Aliya Qureshi, Academic Content Writer at Edumarz.
In Correlational Research, the extent to which variables are correlated/associated is determined.
In this method, no variable is manipulated/altered. Instead, the researcher tries to just find if there is any association/relationship between the variables or not.
The strength and direction of the association are also determined, using a number known as Correlational Coefficient.
The value of the Correlational Coefficient ranges from +1.0 through 0.0 to -1.0. This means that the Coefficient of Correlation is either Positive, Zero or Negative.
Positive Correlation = Direct Association between the two variables. If one variable decreases the other will also decrease, AND if one variable increases the other one will also increase.
Negative Correlation = Opposite Association between the two variables. If one variable will increase, the other one will decrease, and vice versa.
Zero Correlation = No Association between the two variables. (Generally, it is very uncommon to find cases with zero correlation, but there are cases where the correlation is close to zero, eg. -0.4, +0.2, etc. This suggests that the relationship between the two variables is very insignificant.)