correlation measures the degree to which two variables are
related to one another.
Here are the definitions of the three possibilities:
Positive correlations: In this type of
correlation, both variables increase or decrease at the same time.
A correlation coefficient close to +1.00 indicates a strong
positive correlation.
Negative correlations: This type of
correlation indicates that as the amount of one variable increases,
the other decreases (and vice versa). A correlation coefficient
close to -1.00 indicates a strong negative correlation.
No correlation: This indicates no
relationship between the two variables. A correlation coefficient
of 0 indicates no correlation.
Values range from -1 to 1. The closer to -1 or 1 the stronger
the correlation. The closer to 0 the weaker it is. Correlation is a
term that refers to the strength of a relationship between two
variables where a strong, or high, correlation means that two or
more variables have a strong relationship with each other while a
weak or low correlation means that the variables are hardly
related. Correlation analysis is the process of studying the
strength of that relationship with available statistical data.
Example: A recent study of marriage and education found a strong
negative correlation between the level of education and the divorce
rate. Data from the National Survey of Family Growth show that as
education level increases among women, the divorce rate for first
marriages decreases.
I did a study asking community members how safe
they felt in their neighborhood (on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 = not
at all safe to 5=extremely safe). I also asked the same
community members how often they used their community park (on a
scale of 1=never to 5=always). I ran the statistics and my
correlation is .789. Is this a negative or positive
correlation? And what does it show (write it out like in the
example above about the direction of each variable and what that
means)