Describe a hypothetical study containing a nonexperimental design, as well as one

Question

strength and one weakness for such a design. Provide an example of a positive and
negative correlation.

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Correlational designs contain hard to manipulate variables, such as age, gender, social
class, marital status, etc. A central strength is that the design allows researchers to study
associations between these hard to manipulate variables, and the study may have good
external validity. Unfortunately, it is difficult to ascertain cause and effect in such
studies, because random assignment is not possible and it is difficult to achieve
experimental control over the target independent variable, as well as other secondary
variables that might affect the study results. In terms of the study variables, a high score
on one variable that predicts a high score on another is known as a positive correlation.
If a low score predicts a high score (or vice verse) one is said to have a negative
correlation.