correlations

Question 1

analysis and interpretation of correlations - correlations and correlation coefficient

Answer 1

• correlations are mathematical techniques which measure the relationship / association between two continuous variables (co-variables)
• relationships are plotted on scattergrams where each axis represents one of the variables

Question 2

analysis and interpretation of correlations - working out what a coefficient means

Answer 2

• a value of +1 represents a perfect positive correlation
• a value of -1 represents a perfect negative correlation
• the closer the coefficient is to +1 or -1, the stronger the relationship between the co-variables
• the closer to 0, the weaker the relationship
• +.5 is as strong as a relationship as -.5, sign indicates direction
• coefficients that appear to indicate weak correlations can still be statistically significant, depending on size of data set