I have done a correlation in R and I'm unsure on the output? I'm new to stats and have made this correlation table. I'm specifically looking at sdsa (Social desirability scale) to see if my variables (confa = confidence, conta = Control, consa = constancy) were influenced by socially desired responses. I was told to make a correlation matrix to interpret results can I use this information?


Correlation matricies are symmteric matrices in which each entry is the (usually Pearson) correlation between the row and column variable. The diagonals, which have row and column variables the same, have a 100% correlation, of course. So in your case, you would look at the the column for $sdsa$ and you could see if there are any high-absolute-value entries which would indicate a strong correlation—negative or positive depending on the sign—with the other variables. From the table above, it seems that $consa$ has the "strongest" correlation with $sdsa$. Whether a negative 25% correlation is significant or not is something you would have to decide or research in the context of your subject matter.
