THE VALUE OF DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH THE VALUE OF DESCRIPTIVE RESEA...
4. The Value of Descriptive Research a. Descriptive research allows researchers to get a sense of what “something is,” but cannot answer questions about how and why it became that way. b. The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) is one example of what researchers use to help operationally define variables, in this case the variable of happiness. If researchers wanted a more in-depth understanding of the predictors of happiness, they would turn to a correlational design. B. Correlational Research Correlational research is conducted when studies are concerned with identifying the relationships between two or more variables so it can be understood how the variables change together. In a correlational study the variables are measured by the researcher to see how they relate. The strength of the relationship between two variables is expressed as a correlation coefficient, or letter r. The numeric value of the correlation coefficient falls between –1.00 and +1.00, where the number determines the strength of the relationship between the variables and the – or + sign determines the direction of the relationship between the variables. A positive correlation occurs when the variables move in the same direction so that if one variable increases, the other variable increases also, and if one variable decreases, the other variable decreases as well. A negative correlation occurs when the variables move in opposite directions so that if one variable increases, the other variable decreases, and vice versa.
Correlational studies can take place anywhere, whether it is in the classroom, out in the real world, or in the laboratory.