Answer to Question 1
The absolute value of a correlation coefficient gives you information about the strength of the relationship between two variables, not the sign. The sign tells you whether both variables increase and decrease together or if one decreases while the other increases. To find how much variability is accounted for in the relationship, you square the correlation coefficient. In this case, 49 percent of the variability across measurements is accounted for by the correlation.
Answer to Question 2
Although it is not true all the time, experimental, theoretical research is more likely to take place in laboratories than applied research is. In additional, applied research is more likely to be descriptive or correlational than experimental.
The participants often differ in the two types of research. Theoretical research typically involves convenience samples of college students; applied research often targets groups specifically relevant to the research question being asked. Further, there are often fewer participants in the experimental, laboratory-based studies; applied research often includes notably larger samples.
Laboratory-based studies predominate in experimental, theoretical research, with statistical analysis featuring analysis of variance. Applied, non-laboratory studies rely more often on correlational statistics.
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