{"id":10659,"date":"2018-02-16T10:35:19","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T01:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ibpsych.themantic-education.com\/?p=10659"},"modified":"2020-02-20T10:54:55","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T01:54:55","slug":"lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesson Idea: Understanding correlational studies"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>The purpose of this activity is to help you learn about correlational studies and correlation coefficients.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><b>Key Questions:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #339966;\">What are three characteristics of a correlational study?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">How do correlational studies differ from experiments?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">How and why are correlational studies used in one or more approaches to understanding behaviour?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Textbook 6.1f, pg 320-321 (<em>IB Psychology: A Student&#8217;s Guide) (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/collections\/all\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Link<\/a>)<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Correlation coefficient calculator (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.socscistatistics.com\/tests\/pearson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">link<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Pen and paper<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Your Task<\/h2>\n<p>You are going to learn about correlation studies by actually doing your own correlation calculations on existing data (from Levine et al.&#8217;s 2001 cross-cultural study on helping behaviour:\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www2.psych.ubc.ca\/~ara\/Manuscripts\/Levine%20et%20al%20helping.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">link<\/a><\/em>) and then you will gather your own data to correlate.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Task #1: Calculating Correlations<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>First of all, you&#8217;ll need to read the textbook pgs. 320-321 to learn what a correlation coefficient is and what they mean.<\/li>\n<li>Once you&#8217;ve done this, work with a partner to use the table below from Levine et al.&#8217;s (2001) cross-cultural study on helping behaviour to calculate a correlation coefficient for two sets of data. For example, you might think that individualism and PPP could be correlated, so you would use data from these two columns.\n<ol>\n<li>Choose\u00a0<strong>two\u00a0<\/strong>columns of data that you think might have a positive or negative correlation and use this calculator to input the data and calculate the correlation coefficient. What&#8217;s the result? Was your prediction accurate? What are some possible explanations of these results?<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Important Note:\u00a0<\/strong>If one of the countries is missing data for one of the columns, skip that country completely &#8211; if you don&#8217;t it will mess up your results. e.g. There is no walking speed measure for Malawi so if you were correlating this with individualism, you would skip Malawi&#8217;s data out of your list and go straight from Costa Rica to India and move on.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div id=\"attachment_10668\" style=\"width: 817px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10668\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10668\" src=\"https:\/\/101psychcom.files.wordpress.com\/2018\/02\/data-from-levines-cross-cultural-study.jpg?resize=786%2C651\" alt=\"Data from Levine's cross-cultural study\" width=\"786\" height=\"651\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/02\/data-from-levines-cross-cultural-study.jpg?w=807&amp;ssl=1 807w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/02\/data-from-levines-cross-cultural-study.jpg?resize=300%2C248&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/02\/data-from-levines-cross-cultural-study.jpg?resize=768%2C636&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 786px) 100vw, 786px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-10668\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This data has been taken from Levine et al.&#8217;s (2001) cross-cultural study on helping behaviour. Select two columns and find the correlation coefficient.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Task #2: Calculating YOUR OWN Correlations<\/h2>\n<p>Once you&#8217;ve done the above task on existing data, it&#8217;s time to go one step further and collect <em><strong>your own data<\/strong><\/em> from your classmates (or other students) and see if you can find a correlation between two things.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some ideas for correlations, but try to come up with your (and have it checked with your teacher first):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Height and foot size<\/li>\n<li>Resting heart rate and average amount of exercise<\/li>\n<li>Average hours homework and how much you like school<\/li>\n<li>Average hours watching TV and average hours exercising<\/li>\n<li>Time on social media \/ screen time and &#8230;?<\/li>\n<li>Hours of sleep and&#8230;(mood \/ energy \/ ?)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now go and get your data and use the calculator to see if there&#8217;s a correlation.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Note: you might be tempted to correlate something with grades or something else personal. This raises some ethical issues involved in the research process and so you should work with your teacher to decide how to deal with these ethical considerations.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Remember:<\/strong> correlations are usually calculated between two sets of\u00a0<em>continuous\u00a0<\/em>data, not\u00a0<em>discrete\u00a0<\/em>data*. Continuous data is data that has infinite possible values and cannot be lumped into categories. If it can be lumped into categories, it is discrete data and this could be variable for a quasi-experiment, but not for a correlational study.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if you wondered how people got to school (bus, walk, bike, car, etc.) affected their grades, these are categories and cannot have a range of values so they&#8217;re discrete data, not continuous data and so cannot be used for a correlational study (although might make for an interesting quasi-experiment).<\/p>\n<p>*<em>There are variations of correlational methods that can test relationships between discrete data, such as phi correlations. For a high school psychology course, it&#8217;s enough to focus on correlational studies that measure relationships between two sets of continuous data.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Fast Finishers Extension #1<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Try to find at least five studies in the course that measure correlations.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Are they used in some approaches or topics more than others?<\/li>\n<li>Can you explain how and why correlational studies are used in particular topics of the course?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p><em>You can find some more interesting correlations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/kjh2110\/the-10-most-bizarre-correlations?utm_term=.gyOxEkoe3#.mmRvRe3JB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>! Can you see what&#8217;s wrong with the titles of all of these graphs?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>IB Psychology Exam Tip<\/h2>\n<p>When preparing to write about research methods in Paper 1 and Paper 2 of the IB Psychology course, I recommend focusing on either experiments, case studies or correlational studies. These are the most common and are easier to explain than other methods.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div  class=\"x-video embed with-container\" ><div class=\"x-video-inner\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0a3B5CCzPqM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The purpose of this activity is to help you learn about correlational studies and correlation coefficients.\u00a0 Key Questions: What are three characteristics of a correlational study? How do correlational studies differ from experiments? How and why are correlational studies used in one or more approaches to understanding behaviour? Resources Textbook 6.1f, pg 320-321 (IB Psychology: A Student&#8217;s Guide) (Link) Correlation &#8230; <\/p>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-methodology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lesson Idea: Understanding correlational studies | The IB Psychology Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the purpose and applications of correlational studies and coefficients with hands-on activities and helpful resources. Perfect for IB Psychology students. Learn now!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lesson Idea: Understanding correlational studies | The IB Psychology Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover the purpose and applications of correlational studies and coefficients with hands-on activities and helpful resources. Perfect for IB Psychology students. Learn now!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The IB Psychology Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/themanticeducation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-16T01:35:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-20T01:54:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/02\/chart.jpeg?fit=2080%2C820&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"820\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Travis Dixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Travis Dixon\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/16\\\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/16\\\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Travis Dixon\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/de20f76afd22df7d71e141ab515c0827\"},\"headline\":\"Lesson Idea: Understanding correlational studies\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-16T01:35:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-20T01:54:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/16\\\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":765,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/16\\\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/chart.jpeg?fit=2080%2C820&ssl=1\",\"articleSection\":[\"Research Methodology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/16\\\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/16\\\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\\\/\",\"name\":\"Lesson Idea: Understanding correlational studies | The IB Psychology Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/16\\\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/16\\\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/chart.jpeg?fit=2080%2C820&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-16T01:35:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-20T01:54:55+00:00\",\"description\":\"Discover the purpose and applications of correlational studies and coefficients with hands-on activities and helpful resources. Perfect for IB Psychology students. Learn now!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/16\\\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/16\\\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/16\\\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/chart.jpeg?fit=2080%2C820&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/chart.jpeg?fit=2080%2C820&ssl=1\",\"width\":2080,\"height\":820,\"caption\":\"Tyler Vigen (tylervigen.com) has calculated numerous \\\"spurious correlations\\\" (which are now available as a book). They do a great job of highlighting the fact that correlation does not mean causation. (Image source: tylervigen.com). Check out his site for more funny correlations.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/16\\\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lesson Idea: Understanding correlational studies\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/\",\"name\":\"IB Psychology\",\"description\":\"by Themantic Education\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Themantic Education\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2019\\\/06\\\/them-ed-logo.png?fit=1465%2C1858&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2019\\\/06\\\/them-ed-logo.png?fit=1465%2C1858&ssl=1\",\"width\":1465,\"height\":1858,\"caption\":\"Themantic Education\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/facebook.com\\\/themanticeducation\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/youtube.com\\\/c\\\/themanticeducation\\\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/de20f76afd22df7d71e141ab515c0827\",\"name\":\"Travis Dixon\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6ee7465953db9edfb653802c2423ee0be4456f3cf73a4ae4032bdda760a9a5e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6ee7465953db9edfb653802c2423ee0be4456f3cf73a4ae4032bdda760a9a5e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6ee7465953db9edfb653802c2423ee0be4456f3cf73a4ae4032bdda760a9a5e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Travis Dixon\"},\"description\":\"Travis Dixon has been teaching for over 20 years and is an experienced IB Psychology, History and English teacher, author, workshop leader and examiner\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.themantic-education.com\\\/ibpsych\\\/author\\\/tdixon\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lesson Idea: Understanding correlational studies | The IB Psychology Blog","description":"Discover the purpose and applications of correlational studies and coefficients with hands-on activities and helpful resources. Perfect for IB Psychology students. Learn now!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lesson Idea: Understanding correlational studies | The IB Psychology Blog","og_description":"Discover the purpose and applications of correlational studies and coefficients with hands-on activities and helpful resources. Perfect for IB Psychology students. Learn now!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/","og_site_name":"The IB Psychology Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/facebook.com\/themanticeducation\/","article_published_time":"2018-02-16T01:35:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-02-20T01:54:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2080,"height":820,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/02\/chart.jpeg?fit=2080%2C820&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Travis Dixon","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Travis Dixon","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/"},"author":{"name":"Travis Dixon","@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/#\/schema\/person\/de20f76afd22df7d71e141ab515c0827"},"headline":"Lesson Idea: Understanding correlational studies","datePublished":"2018-02-16T01:35:19+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-20T01:54:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/"},"wordCount":765,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/02\/chart.jpeg?fit=2080%2C820&ssl=1","articleSection":["Research Methodology"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/","url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/","name":"Lesson Idea: Understanding correlational studies | The IB Psychology Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/02\/chart.jpeg?fit=2080%2C820&ssl=1","datePublished":"2018-02-16T01:35:19+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-20T01:54:55+00:00","description":"Discover the purpose and applications of correlational studies and coefficients with hands-on activities and helpful resources. Perfect for IB Psychology students. Learn now!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/02\/chart.jpeg?fit=2080%2C820&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/02\/chart.jpeg?fit=2080%2C820&ssl=1","width":2080,"height":820,"caption":"Tyler Vigen (tylervigen.com) has calculated numerous \"spurious correlations\" (which are now available as a book). They do a great job of highlighting the fact that correlation does not mean causation. (Image source: tylervigen.com). Check out his site for more funny correlations."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/02\/16\/lesson-idea-understanding-correlational-studies\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lesson Idea: Understanding correlational studies"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/","name":"IB Psychology","description":"by Themantic Education","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/#organization","name":"Themantic Education","url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/06\/them-ed-logo.png?fit=1465%2C1858&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/06\/them-ed-logo.png?fit=1465%2C1858&ssl=1","width":1465,"height":1858,"caption":"Themantic Education"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/facebook.com\/themanticeducation\/","https:\/\/youtube.com\/c\/themanticeducation\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/#\/schema\/person\/de20f76afd22df7d71e141ab515c0827","name":"Travis Dixon","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6ee7465953db9edfb653802c2423ee0be4456f3cf73a4ae4032bdda760a9a5e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6ee7465953db9edfb653802c2423ee0be4456f3cf73a4ae4032bdda760a9a5e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6ee7465953db9edfb653802c2423ee0be4456f3cf73a4ae4032bdda760a9a5e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Travis Dixon"},"description":"Travis Dixon has been teaching for over 20 years and is an experienced IB Psychology, History and English teacher, author, workshop leader and examiner","url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/author\/tdixon\/"}]}},"yoast":{"focuskw":"correlation studies","title":"","metadesc":"Discover the purpose and applications of correlational studies and coefficients with hands-on activities and helpful resources. Perfect for IB Psychology students. Learn now!","linkdex":"","metakeywords":"","meta-robots-noindex":"","meta-robots-nofollow":"","meta-robots-adv":"","canonical":"","redirect":"","opengraph-title":"","opengraph-description":"","opengraph-image":"","twitter-title":"","twitter-description":"","twitter-image":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/02\/chart.jpeg?fit=2080%2C820&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13963,"url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2021\/04\/06\/correlational-studies-on-ptsd\/","url_meta":{"origin":10659,"position":0},"title":"Correlational studies on PTSD","author":"Travis Dixon","date":"04\/06\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Correlational studies are one of the most commonly used research methods in the study of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In this post we'll review WHAT correlational studies are, HOW they're used to study PTSD and WHY they're used. We'll also review three key studies that can support this explanation.\u00a0 Research\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Abnormal Psychology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Abnormal Psychology","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/category\/abnormal-psychology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-06-at-11.25.56-1.png?fit=1200%2C489&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-06-at-11.25.56-1.png?fit=1200%2C489&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-06-at-11.25.56-1.png?fit=1200%2C489&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-06-at-11.25.56-1.png?fit=1200%2C489&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-06-at-11.25.56-1.png?fit=1200%2C489&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13852,"url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2021\/02\/25\/how-to-evaluate-correlational-studies-properly\/","url_meta":{"origin":10659,"position":1},"title":"How to evaluate correlational studies&#8230;.PROPERLY!","author":"Travis Dixon","date":"02\/25\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"\"This study was correlational but correlation doesn't mean causation.\" If you think this is critical thinking, think again! Let's look at three ways to PROPERLY evaluate correlational studies. A correlational study is when researchers measure the strength of a relationship between co-variables by calculating a correlation coefficient.\u00a0 In order to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Revision and Exam Preparation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Revision and Exam Preparation","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/category\/revision-and-exam-preparation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/Pearson_Correlation_Coefficient_and_associated_scatterplots.png?fit=575%2C388&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/Pearson_Correlation_Coefficient_and_associated_scatterplots.png?fit=575%2C388&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/Pearson_Correlation_Coefficient_and_associated_scatterplots.png?fit=575%2C388&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11556,"url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2018\/12\/18\/correlational-studies-on-culture-and-behaviour\/","url_meta":{"origin":10659,"position":2},"title":"Correlational studies on culture and behaviour","author":"admin","date":"12\/18\/2018","format":false,"excerpt":"One common method used to study the effects of culture on behaviour is the correlational study. This method involves measuring the strength of a relationship between two or more co-variables. In correlational studies on the effects of culture on behaviour, one variable is related to culture (e.g. cultural dimensions) and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Human Relationships&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Human Relationships","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/category\/human-relationships\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/12\/buddhist-737275_960_720-1.jpg?fit=960%2C636&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/12\/buddhist-737275_960_720-1.jpg?fit=960%2C636&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/12\/buddhist-737275_960_720-1.jpg?fit=960%2C636&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/12\/buddhist-737275_960_720-1.jpg?fit=960%2C636&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14537,"url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2023\/07\/17\/how-to-explain-a-psychological-study\/","url_meta":{"origin":10659,"position":3},"title":"How to explain a psychological study","author":"Travis Dixon","date":"07\/17\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Whether it's for an extended essay, a test or an exam, writing about psychological studies can be a challenging task. This post is designed to help you focus your attention and efforts so you can write the best explanations possible. We'll begin by breaking down the studies and then look\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Revision and Exam Preparation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Revision and Exam Preparation","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/category\/revision-and-exam-preparation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/Scientific_citations.png?fit=1166%2C790&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/Scientific_citations.png?fit=1166%2C790&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/Scientific_citations.png?fit=1166%2C790&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/Scientific_citations.png?fit=1166%2C790&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/07\/Scientific_citations.png?fit=1166%2C790&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6624,"url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2017\/08\/15\/lesson-idea-explaining-the-difference-between-causation-and-correlation\/","url_meta":{"origin":10659,"position":4},"title":"Lesson Idea: Explaining the difference between causation and correlation","author":"Travis Dixon","date":"08\/15\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This lesson works well with in the introductory unit, topic 1.2, lesson (d) \"correlation.\" The following TED Talk by Adam Grant is really interesting for a number of reasons and it's well worth a watch. I like to show students the short segment from 8:25 to 10:30 where he talks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Research Methodology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Research Methodology","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/category\/research-methodology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/browser-773215_960_720.png?fit=720%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/browser-773215_960_720.png?fit=720%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/browser-773215_960_720.png?fit=720%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/browser-773215_960_720.png?fit=720%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6657,"url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2017\/08\/15\/lesson-idea-thinking-critically-about-correlations\/","url_meta":{"origin":10659,"position":5},"title":"Lesson Idea: Thinking critically about correlations","author":"Travis Dixon","date":"08\/15\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When looking at correlational studies and quasi-experiments it's important, I think, to allow students to make the obvious conclusion first, which is generally one of causation. But a big part of the IB Psychology course is helping them to understand the mantra:\u00a0correlation does not mean causation.\u00a0 This activity idea works\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Research Methodology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Research Methodology","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/category\/research-methodology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/correlation.png?fit=790%2C349&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/correlation.png?fit=790%2C349&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/correlation.png?fit=790%2C349&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/08\/correlation.png?fit=790%2C349&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10659"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12720,"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10659\/revisions\/12720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}