Psych Stats Exam #4 Flashcards
How is correlational research different from experimental?
1) no manipulation of the IV
2) no random assignment
3) at least 2 DV’s measured
Purpose of correlational research
to explore association between variables
Correlation definition
the linear association between variables
What does the correlation coefficient provide?
An indicator of a linear relationship
Visualizing correlation
scatterplots: each point represents two measurements of the same person
Things to look for in a scatterplot
- direction
- scatter/dispersal
- shape
-outliers
Negative correlation
subjects with high scores on one variables tend to have low scores on the other variable
“when a score of X if above the mean of X, scores of Y will tend to be below the mean of Y” (and vice versa)
Positive Correlation
subjects with high scores on one variable tend to have high scores on the other variables (or low/low)
“when a score of X is above the mean of X, scores of Y will tend to be above the mean of Y” (and below/below)
Correlation coefficient definition (r)
statistic that quantifies the linear relationship between two variables
“ a measure of the tendency for paired scores to vary systematically”
What does the sign of r tell us?
- direction NOT magnitude
R value ranges
positive +1 to negative -1
- tells us magnitude
Perfect linear relationship
+1 or -1 (usually don’t exist in nature)
R effect size guidelines
small: 0.1
medium: 0.3
large: 0.5
R as a descriptive statistic
describes effect size
R as an inferential statistic
you can compare it to a critical value to find the rejection region
Null hypothesis of correlation
there is not a linear relationship between A and B (r = 0)
r for a population
rho
degrees of freedom for correlation
df(r) = N-2
- N = number of pairs of observations (20 data points = 10 pairs of data sets)
Example of correlation write-up
“there is a statistically significant negative correlation - a negative linear relationship - between number of absences and exam score r(8) = -0.85, p<0.05. The more classes students miss, the worse they tend to perform on the exam.”
Correlation…
does not equal causation
Factors that influence r
1) truncated range
2) outliers
3) non linear relationships
Truncated range
zooming in on one group of people (ex: just high or low scores)
- can alter correlation: misrepresenting the true strength of the existing relationship by altering sample size
Outliers and small sample sizes
can mask or exaggerate a relationship between variables
- with a small sample size, outliers heavily affect results
- extremity of outlier: very extreme outliers have larger influences
Pearson’s correlation coefficient
for linear relationships only
used for parametric tests (scale DV)
Examples of nonparametric inferential tests
- chi-squared tests
- Mann-Whitney U test
Spearman’s correlation
used in nonparametric tests
When do we use nonparametric tests?
1) When assumptions of parametric tests are not met (population skewed or non linear)
2) small sample sizes (usually under 30)
3) DV is not scale (ordinal and nominal)
Disadvantages of nonparametric tests
1) tend to have low statistical power (higher probability of type II error)
Chi-squared
- used when we only have a nominal variable
“how different are the observed values from the expected values under the null hypothesis”
What is “O”
observed value
What is “E”
expected value (under the null hypothesis)
What is Σ
sigma: summation