Probalilty and Statistics

Running head : ASSOCIATION , CAUSATION AND ECOLOGICAL CORRELATION

Association , Causation and Ecological Correlation

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Association , Causation and Ecological Correlation

Association , causation and ecological correlation are concepts that people often misinterpret . These concepts are often used by people in replacement with the other . In the following sections , a clear discussion of the three concepts will be put in focus . In addition to the discussion are some concepts that are also related to association causation and ecological correlation

Association

Association is the relationship of a variable

to another variable . When one speaks of association , this does not denote causation . Association does not mean that a variable causes another variable to happen Association is a prerequisite to determine whether two variables exhibit causation (Good Hardin , 2003

Association is a relationship between two variables . In statistics , a relationship between two variables can be quantified . One way to quantify association is by correlation . Correlation is a statistical method which describes the degree of association between two variables The number that a correlation produced is called the correlation coefficient . This number is used to interpret the degree of association of two variables . A correlation coefficient can have a value from -1 to 1 . The -1 coefficient means that there is a perfect negative relationship between two variables . The 1 coefficient means that there is a perfect positive relationship between two variables . A zero correlation on the other hand means that there is no relationship between two variables (Agresti Franklin , 2007

Causation

Causation is a...