Correlations

Question 1

What is a correlation and what does it do?

Answer 1

Correlation measures the association between two co-variables
These co-variables are measured not manipulated

Question 2

What are the types of correlations?

Answer 2

Positive correlation
Negative correlation
Zero correlation

Question 3

What are the strengths of using correlations?

Answer 3

Shows how two co-variables are related, this leads to experiments being conducted to find a possible cause and effect, a possible IV that has an impact on the DV

Quick and economical to produce - there is no need to administer an experiment and manipulate variables, you can simply collect data yourself through a questionnaire or use previously collected data

Question 4

What are the weaknesses of using correlations?

Answer 4

They don’t show why the two variables are related
no cause and effect is found, only association

There may be a third variable issue, where other variables are causing the association between the two co-variables

Question 5

What is primary data?

Answer 5

Data the researcher collects first hand themselves, it can be collected from questionnaires, interviews, observations and experiments

Question 6

What is secondary data?

Answer 6

Data that has been previously collected by another researcher, the current researcher simply uses the data, it can be found in books, journals and websites