correlations

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  • correlation
    • assesses the relationship or association between 2 variables (co variables)
    • correlations can be ...
      • positive
        • as 1 variable increases so does the other e.g as amount of alch increases so does reaction Time
      • negative
        • as 1 variable increases the other decreases e.g age increases so memory decreases
      • zero
        • no relationship between variables e.g age and intelligence
    • always plotted on a scattergraph which. allows researcher to asses strength of relationship
    • 'correlation coefficent'
      • given a numerical-value between -1 and +1
      • tells you the strength and direction of correlation
        • closer too 1= stronger and close to 0= weaker
    • weaknesses
      • cannot say which variable is cause and which is effect
      • sometime 3rd variable which is true cause of relationship
        • e.g negative corrolationbetween smoking and life expectancy but true cause may. be stress
          • stress makes you smoke more and causes illness such as hear disease
    • strengths
      • generate quantitative data so can be analysed
      • demonstates link between variables to suggest suitable further research
      • can be used when experiment wouldn't be ethical e.g by using existing data

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