An important tool in descriptive research is using correlations; a statistical procedure that analyzes the relationship between two or more variables/factors. I am certain you've heard about correlations in the media or in conversations. The primary limitation of correlations is that it does not determine cause and effect. We can determine that two factors/things seem to be related, such as the use of certain drugs and mental illness, but we can't determine that one causes the other without more research. Using this real life correlation example, the limitations are that perhaps people in the early stages of severe mental illness are using drugs to self-medicate, or perhaps it's the other way around and the drugs are the trigger that activates the genes for mental illness for those with a genetic predisposition. Or, perhaps there is a shared third variable that we're not even looking at. Only experimental design can answer that question, but correlational research can show us there is something there to look into.

Correlations can be positive or negative, which refers to the direction that the variables vary (it does not mean good or bad). A positive correlation is when both variables change in thesamedirection. For example, a positive correlation is the more I exercise, the more optimistic I feel. As physical activity increases, so does my positive outlook. A negative correlation means the variables go in theoppositedirection. The more I exercise, the more weight I lose. As my amount of exercise increases, my weight decreases. Keep in mind that negative does not mean bad and positive does not mean good, it just refers to the direction. Lastly, correlations come with a statistical number called the correlation coefficient. This tells you the statistical strength of the correlation with 1.00 being perfect. In reality, most correlations of .40 are still considered important in psychological descriptive research and it's rare to get a perfect correlation. If you see a + before the number, it means it's a positive correlation and a - is a negative correlation.

Test yourself: Which correlation is stronger?+.80 or -.89? (Hint, the higher number is always the stronger correlation. The + or - just tells you the direction).

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Question: If this is the question from me that you'd like to respond to, come up with some examples of positive and negative correlations (either that you've heard in the media) or that you personally know to be true (anecdotal), which won't be scientific, but the purpose is to understand how negative and positive correlations work. For example, I was just reading a study with a correlation about food allergies and covid infection. There seems to be correlation that those with food allergies are less likely to be infected with covid. This would mean that as your food allergies increase, your chance of covid decreases, making it a negative correlation. *And, if you have a food allergy, this does not mean you can't get covid. Remember, correlations do not mean causation.

BOOK: Introduction to Psychology

Version 4.0 Charles Stangor and Sue Frantz