Analysis And Interpretation Of Correlations & Correlation Coefficients

Question 1

What are co-variables

Answer 1

Two quantitative variables that usually have a relationship

Question 2

Strength of diff correlations meaning

Answer 2

-1: strong negative
0: no
+1: strong positive

Question 3

Drawing a scattergram isn’t enough to determine whether to accept or reject the hypothesis: what do we do instead

Answer 3

A statistical analysis e.g. spearman’s rho of pearsons r.

Question 4

Moderate correlation range

Answer 4

0.4-0.6

Question 5

Advantages of correlations

Answer 5

1. Allows psychologists to establish the strength of the relationship between 2 variables + measure it precisely
2. Allows for investigation of things that can’t be manipulated for ethical / practical reasons
3. Once correlation = conducted we can predict things about one variable based on what we know about the other

Question 6

Disadvantages of correlations

Answer 6

• can’t demonstrate cause and effect as we don’t know which variable affects the other
• these only measure linear relationships (not curvilinear - shaped like n)
• there could always be a third confounding variable that affects both rather than two