The misleading correlation between two variables is produced through the operation of a third causal variable.

The controlling factor must be internal and not nutrients or sunlight acting as causal exogenous variables.

In the classical version, we are manipulable only through threats or appeals; in the positivist it is through the alteration of mechanistic causal variables.

Good examples of intractable causal variables are those that relate to genetic make-up.

As we have already seen, he noted that positivist criminology had tended to propose causal variables that were difficult, if not impossible to manipulate.

I pointed out that in practice determinist theories have always had to acknowledge a low level of predictive power for their causal variables.

In determinist terms, this is explained by the virtually infinite complexity of different constellations of different causal variables in individual cases.

This may involve reconceiving the causal variables or theorising that, under certain conditions, the causal processes of one theory interlock with those of other theories.

High parental religiousness negatively correlated with divorce, this alludes to the fact that religion might be more of a causal variable than a predictor variable.