Demonstraţia valabilităţii ipotezelor prin metoda corelaţională

Corelaţia reprezintă o relaţie de dependenţă care apare între două sau mai multe variabile.
Când două variabile variază împreună (o schimbare în cazul uneia este acompaniată de o
schimbare în cealaltă), spunem despre ele că sunt corelate.

Coeficientul de corelaţie reprezintă expresia cantitativă a nivelului de corelaţie.

În educaţie, metoda corelaţională include utilizarea testelor, examinarea distribuţiei scorurilor

şi aplicarea de tehnici şi măsurători rafinate pentru a face să contrasteze grupele care există în
interiorul populaţiei studiate. Metoda corelaţională oferă o bază solidă pentru comparaţii şi
corelaţii, mai ales atunci când eşantionul sau datele obţinute pot fi subdivizate în două
categorii. Problema este astfel definită încât există două surse de date şi instrumente. Datele
pot exista deja într-o formă convenabilă şi pot fi folosite în scopul precizat. În mod alternativ,
datele originale pot fi colectate folosind orice test potrivit pentru acest scop sau instrument de
colectare a datelor. Problema este astfel definită încât există două surse de date şi instrumente.
Datele pot exista deja într-o formă convenabilă şi pot fi folosite în scopul precizat. În mod
alternativ, datele originale pot fi colectate folosind orice test potrivit pentru acest scop sau
instrument de colectare a datelor.

Cercetarea corelaţională presupune calcularea coeficientului de corelaţie care măsoară gradul

în care variabilele variază în acelaşi fel. Coeficientul de corelaţie se află între limitele: -1.0
+1.0 iar 0 înseamnă că nu există nici o legătură între variabile, iar 1.0 înseamnă că există un
raport perfect de unu la unu. O corelaţie pozitivă este cea în care scorul înalt al unei variabile
este legat de scorul înalt al celeilalte variabile. Aceasta se exprimă printr-o valoare pozitivă a
coeficientului de corelaţie. Când valoarea este negativă, o variabilă creşte iar scorul celeilalte
scade.

Unul din cel mai folosit coeficient de corelaţie este Coeficientul de corelaţie a lui Pearson (r).

Corelatie pozitiva – creșterea sau scăderea scorurilor la ambele categorii se produce simultan
– creste una, creste si cealaltă si invers.

Corelatie negativa – cu cat creste valoarea scorul la o categorie cu atât scade scorul la
categoria cu care se afla in corelație.

Studiul corelational

Scopul studiilor corelaţionale este acela de a măsura şi a determina modul de asociere, de

covariaţie a unor însuşiri psihice. În cadrul acestor studii putem determina şi identifica
relaţiile predictive prin măsurări sau evaluări ale covarianţei între variabile, aşa cum
evoluează ea în mod natural. Informaţiile de acest tip se pot obţine fie prin aplicarea unor
teste, fie prin utilizarea metodei anchetei, care presupune două tehnici principale: chestionarul
şi interviul. Atât testul, cât şi chestionarul presupun selecţia subiecţilor şi stabilirea validităţii
şi fidelităţii datelor.

Corelatia este o metoda statistica utilizata pentru a determina relatiile dintre doua sau mai
multe variabile. Exista mai multe tipuri de corelatii atât parametrice cât si neparametrice.

Coeficientul de corelatie este o valoare cantitativa ce descrie relatia dintre doua sau mai multe
variabile. El variaza între (-1 si +1), unde valorile extreme presupun o relatie perfecta între
variabile în timp ce 0 înseamna o lipsa totala de relatie liniara. O interpretare mai adecvata a
valorilor obtinute se face prin compararea rezultatului obtinut cu anumite valori prestabilite în
tabele de corelatii în functie de numarul de subiecti, tipul de legatura si pragul de semnificatie
dorit.

Corelatii parametrice

Principalele doua conditii ce trebuie a fi îndeplinite pentru a utiliza probe parametrice sunt:

 distributia normala a variabilei de interes din cadrul esantionului cercetarii;

 omogenitatea dispersiei esntionului cercetarii referitor la variabila supusa studiului.

Probele parametrice sunt preferate în cazul îndeplinirii acestor conditii deoarece sunt mai
solide, ceea ce înseamna cresterea sansei de a respinge o ipoteza falsa. Aceste conditii pot fi
verificate prin localizarea mediei în cadrul distributiei normale a datelor cât si prin calcularea
indicatorilor de omogenitate a esantionului cercetat.

Exista mai multe tipuri de corelatii parametrice. Pe parcursul acestui subcapitol ne vom opri
la:

1. - coeficientul de corelatie simpla (Bravais-Pearson);

2. - coeficientul de corelatie eneahoric;

3. - coeficientul de corelatie partiala;

4. - coeficientii de corelatie biserial si triserial.

Correlations Box

Take a look at the first box in your output file called Correlations. You will see your variable
names in two rows. In this example, you can see the variable name ‘water’ in the first row and
the variable name ‘skin’ in the second row. You will also see your two variable names in two
columns. See the variable names ‘water’ and ‘skin’ in the columns on the right? You will see
four boxes on the right hand side. These boxes will all contain numbers that represent variable
crossings. For example, the top box on the right represents the crossing between the ‘water’
variable and the ‘skin’ variable. The bottom box on the left also happens to represent this
crossing. These are the two boxes that we are interested in. They will have the same
information so we really only need to read from one. In these boxes, you will see a value for
Pearson’s r, a Sig. (2-tailed) value and a number (N) value.

Pearson’s r

You can find the Pearson’s r statistic in the top of each box. The Pearson’s r for the correlation
between the water and skin variables in our example is 0.985.

When Pearson’s r is close to 1…

This means that there is a strong relationship between your two variables. This means that
changes in one variable are strongly correlated with changes in the second variable. In our
example, Pearson’s r is 0.985. This number is very close to 1. For this reason, we can
conclude that there is a strong relationship between our water and skin variables. However,
we cannot make any other conclusions about this relationship, based on this number.

When Pearson’s r is close to 0…

This means that there is a weak relationship between your two variables. This means that
changes in one variable are not correlated with changes in the second variable. If our
Pearson’s r were 0.01, we could conclude that our variables were not strongly correlated.

When Pearson’s r is positive (+)…

This means that as one variable increases in value, the second variable also increase in value.
Similarly, as one variable decreases in value, the second variable also decreases in value. This
is called a positive correlation. In our example, our Pearson’s r value of 0.985 was positive.
We know this value is positive because SPSS did not put a negative sign in front of it. So,
positive is the default. Since our example Pearson’s r is positive, we can conclude that when
the amount of water increases (our first variable), the participant skin elasticity rating (our
second variable) also increases.

When Pearson’s r is negative (-)…

This means that as one variable increases in value, the second variable decreases in value.
This is called a negative correlation. In our example, our Pearson’s r value of 0.985 was
positive. But what if SPSS generated a Pearson’s r value of -0.985? If SPSS generated a
negative Pearson’s r value, we could conclude that when the amount of water increases (our
first variable), the participant skin elasticity rating (our second variable) decreases.

Sig (2-Tailed) value

You can find this value in the Correlations box. This value will tell you if there is a
statistically significant correlation between your two variables. In our example, our Sig. (2-
tailed) value is 0.002.

If the Sig (2-Tailed) value is greater than 05…

You can conclude that there is no statistically significant correlation between your two
variables. That means, increases or decreases in one variable do not significantly relate to
increases or decreases in your second variable.

If the Sig (2-Tailed) value is less than or equal to .05…

You can conclude that there is a statistically significant correlations between your two
variables. That means, increases or decreases in one variable do significantly relate to
increases or decreases in your second variable.

Our Example

The Sig. (2-Tailed) value in our example is 0.002. This value is less than .05. Because of this,
we can conclude that there is a statistically significant correlation between amount of water
consumed in glasses and participant rating of skin elasticity.
Warning about the Sig (2-Tailed) value

When you are computing Pearson’s r, significance is a messy topic. When you have small
samples, for example only a few participants, moderate correlations may misleadingly not
reach significance. When you have large samples, for example many participants, small
correlations may misleadingly turn out to be significant. Some researchers think that
significance should be reported but perhaps should receive less focus when it comes to
Pearson’s r.

So what about the scatterplot?

You can find your scatterplot in your output file. It will look something like the graph below.
You will see a bunch of dots. Your scatterplot can tell you about the relationship between
variables, just like Pearson’s r. With it, you can determine the strength and direction of the
relationship between variables.
Relationship strength

Try to imagine a line that connects the dots in your scatterplot. Is this an easy or difficult task?
This task can help you determine the strength of the relationship between your two variables.
If your variables have a strong relationship, it will be easy for your to imagine a line
connecting all of the dots. For example, in our example scatterplots, the dots seem to go
together to form a straight line. However, some scatterplots do not look like this. With some
scatterplots, the dots are scattered about so that it is very hard to imagine a line connecting
them. The dots are not densely positioned in one place. Instead, they are all over the place.
When this is the case, your variables may not have a strong relationship.

Relationship Direction

You can use your scatterplot to understand the direction of your relationship. Your scatterplot
can tell you if you have a positive, negative or zero correlation.

Positive correlation in a scatterplot

If the line that you imagine in your graph slopes upward from zero, you can conclude that you
have a positive correlation between your variables. Increases in one variable are correlated
with increases in your other variable. Similarly, decreases in one variable are correlated with
decreases in your other variable.

Negative correlation in a scatterplot

If the line that you imagine in your graph starts high at zero and gradually slopes downward,
you can conclude that you have a negative correlation between your variables. Increases in
one variable are correlated with decreases in your other variable.

Zero correlation in a scatterplot

If the line that you imagine does not slop, or you can’t imagine a line at all, you can conclude
that you have a zero correlation between your variables. That means that your variables are
not related to one another. Increases or decreases in one variable have no effect on increases
or decreases in your second variable.