Explain Why Inferences About Cause and Effect Can Be Made

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The Answer is Correlational studies do not permit inferences about cause-and-effect relationships; they simply permit study of the strength and direction of an association between variables. For example, a positive correlation indicates that as one variable increases, the other also increases. A negative correlation indicates that as one variable increases, the other decreases. In experimental design, inferences about cause-and-effect relationships are possible because the researcher uses an evenhanded procedure to assign people to two or more treatment conditions. Cause-and-effect relationships can be detected because the researcher directly controls or manipulates changes in the independent variable by exposing participants to treatment conditions. Random assignment of participants to treatment conditions increases the chances that the characteristics of participants will be equally distributed across treatment groups. Random assignment also increases the likelihood that any differences in the dependent variable will be due to the manipulation of the independent variable rather than systematic differences in composition of the treatment groups.

Explain Why Inferences About Cause and Effect Can Be Made

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