Correlation Flashcards
What are correlations?
Correlations are examining how two un-manipulated co-variables interact with each other.
Correlations study the relationship between the variables.
What is the terminology for correlations?
4 key words
- Correlation
- Relationship
- Relates
- Co-Variable
What is a positive correlation?
If one co-variable increases so does the other!
E.g height and weight
What is a negative correlation?
If one co-variable increases the other decreases
E.g lessons missed and grade
What is no correlation?
If there is no relationship between the co-variables
What are research questions?
- broad questions
- about the concept being studied
What are research aims?
Identifies a more specific concept to investigate
What is it important to operationalise variables?
In a correlation
- Have 2 co-variables
- Operationalise both as quantitative data
- Ordinal or interval/ratio level data
- So can be placed on a scatter graph
What would an alternative 1 tailed correlational hypothesis be like?
There will be a significant positive/negative correlation between co-variable x and co-variable y.
What would an alternative 2 tailed correlational hypothesis be like?
There will be a significant correlation between co-variable x and co-variable y.
What would an null correlational hypothesis be like?
There will not be a significant correlation between x and y; any relationship will be due to chance factors.
What is the correlation coefficient?
A correlation coefficient is a number between -1 and 1 that shows the direction and strength of a correlation.
It is calculated using a Spearman’s Rho test.
-1 = perfect negative correlation
+1 = perfect positive correlation
What comes under findings?
Essentially what are the ways of analysing findings (5 of them)
- Mean
- Median
- Mode
- Range
- Outlier
What comes under conclusions?
What do you describe in the conclusion?
- Direction of the correlation
- Strength of the correlation
What are the strengths of correlations?
3 of them
- Can reveal new information by analysing relationship beteen already existing data
- Can be used when variables cannot be manipulated (for practical or ethical reasons)
- Can be a good starting point for research and lead to further investigation
What is the main weakness of correlations?
- Do not tell us about cause and effect.
