The meaning of relationships in social-survey analysis

Morris Rosenberg

pp. 65-81

in: Martin Bulmer (ed), Sociological research methods, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1984

Abstract

The first step in the analysis of survey data is to examine the relationship between two variables. Such a relationship, however, may have many different meanings. In a formal sense there are three possible meanings which a relationshp between two variables may have:1† (1) Neither variable may influence the other; such relationships are termed symmetrical. (2) Both variables may influence one another; these are reciprocal relationships. (3) One of the variables may influence the other; the term asymmetrical is applied to this type of relationship. It is useful to consider some of the different types of symmetrical, reciprocal and asymmetrical relationships appearing in research.