Theory and Research This paper will focus on the quantitative correlation study method used in survey based researches such as the attached article entitled "Horatio Alger lives". Social research is a collection of methods people use to systematically combine theories and ideas to produce knowledge. Because of it's complexity, researchers must be able to carefully select a method or methods that will best suit their study objectives. Quantitative research method consists of: experiment, content analysis, existing statistics (correlation), and survey. The correlation and survey will be the two main methods that will be emphasized. In a survey research,