1.

A variable is any characteristics,number, or quantity that can be measured or

counted. A variable may also be called a data item. Age, sex, business income and
expenses, country of birth, capital expenditure, class grades, eye colour and vehicle
type are examples of variables. It is called a variable because the value may vary
between data units in a population, and may change in value over time.

For example; 'income' is a variable that can vary between data units in a population
(i.e. the people or businesses being studied may not have the same incomes) and can
also vary over time for each data unit (i.e. income can go up or down).

2. The independent variable is the variable the experimenter changes or controls and
is assumed to have a direct effect on the dependent variable. Two examples of
common independent variables are gender and educational level.
The dependent variable is the variable being tested and measured in an experiment,
and is 'dependent' on the independent variable. An example of a dependent variable is
depression symptoms, which depends on the independent variable (type of therapy).
gender and educational level.
3. A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a precise, testable statement of what the
researcher(s) predict will be the outcome of the study.
This usually involves proposing a possible relationship between two variables: the
independent variable (what the researcher changes) and the dependent variable (what
the research measures).
In research, there is a convention that the hypothesis is written in two forms, the null
hypothesis, and the alternative hypothesis (called the experimental hypothesis when
the method of investigation is an experiment).
4. In statistics, a unit of observation is the unit described by the data that one analyzes.
For example, in a study of the demand for money, the unit of observation might be
chosen as the individual, with different observations (data points) for a given point in
time differing as to which individual they refer to; or the unit of observation might be
the country, with different observations differing only in regard to the country they
refer to. A study may have a differing unit of observation and unit of analysis: for
example, in community research, the research design may collect data at the
individual level of observation but the level of analysis might be at the neighborhood
level, drawing conclusions on neighborhood characteristics from data collected from
individuals. Together, the unit of observation and the level of analysis define
the population of a research enterprise.