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Spearmans Corr

1) Spearman's rank-order test determines the strength and direction of the monotonic relationship between two variables measured at ordinal, interval or ratio levels. 2) The Spearman's correlation coefficient ranges from -1 to 1, with values closer to 1 indicating a stronger monotonic relationship. 3) Coefficients between 0-0.3 indicate a weak relationship, 0.4-0.6 indicate a moderate relationship, and 0.7-1 indicate a strong relationship.

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27 views2 pages

Spearmans Corr

1) Spearman's rank-order test determines the strength and direction of the monotonic relationship between two variables measured at ordinal, interval or ratio levels. 2) The Spearman's correlation coefficient ranges from -1 to 1, with values closer to 1 indicating a stronger monotonic relationship. 3) Coefficients between 0-0.3 indicate a weak relationship, 0.4-0.6 indicate a moderate relationship, and 0.7-1 indicate a strong relationship.

Uploaded by

Richie Prejula
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Spearman’s correlation, Spearman’s rank-order test, or Spearman’s rho are all the

same.

The Spearman’s rank-order tests determines the strength and direction of the
monotonic relationship between two variables measured at ordinal, interval or ratio
level. As with the Pearson equivalent, the test will yield a figure of between -1 and +1,
and the closer the figure is to 1, the stronger the monotonic relationship. As a rule of
thumb, you can use the following figures to determine the effect size:

A Spearman’s correlation coefficient of between 0 and 0.3 (or 0 and -.03)


indicates a weak monotonic relationship between the two variables

 A Spearman’s correlation coefficient of between 0.4 and 0.6 (or -.04 and -.06)
indicates a moderate strength monotonic relationship between the two variables

A Spearman’s correlation coefficient of between 0.7 and 1 (or -.07 and 1)


indicates a strong monotonic relationship between the two variables.

In addition, probability values should be used to determine statistical significance.

An example is the best way to understand how to calculate a Spearman’s correlation.


Imagine you’ve gathered some data on evaluations of a market concept, and the
average price a consumer is willing to pay. Take the following steps:

1. In the first instance, you should create a table from your data. Each set of
measurements should be ranked by assigning the ranking 1 to the largest
number in a column, 2 to the next largest value, 3 to the third largest and so on
(tied scores can be assigned the mean rank).  

1. Then, find the difference in the ranks (d). This is the difference between the
ranks of the two values on each row, calculated by subtracting the ranking of 
the second value (in this example, price) from the rank of the first (concept
evaluation).

Finally, square the differences (d2) and then sum them.


Now, you have all the data you need to calculate Spearman’s rank, using the
following formula:

In our example, we would first multiply the sum of the d 2 values (6) by 6 (i.e. 36). To
address the denominator, we would raise the number of observations (concepts) to the
power of 3 and then subtract the number of observations (i.e. 4 3-4 = 60). We can then
calculate Spearman’s rho as 1-36/60= -.058.

This indicates a moderate, negative monotonic correlation between concept


evaluation and the price that consumers are willing to pay. A difficult one to interpret!
Practical applications of the Spearman’s correlation coefficient

The types of research questions that can be addressed through the Spearman
correlation method are similar to those addressable through a Pearson analysis.
Remember, however, that the main difference is that data can be ordinal in nature, and
the relationship should be monotonic. For example, you could use the Spearman
correlation coefficient to answer questions like:

 Is
there a statistically significant relationship between participants’ level of
education and their starting salary?

 Does income range vary with spend habits?

 What is the association between size of home and number of inhabitants?

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