What is an Intervening Variable, Casual Prior Variable, and Partial Relationship? What is an example of each and how can they be described in statistics? Solution An intervening variable also known as mediator transmits the effect of an independent variable to a dependent variable. In industrial psychology the work environment is a major factor which leads to changes in the intervening variable of job perception and which in turn affects behavioral outcomes. Partial relationship is the correlation between two variables while controlling for a third variable. The purpose of partial relationship is to find the unique variance between two variables while eliminating the variance from a third variables. This technique is used in various experimental design where various interrelated phenomenon are studied..