Quantitative Research in terms of its

VARIABLES
What is a variable?
Variables are those simplified portions
of the complex phenomena that you intend
to study. The word variable is derived from
the root word “vary”, meaning, changing in
amount, volume, number, form, nature or
type. These variables should be measurable,
i.e., they can be counted or subjected to a
scale.
Kinds of
Variables
Independent Variables
There are two main sorts of
IV, active independent
variables and attribute
independent variables:
Active IV are interventions or
conditions that are being applied
to the participants. A special
tutorial for the third graders, a new
therapy for clients, or a new
training program being tested on
employees would be active IVs.
Attribute IV are intrinsic characteristics
of the participants that are suspected of
causing a result. For example, if you are
examining whether gender—which is
intrinsic to the participants—results in
higher or lower scores on some skill,
gender is an attribute IV.
Dependent variables
• Dependent variables are variables that depend on or
are influenced by the independent variables.
• They are outcomes or results of the influence of the
independent variable.
• Dependent variables answer the question: What do I
observe happening when I apply the intervention?
• The dependent variable receives the intervention.
 Sample Variables
In some studies, some characteristic of the
participants must be measured for some
reason, but that characteristic is not the IV or
the DV. In this case, these are called sample
variables. For example, suppose you are
investigating whether servant leadership
style affects organizational performance and
successful financial outcomes.
In order to obtain a sample of servant
leaders, a standard test of leadership
style will be administered. So the
presence or absence of servant
leadership style will be a sample
variable. That score is not used as an
IV or a DV, but simply to get the
appropriate people into the sample.
 When there is no measure of a
characteristic of the participants,
the characteristic is called a
"sample characteristic." When the
characteristic must be measured, it
is called a "sample variable."
Extraneous variables
Extraneous variables are any variables that
you are not intentionally studying in your
experiment or test. When you run an
experiment, you’re looking to see if
one variable (the independent variable) has
an effect on another variable (the dependent
variable).
Other variables, perhaps ones
that never crossed your mind,
might influence the outcome
of an experiment. These
undesirable variables are
called extraneous variables.
EXAMPLES
Experiment 1: You want to figure out which
brand of microwave popcorn pops the most
kernels so you can get the most value for
your money. You test different brands of
popcorn to see which bag pops the most
popcorn kernels.
•Independent Variable: Brand of popcorn
bag (It’s the independent variable
because you are actually deciding the
popcorn bag brands)
•Dependent Variable: Number of kernels
popped (This is the dependent variable
because it's what you measure for each
popcorn brand)
Experiment 2: You want to see which
type of fertilizer helps plants grow
fastest, so you add a different brand of
fertilizer to each plant and see how tall
they grow.
•Independent Variable: Type of
fertilizer given to the plant
•Dependent Variable: Plant height
 Examples of Extraneous Variables

Researchers want to investigate

whether a new teaching method can
improve student scores on math exams.
One extraneous variable that might
influence the results would be whether
students have previous knowledge of the
math covered on the exam.
Researchers want to determine how
sleep deprivation impacts driving
performance. Extraneous variables
might include the road conditions of
the day of the driving test and
individual differences in how
participants cope with tiredness.