DESCRIPTION OF;
POSITIVE CORRELATION
NEGATIVE CORRELATION
ONE & TWO TAILED CORRELATIONAL HYPOTHESIS
NULL HYPOTHESIS
IDENTIFY THE 2 VARIABLES
OPERATIONALISE THE VARIABLES
SKETCH & LABEL A SCATTERGRAPH
WRITE CONCLUSIONS
2 STRENGTHS & 2 WEAKNESSES
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Must be able to define:
 Positive correlation
 Negative correlation
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What is meant by the term
‘positive correlation’?
What is meant by the term
negative correlation?
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This means that as one
variable increases the
value of the other variable
will also increase
This means that as one
variable increases the
other variable being
measured decreases
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ALL HYPOTHESIS MUST INCLUDE BOTH VARIABLES THAT
THE CORRELATION IS TESTING
Must include the word SIGNIFICANT
 ONE TAILED – must say if POSITIVE or NEGATIVE
 Must include both of the variables
NULL HYPOTHESIS: must include there will be no
relationship
 Must include the word SIGNIFICANT
 Any relationship is due to chance
A researcher wanted to look at the relationship between age and
peoples perception of attractiveness of animals.
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Suggest an appropriate
one tailed hypothesis for
this correlation (4)
Suggest an appropriate
two tailed hypothesis for
this correlation (4)
Suggest an appropriate
null hypothesis for this
correlation (4)
There will be a significant negative
relationship between how people
perceive attractiveness of an animal
and how old they are.
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There will be a significant
relationship between how people
perceive attractiveness of an
animal and how old they are.
There will be no significant
relationship between how people
perceive attractiveness of an animal
and how old they are. Any
relationship is due to chance.
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Must be able to clearly identify the
variables being tested for a
relationship
Clearly describe the 2 variables
Clearly explain how the variables are
being measured
A researcher wanted to look at the relationship between age and peoples perception of
attractiveness of animals.
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Name the variable the
researchers are looking to
investigate?
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How can these variables be
operationalised?
Explain how the two
variables can be
measured?
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Age of P’s and their perception of attractiveness of
animals
Each P’s will be asked to write down their age in
years. Perception of attractiveness means whether
they view the animal as ugly or not using a rating
scale were 1 = very ugly 2=ugly 3= OK 4=attractive
5= very attractive
Each P’s will be asked to write down their age in
years. Perception of attractiveness means whether
they view the animal as ugly or not using a rating
scale were 1 = very ugly 2=ugly 3= OK 4=attractive
5= very attractive
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You must label each axis of the graph clearly
 Which variable is being measured
Title must be detailed
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Draw a scatter graph of the
data in the table (4)
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A scatter graph to show the
relationship between the number of
hours spent studying and they
scores on an assessment
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You must be able to give:
 2 advantages
 2 disadvantages
Correlations in general & linked specifically to the
scenario you are given or procedure you have
written
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Give an advantage and disadvantage of the correlational method to analysing
data (4)
One advantage is that it allows researchers to investigate topics that would not
be available otherwise due to it being unethical such as looking at factors linked
to child abuse. A disadvantage is that it is difficult to predict a cause and effect
as a correlation only looks at the relationship between variables and may not
take all other factors into account.
A researcher wanted to look at the relationship between age and peoples perception of
attractiveness of animals.
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Give an advantage and disadvantage of using a correlation to investigate this
topic. (4)
One advantage is that it would be more ethical than presenting the P’s with the
actual animals and then measuring their reaction as no harm is being caused.
A disadvantage is that P’s may lie about how they feel about the animals in the
list as they don’t want to look silly in front of the researcher and so cause the
results to be inaccurate.
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Describe and evaluate an appropriate procedure that can be used to
investigate this study
An opportunity sampling method will be used to select 10 males and 10 females from the
college social area. I will read them a short brief and ask them for their consent to take
part. Once they have agreed I will hand out the pictures of the different animals and rating
scale (1= very ugly 3=ok 5=very attractive). P’s will be asked to rate each animal according
to the scale on the sheet. P’s will complete the sheet at a table at the back of the social
area away from the other students present. Once complete they will be thanked and read a
debrief. All results will be collated and plotted on a scatter graph.
Overall the method used is ethical as everyone has to give their consent to take part after
hearing a brief explaining what they have to do so if they are very afraid of any animal they
can back out at that point. Another advantage is that the procedure is well controlled and
so should be easily replicated as the picture sheets and rating scale are the same for all P’s
which should increase the reliability of the results.
A disadvantage is that people may give socially desirable answers as they don’t want to
appear silly in front of the research which will cause the results to be less valid as you are
no longer measuring their perception but what they think the researcher will want. Also the
study will be low in generalisability as P’s are being collected from only one college social
area and so will not be representative of students who sit in other areas such as the library.