effect the length of hair.

thus it is a case of Reverse Cause-and effect realtionship.