- Correlation is a statistical procedure for determining whether there is a relationship between two variables
- Designed to identify “what goes with what” in nature, and not designed to identify causal relationships
- Major advantage is that it allows us to identify relationships among variables as they occur naturally
Correlation coefficient varies from –1 (perfect negative relationships) through 0 (no relationship) to +1 (perfect positive relationship)
- Correlation does not indicate causation
- - Directionality problem
- - Third variable problem