Spearman's rho is which type of correlation measure?

Spearman's rho is which type of correlation measure?

• A. A non-parametric measure suitable for ordinal data or skewed distributions
• B. A parametric measure reliant on normality
• C. A measure of reliability
• D. A test for independence

Answer: (A)

Spearman's rho is a non-parametric, rank-based measure of association. It assesses how well two variables relate in a monotonic way by ranking each variable and then computing the correlation between those ranks. Because it relies on ranks rather than raw scores, it does not require normality and is appropriate for ordinal data or data with skewed distributions. It’s also more robust to outliers and captures monotonic relationships even when the exact form isn’t linear. It isn’t a measure of reliability, nor a test for independence, which are concepts handled by other methods. When data are normally distributed and the relationship is linear, Pearson’s r is typically preferred; for ordinal data or non-normal distributions, Spearman’s rho is the better choice.

Spearman's rho is a non-parametric, rank-based measure of association. It assesses how well two variables relate in a monotonic way by ranking each variable and then computing the correlation between those ranks. Because it relies on ranks rather than raw scores, it does not require normality and is appropriate for ordinal data or data with skewed distributions. It’s also more robust to outliers and captures monotonic relationships even when the exact form isn’t linear. It isn’t a measure of reliability, nor a test for independence, which are concepts handled by other methods. When data are normally distributed and the relationship is linear, Pearson’s r is typically preferred; for ordinal data or non-normal distributions, Spearman’s rho is the better choice.