Is correlational research qualitative or quantitative? On this page, we find out if correlational research falls under the qualitative or quantitative research category within the psychology field.

Understanding what Correlational Research is

Correlational research involves the measurement of two or more relevant variables and an assessment of the relationship between or among those variables. For instance, the variables of height and weight are systematically related (correlated) because taller people generally weigh more than shorter people. In the same way, study time and memory errors are also related, because the more time a person is given to study a list of words, the fewer errors he or she will make. When there are two variables in the research design, one of them is called the predictor variable and the other the outcome variable. The research design can be visualized like this, where the curved arrow represents the expected correlation between the two variables:

Is correlational research qualitative or quantitative

Is correlational research qualitative or quantitative? Well, according to Libguides, correlational research falls under the quantitative research type. Why?

• Correlational research attempts to determine the extent of a relationship between two or more variables using statistical data.  
• In this type of design, relationships between and among a number of facts are sought and interpreted.
• This type of research will recognize trends and patterns in data, but it does not go so far in its analysis to prove causes for these observed patterns.
• Cause and effect is not the basis of this type of observational research.
• The data, relationships, and distributions of variables are studied only.
• Variables are not manipulated; they are only identified and are studied as they occur in a natural setting.