Question

Vida is studying the connection between school grades and time spent using social media. She finds a strong correlation, showing the students with lower grades spend more time using social media. She decides that before she can claim that increased use of social media causes grades to drop she must make sure that the social media came before the low grades. What criterion of causality is she concerned with?

Answer 1

Answer:

This question is incomplete. Here are the missing options:

• a) covariance
• b) statistical significance
• c) temporal precedence
• d) internal validity

The answer is c) temporal precedence.

Explanation:

Temporal precedence is considered as one of the most important factors for  determining research validity. In a cause-effect relationship, this term refers to establishing that the cause really did occur before the effect.

It is sometimes difficult to determine the temporal precedence of some factors, especially when they seem to occur simultaneously.