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Edexcel IAL Psychology 3.2.3 Correlation Issues

Practise Edexcel Psychology questions explaining why correlation cannot establish cause and effect, and evaluating relationships through confounding variables.

Syllabus
First assessment 2026
Course
Psychology XPS01/YPS01
Level
AS

Exam points

  • explain why correlation cannot establish cause and effect in a research study
  • evaluate correlational findings using confounding variables and study limits

3.2.3 - Correlation issues question 1

[Maximum number: 2]

Sacha carried out correlational research. He investigated whether there was a relationship between the number of hours sleep a person had per week and the number of hours they spent doing homework per week.
He found a negative correlation.
Sacha's results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Table 1

Explain one reason why cause and effect is an issue in correlational research.

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