Peer replies week 12 Inquiry

Correlational analysis

by  Peggy Khouri Labbad  - Monday, November 20, 2023, 11:06 PM

Number of replies: 0

Correlational studies have the purpose of measuring the degree of relationship that exists between two or more concepts or variables in a particular context and relationships between two, three or multiple variables can be analyzed.

The main usefulness of this type of study is to know how a concept or variable can behave, knowing the behavior of other related variables, that is, trying to predict the approximate value that a group of individuals will have in a variable, based on the value that have in the variable or related variables; If there is no correlation between variables, it is an indicator that they vary without following a systematic pattern among themselves (Bhandari, 2023)

Correlational studies are distinguished from descriptive studies mainly in that, while the latter focus on precisely measuring individual variables, several of which can be measured independently in a single investigation; correlational studies evaluate the degree of relationship between two variables, and may include several pairs of evaluations of this nature in a single investigation.

In summary: there is no experimental independent variable that can be manipulated. There is no selection of equivalent groups of subjects. It is based on observation. Data analysis is based on correlational techniques, fundamentally Pearson correlation.

Correlational studies are carried out when the treatment variables cannot be manipulated for various reasons, of which I will point out three:

    1. It is impossible to physically manipulate variables. Let's imagine that a psychologist wants to study the relationship between two response measures such as intelligence and academic performance. Intelligence is an individual characteristic, a trait that is defined based on performance on a standardized test and cannot be physically manipulated. However, the relationship can be investigated in a correlational study selecting a group of students from a school, measuring their I.Q. and compare these scores with the school performance of these students.

2. The events have already occurred years ago, for example a group of university students compare their preschool scores with the subsequently obtained in the first stage of secondary education

    3. When the manipulation of variables is illegal or unethical, e.g. Relationship between heroin use and the number of heart attacks. It is unethical to administer different doses of heroin to a group of people and see whether or not a heart attack occurs under the most controlled conditions possible, but we can select heroin addicts from the population and monitor them for a time.

 

 

References

Bhandari, P. (2023, June 22).  Correlational Research | When & How to Use. Scribbr. Retrieved November 20, 2023, from https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/correlational-research/

Kühberger, A., Fritz, A., & Scherndl, T. (2014). A Diagnosis Based on the Correlation between Effect Size and Sample Size.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0105825

Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Buchner, A., & Lang, A. G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 4, 1149-1160.