LESSON 5.

6
THE LINEAR
CORRELATION:
PEARSON r
 Specific Objective

1. To know the characteristics of

Pearson r
2. To solve problems dealing with
linear correlations
3. To understand the limitations of
linear correlations
 THE PEARSON r LINEAR
CORRELATION

* The Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient

or Pearson r is an statistical tool that can
determine the linear association between two
distributions or groups. This tool can only
establish the strength of association or
correlation but it can never justify any causal
relation that may appear or seemed obvious.
* The pearson r value may provide three
possible scenarios. If the value of 𝑟 is +
then it is a positive correlation. If it is -
then it is a negative correlation. If 𝑟’s
value is around “0” then it means that
almost no linear correlation found.
* An example of positive correlation is height
and weight of a person. Under normal
circumstances whenever a person gain
height it means also a gain in weight.
* An example of negative correlation is the
relationship between length of employment
and degree of attractiveness.
* As you may observe physically attractiveness
of an employee is affected by the
chronologically advancement of his or her
age.
* An example of zero correlation might be
relationship between grade of student living
in high land areas and the study habits of
students living in the low land areas.
* You should also remember that Pearson
𝑟 does not generate a value less than -1
or more than +1. Any answer outside
below -1 and above +1 can be attributed
to a wrong computation made.
 Example:

* Assuming that we want to determine if there is a

correlation between hours of study and grades of
students last semester. Initially, we need to randomly
select students (let say 10) and ask them about their
averaged grade last semester as well as the number
of hours they spent in studying per week in that
semester. Let us presume that right away they
provided us these two information.
* Some basic Pearson r requirements:
1. Random selection of participants.
2. Traits being measured must not depart significantly
from normality
3. The measurements on both distributions must be in
the form of interval data.
4. Comparing only two groups.
5. And the goal is to determine the linear correlation
between two groups.
* The formula in solving the Pearson 𝑟 is…
* Thus, we could say that the correlation between hours of
study and grades of students achieved a Pearson r value of
-0.979. Do not be confused by the that there is a negative
sign in our final answer. This sign provides an idea of the
direction of correlation line. You should take into
consideration that a grade of 1.0 has a strong academic
weight in our grading system but once plug in into the
computation it is interpreted by formula as a small number.
Nevertheless, with full knowledge of the concept you can
always come up with the right interpretation.
* Since the distribution exclusively
concerns the 10 students and it is
not a population sample, then
Guilford’s suggested interpretation
for the values of r can be used
without hindrance.
ACTIVITY