Lesson Proper:
VARIABLES
-are “changing qualities or characteristics” of persons or things like age, gender, intelligence, ideas, achievement, confidence, and others that are involved in your research study.
-Made up of the root or base word “vary”, which means to undergo changes or to differ from; variables have different or varying values in relation to time and situation.
-for instance, as years go by, your age and intelligence increase; but placed in a situation where you are afflicted with a disease or have no means of reading or no access to any sources of knowledge, your intelligence tends to decrease. (Suter, 2012).
-in research, especially in a quantitative research, one important thing you have to focus on at the start of your study is to determine the variables involved in your study.
Basic Types of Variables
-Basically, variables are divided into two types: Independent and dependent variables
Independent Variables
-are those that cause changes in the subject.
Dependent Variables
-are those that bear or manifest the effects caused by the independent variables.
*In an Experimental research, the independent variable is the condition or treatment applied to the experimental group is under the control/manipulation of the researchers.
Variables’ Relationship
-In a scientific way of studying cause-effects relationships, these two variables, the Independent and Dependent, are part or parcel of the research because the first one is the cause and the second one is the effect that you can subject to any form of measurement.
Other Types of Variables
Extraneous Variables
-are to be controlled by you, the experimenter. But if they do not give in to your control, they become confounding variables that can strongly influence your study.
-Dealing with these types of variables gives you difficulty in determining the real cause of changes in the dependent variables, that is whether it is due only to the independent variables or to the combination between the confounding and the independent variables.
-Extraneous variables exist as “nuisance variables”, which potency need to go down to prevent it from affecting the results negatively.
Constant Variable
-do not undergo any changes during experiment.
Attribute Variable
-characteristics of people: intelligence, creativity, anxiety, learning, and styles, among others.
Covariate Variable
-included in the research study to create interactions with the independent and dependent variables. Continuous Variable
-quantitative in nature and is used in interval or ratio scale of measurement.
Dichotomous Variable
has only two possible results: one or zero
Latent Variable
-cannot be directly observed like personality traits.
Manifest Variable
-can be directly observed to give proofs to latent variables
Exogenous Variable
-found outside an identified model
Endogenous Variable
-found inside as a part of identified model
