Correlation

Question 1

What is a correlation?

Answer 1

A measure of the strength of a relationship between two variables

Question 2

What is a strong positive correlation?

Answer 2

As one variable increases, the other also increases. The dots plotted are all close to the line, making the correlation strong (between +0.5 and +0.9)

Question 3

What is a weak negative correlation?

Answer 3

As one variable increases, the other decreases. The dots plotted are more spread out about the line, meaning the correlation is quite weak (between -0.1 and -0.4)

Question 4

What is a perfect positive correlation?

Answer 4

As one variable increases, the other variable increases proportionally. This does not mean that variable one caused the change in variable two, but they are definitely linked (+1)

Question 5

What is no correlation?

Answer 5

There is no relationship between the variables (0)

Question 6

What would should you use in your correlation hypothesis?

Answer 6

Relationship instead of effect

Question 7

What are the strengths of correlations?

Answer 7

Allows you to research variables that are too complicated or unethical to manipulate to establish the relationship between the two, it is a good starting point for further research to establish cause and effect (very useful for scientific research), can be easy to conduct

Question 8

What are the weaknesses of correlations?

Answer 8

Can never establish cause and effect, require further research into other variables to find cause, and they are often used in a misleading fashion when published in media