A researcher assesses self-esteem among college students at the beginning of the semester using a self-report questionnaire, as well as three months later at the end of the semester among the same sample of college students using the exact same self-report measure of self-esteem. The researcher determines that there is a significant positive relationship between self-esteem measured at the beginning and end of the college semester for the students sampled. This demonstrates how correlations can be used to demonstrate .