Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Correlation
- Example core studies with correlational data
- Physiological Approach
- Dement & Kleitman
- Laboratory Experiment
- Measured the correlation
between how long the sleeper had
been in REM sleep and the length
of their dream
- Maguire
- Quasi Experiment
- Measured the correlation between
length of taxi driver's experience and
the structural change of the
hippocampus
- To calculate the correlation coefficient
- To quantify the strength of
relationship between two
variables
- Correlation Coefficient: A mathematical
measure of the degree of relatedness
between two sets of data where two scores
have been gained from each participant
- A value between -1 and +1
- +1 = Perfect positive correlation
- -1 = Perfect negative correlation
- Data can be plotted on a scattergraph
- With a line of best fit
- Positive Correlation: Both variable increase
- No Correlation: No line of best fit
- Negative Correlation: One variable increases, the other decreases
- Advantages
- Allow researchers to calculate the strength
of a relationship between variables
quantitively
- Correlation can make predictions about one variable
from the other
- More detailed research
- Disadvantages
- Can't assume one
variable causes another
- Correlation bewtween variables
can be misleading/misinterpreted
- No correlation may not mean there isn't a relationship
because the relationship may be non-linear
- Ethics
- Researching relationships between socially sensitive
subjects such as IQ and ethnicity can be
misinterpreted as 'cause and effect'