Reference no: EM132374584 , Length: word count:200

Assignment -

Please write 200 words for comment or discuss the Pearson Correlation Coefficient and the Chi-Square Test on this student response to this question. Need 1 APA reference.

Question was:

Correlation is a common statistic to measure a general linear relationship between two variables. Explain why correlation does not equal causation. Describe the data characteristics necessary to calculate a Pearson correlation coefficient. Design a study that would apply the Pearson correlation coefficient as an appropriate statistic.

Student response was:

By definition, correlation means that two variables "vary together systematically" (Corty, 2016). In other words, if one variable changes, then the other will as well. When analyzing data and using correlation as a significant factor, there are two concepts that seem similar but are not interchangeable: association and causation. Variables that are correlated with each other are associated with one another, but that does not inherently mean that one causes the other. A statistical mantra that can be heard in virtually every textbook and from every professor is "correlation does not imply causation." Looking at correlation as a statistic, there is no data that goes along with it to imply evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship between the variables. A benefit of this, however, is that it can spur a researcher to analyze the relationship more through experiments. These experiments can dive deeper into the relationship between the variables and actually determine if one causes the other.