CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Background

Correlation is a technique for investigating the relationship between two quantitative, continuous
variables, for example, age and blood pressure. Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) is a measure of
the strength of the association between the two variables.

The first step in studying the relationship between two continuous variables is to draw a scatter plot
of the variables to check for linearity. The correlation coefficient should not be calculated if the
relationship is not linear. For correlation only purposes, it does not really matter on which axis the
variables are plotted. However, conventionally, the independent (or explanatory) variable is plotted
on the x-axis (horizontally) and the dependent (or response) variable is plotted on the y-axis
(vertically).

The nearer the scatter of points is to a straight line, the higher the strength of association between the
variables. Also, it does not matter what measurement units are used.
1.2 The Formulation of The Problem
1. What is Data Collection in Correlational Research?
2. What type of correlation method?
3. How Basics Steps in Correlational Research?
1.3 The Purpose
1. In order to tell about correlation method.
2. In order to use the correlation method in research.

1
 CHAPER II
DISCUSSION

2.1 Correlation Method

Correlational research is a type of non-experimental research method, in which a researcher

measures two variables, understands and assess the statistical relationship between them with no
influence from any extraneous variable.
A correlation can be calculated between two numerical values (e.g., age and salary) or between
two category values (e.g., type of product and profession). However, a company may also want
to calculate correlations between variables of different types. One method to calculate the
correlation of a numerical variable with a categorical one is to convert the numerical variable
into categories. For example, age would be categorized into ranges (or buckets) such as: 18 to
30, 31 to 40, and so on.

As well as the correlation, the covariance of two variables is often calculated. In contrast with the
correlation value, which must be between − 1 and 1, the covariance may assume any numerical
value. The covariance indicates the grade of synchronization of the variance (or volatility) of the
two variables.

Need for Correlation:

Correlation gives meaning to a construct. Correlational analysis is essential for basic psycho-
educational research. Indeed most of the basic and applied psychological research is correlational
in nature.

2.2 Data Collection in Correlational Research

Again, the defining feature of correlational research is that neither variable is manipulated. It
does not matter how or where the variables are measured. A researcher could have participants
come to a laboratory to complete a computerized backward digit span task and a computerized
risky decision-making task and then assess the relationship between participants’ scores on the
two tasks. Or a researcher could go to a shopping mall to ask people about their attitudes toward

2
the environment and their shopping habits and then assess the relationship between these two
variables.

Both of these studies would be correlational because no independent variable is manipulated.

However, because some approaches to data collection are strongly associated with correlational
research, it makes sense to discuss them here. The two we will focus on are naturalistic
observation and archival data

a. Naturalistic Observation

Naturalistic observation is an approach to data collection that involves observing people’s

behaviour in the environment in which it typically occurs. Thus naturalistic observation is a type
of field research (as opposed to a type of laboratory research). It could involve observing
shoppers in a grocery store, children on a school playground, or psychiatric inpatients in their
wards. Researchers engaged in naturalistic observation usually make their observations as
unobtrusively as possible so that participants are often not aware that they are being studied.

Ethically, this method is considered to be acceptable if the participants remain anonymous and
the behaviour occurs in a public setting where people would not normally have an expectation of
privacy. Grocery shoppers putting items into their shopping carts, for example, are engaged in
public behaviour that is easily observable by store employees and other shoppers. For this
reason, most researchers would consider it ethically acceptable to observe them for a study. On
the other hand, one of the arguments against the ethicality of the naturalistic observation of
“bathroom behaviour” discussed earlier in the book is that people have a reasonable expectation
of privacy even in a public restroom and that this expectation was violated.

b. Archival Data

Another approach to correlational research is the use of archival data, which are data that have
already been collected for some other purpose. An example is a study by Brett Pelham and his
colleagues on “implicit egotism”—the tendency for people to prefer people, places, and things
that are similar to themselves (Pelham, Carvallo, & Jones, 2005). In one study, they examined
Social Security records to show that women with the names Virginia, Georgia, Louise, and

3
Florence were especially likely to have moved to the states of Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, and
Florida, respectively.

As with naturalistic observation, measurement can be more or less straightforward when working
with archival data. For example, counting the number of people named Virginia who live in
various states based on Social Security records is relatively straightforward. But consider a study
by Christopher Peterson and his colleagues on the relationship between optimism and health
using data that had been collected many years before for a study on adult development (Peterson,
Seligman, & Vaillant, 1988).

In the 1940s, healthy male college students had completed an open-ended questionnaire about
difficult wartime experiences. In the late 1980s, Peterson and his colleagues reviewed the men’s
questionnaire responses to obtain a measure of explanatory style—their habitual ways of
explaining bad events that happen to them. More pessimistic people tend to blame themselves
and expect long-term negative consequences that affect many aspects of their lives, while more
optimistic people tend to blame outside forces and expect limited negative consequences. To
obtain a measure of explanatory style for each participant, the researchers used a procedure in
which all negative events mentioned in the questionnaire responses, and any causal explanations
for them, were identified and written on index cards.

These were given to a separate group of raters who rated each explanation in terms of three
separate dimensions of optimism-pessimism. These ratings were then averaged to produce an
explanatory style score for each participant. The researchers then assessed the statistical
relationship between the men’s explanatory style as undergraduate students and archival
measures of their health at approximately 60 years of age. The primary result was that the more
optimistic the men were as undergraduate students, the healthier they were as older men.

2.3 The Type of Correlation Method

Correlation means association - more precisely it is a measure of the extent to which two
variables are related. There are three possible results of a correlational study: a positive
correlation, a negative correlation, and no correlation.

4
  A positive correlation is a relationship between two variables in which both variables
either increase or decease at the same time. An example would be height and weight.
Taller people tend to be heavier.
 A negative correlation is a relationship between two variables in which an increase in
one variable is associated with a decrease in the other. An example would be height
above sea level and temperature. As you climb the mountain (increase in height) it gets
colder (decrease in temperature).
 A zero correlation exists when there is no relationship between two variables. For
example their is no relationship between the amount of tea drunk and level of
intelligence.

A correlation can be expressed visually. This is done by drawing a scattergram - that is one can
plot the figures for one variable against the figures for the other on a graph.

2.4 Basic Steps in Correlational Research

a. Problem Selection

5
 The variables to be included in a correlational study should be based on a sound rationale
growing out of experience or theory. The researcher should have some reason for thinking
certain variables may be related. As always, clarity in defi ning variables will avoid many
problems later on. In general, three major types of problems are the focus of correlational
studies:
1. Is variable X related to variable Y ?
2. How well does variable P predict variable C ?
3. What are the relationships among a large number of variables, and what predictions
can be made that are based on them?
Almost all correlational studies will revolve around one of these types of questions. Some
examples of published correlational studies are as follows:
• “What Makes Professional Development Effective?”2
• “Verbal Ability and Teacher Effectiveness.”3
• “Bullying and Stress in Early Adolescence.”4
• “An Investigation of the Relationship Between Health Literacy and Social
Communication Skills in Older Adults.”5
• “A Correlational Study of Art-Based Measures of Cognitive Development: Clinical and
Research Implications for Art Therapists Working with Children.”6
• “A Correlational Study of the Relationships Among Student Performance, Student
Feelings, and Teacher Perceptions.”7
• “Perfectionism and Peer Relations Among Children with Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder.”
B. Sample
The sample for a correlational study, as in any type of study, should be selected carefully and, if
possible, randomly. The first step in selecting a sample, of course, is to identify an appropriate
population, one that is meaningful and from which data on each of the variables of interest can
be collected. The minimum acceptable sample size for a correlational study is considered by
most researchers to be no less than 30. Data obtained from a sample smaller than 30 may give an
inaccurate estimate of the degree of relationship. Samples larger than 30 are much more likely to
provide meaningful results.

6
C. Instruments
The instruments used to measure the two (or more) variables involved in a correlational study
may take any one of a number of forms, but they must yield quantitative data. Although data
sometimes can be collected from records of one sort or another (grade transcripts, for example),
most correlational studies involve the administration of some type of instrument (tests,
questionnaires, and so on) and sometimes observation. As with any study, whatever instruments
are used must yield reliable scores. In an explanatory study, the instruments must also show
evidence of validity. If they do not truly measure the intended variables, then any correlation that
is obtained will not be an indication of the intended relationship. In a prediction study, it is not
essential that we know what variable is actually being measured—if it works as a predictor, it is
useful. However, prediction studies are most likely to be successful, and certainly more
satisfying, when we know what we are measuring!

D. Design And Procedures

As you can see, two (or more) scores are obtained from each individual in the sample,
one score for each variable of interest. The pairs of scores are then correlated, and the
resulting correlation coeffi cient indicates the degree of relationship between the variables.
Notice, again, that we cannot say that the variable being measured by the first instrument (
O1 ) is the cause of any differences in scores we may find in thev variable being measured by
the second instrument ( O2 ).
As we have mentioned before, three possibilities exist: 1. The variable being measured by O1
may cause the variable being measured by O2 . 2. The variable being measured by O2 may

7
cause the variable being measured by O1 . 3. Some third, perhaps unidentifi ed and
unmeasured, variable may cause both of the other variables.
Different numbers of variables can be investigated in correlational studies, and sometimes
quite complex statistical procedures are used. The basic research design for all correlational
studies, however, is similar to the one just shown. An example of data obtained with a
correlational design.

8
 CHAPTER III
CONCLUSION

Correlational research is a type of nonexperimental research in which the researcher measures

two variables and assesses the statistical relationship (i.e., the correlation) between them with
little or no effort to control extraneous variables. There are essentially two reasons that
researchers interested in statistical relationships between variables would choose to conduct a
correlational study rather than an experiment.

The first is that they do not believe that the statistical relationship is a causal one. For example, a
researcher might evaluate the validity of a brief extraversion test by administering it to a large
group of participants along with a longer extraversion test that has already been shown to be
valid. This researcher might then check to see whether participants’ scores on the brief test are
strongly correlated with their scores on the longer one. Neither test score is thought to cause the
other, so there is no independent variable to manipulate. In fact, the terms independent
variable and dependent variable do not apply to this kind of research.

9
 REFERENCES

M, Diana. “Correlation: Meaning, Types and Its Computation | Statistics”

http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/statistics-2/correlation-meaning-types-and-its-
computation-statistics/92001 (Accessed in 15 May 2019).
Nettleton, David. “Learn more about Correlation Method Selection of Variables and Factor
Derivation.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/correlation-method
(Accessed in 15 May 2019).

10