2.

Variables

THE USE OF VARIABLES IN RESEARCH.

The central purpose of research is to solve problems and improve the welfare of the society. To research
is to search or investigate exhaustively. It is a careful or diligent search, studious inquiry or examination
especially investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision
of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts or practical application of such new or revised
theories or laws, it can also be the collection of information about a particular subject, Webster(1985).
Research cannot be possible without taking into consideration measurable factors that are subject to
change due to circumstances. Anything that can vary in research due to circumstances is called a
variable. However, based on what has been learnt in the current research course, the principle aim of
this paper is to explain in parts, how the types of variables, the relationship between dependent and
independent variables and their importance can be used in research.

Variables in Research

There are so many variables in research that it could be impossible or extremely difficult to account for
all of them due to the fact that what can be considered a variable in one study may not necessarily be a
variable in another study.

Definition of a variable:

A variable is an object, event, idea, feeling, time period, or any other type of category you are trying to
measure. There are two major types of variables-independent and dependent and these will be
explained more later. A variable is something that can change, such as gender, which can be either male
or female, age which can be 15 years old, 16 years old, 20, 38 or 30 years old and variables are typically
the focus of a study. Associated to variables are attributes which are sub-values of a variable, such
as6594 ‘male’ and ‘female’ in the example variable given above. In other ways, under the variable
gender, male and female are the attributes of that variable. It is important to note that variables may
have the following characteristics: firstly, they have a period when they starts and stops. Secondly, they
may have a pattern such as daily, weekly, ad-hoc and monthly. Thirdly, they are quiet detailed with an
overview of in depth. They may be latency which is the time between measuring dependent and
independent variable because some things take time to take effect.

Types of Variables
Variables are of different types and kinds.

 There are descriptive variables which refer to those variables in research which will be reported
on, without relating them to anything in particular.
 There are also categorical variables which result from a selection from categories, such as
‘agree’ and ‘disagree’. In quantitative studies, nominal and ordinal variables are categorical in
nature because they result from some selected category.
 Variables like numeric give a number, such as age. Discrete variables are numeric variables that
come from a limited set of numbers. They may result from answering questions such as ‘how
many’, ‘how often’ and how far while continuous variables are numeric variables that can take
any value, such as weight.

 An independent variable is exactly what it sounds like. It is a variable that stands alone and isn’t
changed by the other variables you are trying to measure. For example, someone’s age might be
an independent variable. Other factors such as what they eat, how much they go to school, how
much television they watch aren’t going to change a person’s age. In fact, when you are looking
for some kind of relationship between variables you are trying to see if the independent variable
causes some kind of change in the other variables, or dependent variables. An independent
variable by definition is one which is manipulated by the researcher. It is like the knob on a dial
that the researcher turns.

 A dependent variable is one which changes as a result of the independent variable being
changed. Just like an independent variable, a dependent variable is exactly what it sounds like. It
is something that depends on other factors. For example, a test score could be a dependent
variable because it could change depending on several factors such as how much you studied,
how much sleep you got the night before you took the test, or even how hungry you were when
you took it.

Every experiment has at least two types of variables: independent and dependent.

The independent variable (IV) is often thought of as our input variable. It is independent of
everything that occurs during the experiment because once it is chosen it does not change
easily. For example in one of the experiments on college performance, researchers chose two
groups at the onset, namely, those with work experience and those without. This variable makes
up the two independent groups and is therefore called the independent variable.
On the other hand, the dependent variable (DV), or outcome variable, is dependent on our
independent variable or what we start with. In the study exemplified above, college grades
would be dependent variable because it is dependent on work experience. If we chose to also
look at men versus women, or older students versus younger students, then these variables
would be other independent variables and the outcome, our dependent variable (college
grades), would be dependent on them as well. Whatever is the same between the two groups is
considered a constant because they do not vary between groups but rather remain the same
and therefore do not affect the outcome of each group differently.
  There are also Confounding Variables in research. Researchers must be aware that variables
outside of the independent variable(s) may confound or alter the results of a study. As
previously discussed, any variable that can potentially play a role in the outcome of a study but
which is not part of the study is called a confounding variable. If, for instance, there are two
groups in the above mentioned study but did not control for age then age itself may be a
confound. Imagine comparing students with work experience with a mean age of 40 with
students without work experience and a mean age of 18. Could it be reasonably said that work
experience caused the student to receive higher grades? This extraneous variable can play
havoc on our results as can any intervening variable such as motivation or attention.

There are also extraneous variables which are additional variables which could provide alternative
explanations or cast doubt on conclusions. It should be noted here that in an experiment there may be
many additional variables beyond the manipulated independent variable and the measured dependent
variables. It is up to the research to put up measures to control these factors in the research process.