MEASURES OF CORRELATION

Correlation – is defined as a measure to

determine the degree of relationship of
two sets of variables

Example:

The height- weight relationship of bottle-

fed infants using the same milk brand. If
the correlation coefficient is 0.91
interpreted as high relationship, this
means that the taller the infants, the
heavier are the weight or as height
increases, the weight also increases.

Perfect Positive Correlation

- having a value of +1.0 rarely happens.

This indicates that all individual
performances in X and Y have the
same position. All points are situated
 in a straight line, X increases as Y
increases.

Perfect Negative Correlation

- having a value of -1.0 also rarely

happens. This indicates that that x is
an exact opposite of Y. X increases as
Y increase.

Zero Correlation also seldom happens.

This occurs when x and Y are the same.

Interpretation of correlation Value

r from 0.00 ± 0.20 denotes negligible

correlation

r from ± 0.21 to ±0.40 indicates low or

slight correlation

r from ±0.41 to ±0.70 signifies marked or

moderate relationship
r from ±0.71 to ±0.90 means high
correlation

r from ±0.91 to ±0.99 shows very high

relationship

r of ± gives perfect correlation.

The Pearson correlation coefficient

and the Spearman Rank correlation
coefficient

- both are appropriate for ordinal

variables.

- The Spearman correlation or

Spearman rho is computed with
rank scores. It is a linear correlation
used to find out the relationship of
the paired ranks assigned to
individuals in two sets of variables A
and Y.
 - Applied in both in descriptive and
experimental research

Formula : rs = 1 – 6  D2
N3 – N

Or rs = 1 – 6  D2
N( N2 – 1)

rs = Spearman rho
 D2 = sum of the square difference
between ranks
N = number of cases
Steps:

1. Rank the values from highest to

lowest both X and Y
2. Get the difference between Rx and
Ry
3. Square the difference to get D2.
4. Sum the squared difference to get
 D2
5. Compute Spearman rho.

(example in excel)

- The Pearson Product-Moment

Correlation Coefficient ( r )
describes the strength of the linear
association between the row and
column variables. This is the most
common measure to find the
association of two variables
quantitatively.
Formula: r = N XY – ( X) ( Y)
√[NX2 – (X)2][ NY2 – (Y)2]

Where:
r = correlation coefficient of x and y

X = sum of x
Y = sum of y
XY = sum of the product of x and y
X2 = sum of squared x
Y2 = sum of squared y

Steps

1. Find the sum of x and y

2. Square all x and y data
3. Find the sum of X2 and Y2
4. Multiply x and Y
5. Find the sum of the product of X and
Y
6. Apply the formula