Correlational Research

Question 1

What are the two disciplines of scientific psychology?

Answer 1

• Correlational psychology
• Experimental psychology

Question 2

What is correlational psychology?

Answer 2

This discipline is concerned with studying individual differences and investigating the relationship between naturally occurring variables

Question 3

What is experimental psychology?

Answer 3

This discipline is not usually interested in individual differences, but in minimising these.

Question 4

What is correlation?

Answer 4

• Correlation identifies an association between two variables (co-relation)
• There is a positive association between number of hours studied per week, and marks at the end of the year.

Question 5

What is regression?

Answer 5

Regression is used to make predictions when strong correlations exist.

Question 6

What are the two specific problems with correlational research and causality?

Answer 6

1. Which comes first (directionality/temporal precedence) e.g. does watching violent TV lead to aggression in children? Or do already aggressive children prefer to watch violent TV?
2. Third variables. E.g. violent parents may expose their children to more violent media.

Question 7

Why do we do correlation research?

Answer 7

• Practicality: some variables can’t be randomly assigned (age, gender, personality variables)
• Some research is conducted with prediction in mind. E.g. predicting why certain people will do well on the job.
• Ethical grounds: e.g. can’t randomly assign people to brain damage.

Question 8

What are four places where correlation research is used?

Answer 8

• Psychological testing. Testing reliability (split-halves and test-retest). Testing validity (criterion validity)
• Research in Personality and Abnormal Psychology.
• Studying the nature-nurture controversy
• Any cross-sectional study (you can’t infer causality from these)

Question 9

Summarise what is nb about correlational research

Answer 9

• It contributes a great deal to psychology, often when experimental procedures cannot be used
• With modern, sophisticated statistical procedures, more complex questions about cause and effect can be addressed than in the past.
• Much correlational research takes place outside the laboratory- for instance, quasi-experimental research and programme evaluation.