Which of the following represents a limitation (i.e.,a threat to internal validity)for any correlational study of the relationship between smoking and lung cancer?
A) Some relevant factors could not be examined in a correlational study,but all these factors could be directly manipulated in an experiment.
B) A correlational study about smoking is more difficult to set up than a controlled experiment.
C) Smoking incidence could be confounded with other variables that might increase susceptibility to cancer.
D) It is not possible to construct a contingency table that maps out the relationship between variables.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Correlational studies can show that two variables are related, but they cannot prove causation. The relationship between smoking and lung cancer could be influenced by other variables (confounding variables), such as genetics or environmental factors, which also affect lung cancer risk. This makes it difficult to determine if smoking directly causes lung cancer without considering these other factors, highlighting a limitation in establishing causality from correlation alone.

Which of the Following Represents a Limitation (I