There are two major approaches to addressing research questions using correlational methods: looking, and looking for. In general, the looking approach is utilitarian; whereas the looking for approach is more theoretical.

In the “looking for” approach the researcher generates correlation coefficients among all variables and then examines them to see which ones are related.

Correlational research involves the calculation of a correlation coefficient which is a measure of the extent to which variables vary in the same way.

Description may be quantitative or qualitative. Qualitative description is based on counts or measurements which are generally reduced to statistical indicators such as frequencies, means, standard deviations and ranges. Quantitative data can be presented in prose, or through audio tape, photographs or film.

Sociometry attempts to assess the social structure within a group of individuals by ascertaining the status of each individual in the group.

As the description gets more sophisticated, the researcher groups the data and presents it in tables and figures. The use of descriptive statistics is merely a convenient way of description. Data are reported in tables organized to give a suitable overall picture at a glance

Researchers do not usually collect their own data using all sorts of instruments, such as attitude scales, results from surveys, statistics on file or measures of performance. Only one instrument can be used as long as the data collected are approximately normally distributed.

Any approach that attempts to describe data might be referred to as a descriptive method.

Qualitative methods attempt to explore relationships between variables.

Secondary sources of data have been described as those items that are original to the problem under study and may be thought of as being in two categories: first, the remains or relics of a given period; second, those items that have had a direct physical relationship with the events being reconstructed