ABSTRACT
Malcolm E.Turner and Charles D.Stevens develop a modification of the method of path coefficients. Following Tukey, they advocate systematic replacement in path analysis of the dimensionless path coefficients by the corresponding concrete path regressions. The authors concur with Tukey in treating the standardized and concrete forms of correlational statistics as if they were alternative conceptions between which it is necessary to make a choice. Turner and Stevens, again following Tukey, go into the direct treatment of reciprocal interaction between variables by path analysis. The chapter provides a method of measuring the direct influence along each separate path in such a system and thus of finding the degree to which variation of a given effect is determined by each particular cause. Path coefficients resemble correlation coefficients in describing relations on an abstract scale. The dependence of calculated path coefficients on the point of view represented in a particular diagram, of course, restricts their use as parameters to this point of view.
