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Operational Definition of Variables: What Is A Variable?

1) Variables are measurable characteristics that can have different values and can change over time or between groups. There are different types of variables including independent, dependent, intervening, and control variables. 2) Independent variables are factors that are manipulated or varied, dependent variables are measured outcomes affected by the independent variable, and intervening variables link the independent and dependent variables. 3) Variables can also be nominal, ordinal, or preference depending on whether their values can be categorized or ordered. How variables are defined and measured must be clearly operationally defined.

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2K views3 pages

Operational Definition of Variables: What Is A Variable?

1) Variables are measurable characteristics that can have different values and can change over time or between groups. There are different types of variables including independent, dependent, intervening, and control variables. 2) Independent variables are factors that are manipulated or varied, dependent variables are measured outcomes affected by the independent variable, and intervening variables link the independent and dependent variables. 3) Variables can also be nominal, ordinal, or preference depending on whether their values can be categorized or ordered. How variables are defined and measured must be clearly operationally defined.

Uploaded by

Emy heart
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Operational Definition of Variables


What is a variable?
- any characteristic which is subject to change and can have more than one value such as age,
intelligence, motivation, gender, etc.
- is a measurable characteristics that varies; it may change from group to group, person to person or
within one person overtime.

Types of Variables
INDEPENDENT VARIABLES
- the factor that is varied or manipulated
- the “assume cause” of a problem

Examples:
In educational research examples could
be the following:
- Particular teaching method
- Type of teaching material
- A reward or an attribute such as sex or level
of intelligence

DEPENDENT VARIABLES
- the factor that is measured or observed; the change that is brought about or is effected by the change
in the independent variable
- the “assume effect” of another variable

Examples:
Promotion affects employees’ motivation
Independent variable --- promotion
Dependent variable --- employees motivation

INTERVENING VARIABLES
- are abstract processes that are not directly observable but that link in the independent and dependent
variables
- it cannot be measured

Example:
Higher education typically leads to higher
income
Independent variable --- Higher education
Dependent variable --- Higher income
Intervening variable --- better occupation
It is casually affected by education and itself
affects income
CONTROL/CONSTANT VARIABLES
-the factor that is kept constant all throughout the experiment/research
- A variable that is NOT allowed to be changed

NOMINAL VARIABLES
- They can be measured only in terms of whether the individual items belong to certain distinct
categories
- We cannot quantify or even rank/order the categories and nominal data has no order
- One cannot perform arithmetic (+, -, /, *) or logical operations (>, <, =) on the nominal data.

Example:
Attitude: agree or disagree
Gender 1. Male
(Dichotomous variable) 2. Female
Marital Status 1. Unmarried
2. Married
3. Divorce
4. Widower
Another example might be if we asked a person if they owned a mobile phone. Here, we may
categorize mobile phone ownership as either "Yes" or "No“

ORDINAL VARIABLES
- An ordinal variable is a nominal variable, but its different states are ordered in a meaningful sequence.
- Ordinal data has order
Examples:
A questionnaire on the time involvement of scientists in the 'perception and identification of research
problems'.
The respondents were asked to indicate their involvement by selecting one of the following codes:
1 = Very low or nil
2 = Low
3 = Medium
4 = Great
5 = Very great
Here, the variable 'Time Involvement' is an ordinal variable with 5 states

PREFERENCE VARIABLES
- Are specific discrete variables whose values are either in a decreasing or increasing order
Example:
In a survey, a respondent may be asked to indicate the importance of the following FIVE
sources of information in his research and development work, by using the code [1] for the
most important source and [5] for the least important source
Identification of Variables

Examples:

DEFINITION OF TERMS
- Must be arranged in alphabetically
- It must be also stated if you used your definition of terms technically or operationally

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