Third Variable Activity

Name
Institution
Variables Activity
Variables Activity
1. A government study reveals that the more a mother smokes, the more her children are likely to exhibit behavioral problems.
Type of correlation: Positive
One explanation: When the mother smokes more, the health of the child gets negatively affected.
Another explanation: Children having behavioral are expected to have a mother who has drinking issues.
A third explanation: Pregnancy leads to stress resulting in smoking. This stress gets transferred to the child as well.
2. The more psychology courses students take during their college years, the higher scores they get on a measure of interpersonal sensitivity.
Type of correlation: Positive
One explanation: Taking psychology course improves the student’s interpersonal sensitivity.
Another explanation: When a student is interpersonally sensitive, he is more likely to take a psychology course.
A third explanation: Taking the course makes the student mindful of his surroundings.
3. A study on the effects of alcohol found that higher and higher doses of alcohol produced increasingly lower scores on a test of memory recall.
Type of correlation: Negative
One explanation: Higher consumption of alcohol leads to retention issues.
Another explanation: Someone having chronic memory issues might be exposed to drinking.
A third explanation: Already existent memory issues might result in stress and frustration that can lead to drinking habits.
4. A college professor notices that the farther students sit toward the back of the room, the worse their grades in the course seem to be.

Type of correlation: Negative
One explanation: Sitting at the end of the classroom drops attention that also affects the grades.
Another explanation: Low grading students tend to sit at the back.
A third explanation: The classroom might get too full at the front that students have to sit at the back which affects their ability to be attentive.
5. When the physical attractiveness of high school girls was rated by their peers, it was noticed that those with the highest scores tended to do the best on a measure of self-esteem on record in the guidance office.
Type of correlation: Positive
One explanation: Higher grade girls were expected to have a higher self-esteem.
Another explanation: Girls with higher self-esteem seem to focus more on their grades as well.
A third explanation: Grade is associated with higher self-esteem by peers because it shows independence and growth.
6. A survey of adolescents being treated for eating disorders noted that those who watched the most TV during the week tended to receive the lowest ratings on a measure of general health.
Type of correlation: Negative
One explanation: Watching more TV leads to lower health rating.
Another explanation: People with bad eating habits tend to focus more on TV.
A third explanation: For some people, TV can be a distraction which does not help them stay focus on the treatment.
7. In a study of suburban communities, it was noticed that communities that sex-related crimes were highest in the communities that had the largest number of X-rated adult book stores.
Type of correlation: Positive
One explanation: Higher X-rated book stores results in sexual crimes because of addiction to that violent fiction.
Another explanation: Sex-related crimes show a general tendency in the community resulting in a higher number of adult-book stores.
A third explanation: Suburban community can be less main stream compared to the majority of the city because of the seclusion.
8. A survey reveals that college students who eat breakfast regularly have a higher GPA than those that don’t eat breakfast regularly.
Type of correlation: Positive
One explanation: Early breakfast brings mental attentiveness resulting in higher GPA.
Another explanation: Students having a higher GPA tend to be mindful of their habits and have healthy daily practices.
A third explanation: Students having breakfast are early risers that affects their mental freshness and memory.