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Variables: Definition, Example and Types of variables in Research
The word Variable is an integral component of the life of any researcher. In the
context of investigation in research, concepts are what we call as variables. The
name itself implies its meaning, “It is something that varies.”
Does this term confuse you too much and you feel perplexed trying to exactly
understand the importance of this term in research, its importance, and the types.
Do not get overwhelmed. The concept is very simple and once understood well, it
will make your research journey smoother and faster in many ways.
So let us first learn the definition of the term variable in context of research:
What is a variable in research?
In the domain of research, a variable is any property, characteristic, number, or a
quantity that can vary (increase or decrease) over a period. They can even take
different values in different situations. This contrasts with constants that do not
vary.
In an event when a researcher is conducting research, experiments tend to
manipulate the variables and their type might vary from research to research. For
instance, a researcher might want to compare the effectiveness of four different
drugs on a disease. Here the variable is going to be “the type of drug.” In a different
situation, another researcher may want to study the impact of increase in working
force of women on divorce rates. Here increase in the working force is the variable.
A business researcher might want to study the impact of covid on share prices. Here
covid is the variable. Similarly, effectiveness, divorce, and share prices are also
variables because they also vary due to manipulating fertilizers, early marriage, and
dividends.
Variable examples
With some of the research topic examples we saw above; they are all research
variables. The list of long and exhaustive. Let us look at some of the commonly used
variables in research carried out around the world
All the examples given below are of variables and the common thing in them is the
properties of each one of them is going to be different from person to person.

⦁
⦁
Age,

⦁
gender,

⦁
income

⦁
expenditure,

⦁
family size,

⦁
country of birth,

⦁
capital expenditure,

⦁
class grades,
blood pressure readings,
⦁ preoperative anxiety levels,
⦁ eye color, and
⦁ vehicle type.
These are few examples for you to relate and identify with the term variable and its
application in research. Depending upon the kind of research, the variables can be
anything that is going to vary.
Depending upon factors such as the type of research, the nature of the variable and
the type statistical technique used on it, variables can be broadly classified into
eight main categories
Let us look at all the eight types of variables with simple and relatable examples to
help you understand the difference in them along with way they are applied in
research

⦁
⦁
Qualitative Variable

⦁
Quantitative Variable

⦁
Discrete Variable

⦁
Continuous Variable

⦁
Independent Variable

⦁
Dependent Variable

⦁
Background Variable
Moderating Variable

This is the primary distinction between variables, the qualitative and the
quantitative types.
As the same signifies, qualitative variables are the ones that talk about an attribute
that is qualitative in nature or to say, not numeric in nature, such as gender, social
status, race, religion, color of eyes, geographical location, color of hair or skin, mode
of payment and so on. Examples can be many. The unique identity of qualitative
variables is that they do not have any logical numerical ordering.
For example, in the case of geographical location (India, Singapore, United Kingdom,
USA), the value differs in qualitative terms. No ordering of geographical location is
implied. These variables are sometimes even called as categorical variables. Let us
look at how:
The variable “Gender” has two distinct characteristics, make and female. These
values are expressed in categories and hence we call them as categorical variables.
In another example, the place of residence if we tried to put in categories can be
rural and urban, thus that also becomes a categorical variable.
In further splitting, categorical variables are either nominal or ordinal.
Do you understand the difference between nominal and ordinal, let us look at it in
simple terms with examples to make its application clear
Ordinal variables can be put into sequence in a logical manner or in other words,
ranked from higher to lower but at the same time they do not necessarily establish
a numeric difference between each of the category. Examples could be grades in
examination (A+,A,B+,B,C+,C etc) or clothing sizes (XXL, XL, L,M, S, XS).
Nominal variables cannot be ranked or even put in a logical order. For instance,
religion, gender, geographical location.
A qualitative variable is unique in a way that it is not capable of being measured but
can be categorized as having or not having certain characteristics.

⦁ Quantitative Variables
These are also called as numeric variables and these are the ones that can be
measured in numbers. The simplest example of a quantitative variable in context of
research is the age of the respondent.
Age is different for each person. One person could be 20 years, or 35 years and so
on. Similarly, family size would also be a quantitative variable because the number
of members in the family will be numeric and could be anything from 2 members to
a larger number.
Quantitative variables also termed as numeric variables are not called so just
because they are expressed in numbers but also because a quantitative variable is
the one for which the resulting observations are numeric in nature and thus
naturally, they possess ordering or ranking.
Quantitative variables are further classified as Discrete and Continuous Variables.
Let us understand the difference between the two with suitable examples.
Variables such as number of employees in an organisation, number of defective
items in a box of manufacturing unit are the classic examples of discrete variables.
This is because the scores here will not be in decimals such as 4.65 or 7.23. They
are going to be whole numbers or discrete while for data such as time taken to
complete a specific task, waiting time for machinery or queue are continuous in
nature. The waiting time could be 1.45 hours or the time taken to complete a task
could be 4.6 minutes.
Do you still feel that you are not very sure of what is discrete and continuous in
quantitative variables? Let us look at a few more examples

⦁ Discrete Variable

⦁
⦁
Number of deaths in Covid 19

⦁
Number of specific cars sold in a particular financial year

⦁
Number of road accidents in a specific time period
Number of new branches of a school opened in a period of five years

⦁
⦁
Continuous Variable

⦁
Height or weight of a body

⦁
Bank interest rates
Temperature of a place or person
⦁ Blood pressure
⦁ Time taken to complete a MCQ test
Always know that a continuous variable mostly is an outcome of measurement and
can assume countless values in the specified range.
This flowchart will summarise for you the different types of qualitative and
quantitative variables we have done till now:

Let us look at the next two important type of variables that we need to know the
difference between for better understanding of the concept and the application of
variables
Dependent and Independent Variable
A lot of research studies target to bring forth a causal relationship between an
underlying phenomenon or problem. This is done to reveal as well as understand
the relationship between two aspects, and how the two are related.
Let us look at a few statements to understand this better

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⦁
High intake of sugar causes diabetes

⦁
Promotion of a product impacts its sales

⦁
Smoking aggravates the risk of lung cancer

⦁
Global warming causes rise in temperature

⦁
Yoga improves the health of those who practice
Nuclear families lead to more depressions amongst the family members
In all the above examples, we have both dependent as well as independent
variable. Let us look at the first example, high intake of sugar causes diabetes. Here
more consumption of sugar increases the chances of bring a diabetic. Being diabetic
here is the dependent variable which is determined by the amount of sugar
consumer by the participant so consumption of sugar is the independent variable.
Similarly in all other examples, smoking, global warming, promotion are all
independent variables which have some degree of impact on their dependent
variables. In a general scenario, an independent variable is manipulated by the
experimenter or researcher, and its effects on the dependent variable are
measured.
Now let us understand, individually what is an independent variable and what is a
dependent variable

⦁ Independent Variable
The variable that is used to describe or measure the factors which are assumed to
either cause or influence is some way the outcome or the problem are called as
independent variables. The researcher uses the independent variable to elaborate
or explain the influence of the same on the dependent variable
Any amount of variability seen in the dependent variable seems to arise from the
variability in the independent variable because of which an independent variable is
many a times also called as the predictor variable, explanatory variable, or input
variable in the statistical software.

⦁ Dependent Variable
The variable used to describe or measure the problem or outcome under study is
called a dependent variable.
When there is a causal relationship between the independent and dependent
variable the outcome or the effect is the dependent variable. So, like in the above
example, high intake of sugar causes diabetes, diabetes here is the dependent
variable. This variable is the variable that truly interests the researcher and he is
wanting to explain what factors alter or impact it by adding one or more
independent variables to the study. The dependent variable is also called by more
than one name and the names are response variable, predicted variable, explained
variable. In the statistical software like SPSS it is called as the label.
The below diagram will very simply explain you the fundamental behind the
independent and dependent variable
⦁ Background Variable
In all the studies, the basic data or what we call as the demographic profile of the
respondent is collected whether directly needed or not needed for the research.
Information such as age, gender, educational qualification, income, socio economic
strata, marital status, religion, place of birth etc may be taken from the
respondents. All of these are referred to as background variables. Whatever
information that the researcher intends to collect from the respondent from the
above list or anything else will have some link with the independent variable and
have some impact or influence on the problem. This is the reason they are called as
background variables because they are present in the background. The researcher
should try to involve only the necessary background variables in the study, else the
study would get unnecessarily complicated without much constructive impact of the
same.

⦁ Moderating Variable
In the hypotheses that are created to establish some kind of relationship between
the independent and dependent variable, it is always assumed that the dependent
variable is caused by the independent variable. In a simple relationship all the other
variables are ignored and considered to be extraneous.
In a pragmatic and realistic scenario, no relationship is so straightforward and
simple where the cause of the dependent variable is 100 per cent dependent on the
independent variable and these simple one to one relationship needs to be revised
to take into consideration the other variable that gives a better explanation to the
relationship stated in the independent and dependent variable. This creates the
need to incorporate another independent variable, which is in support to the
primary independent variable. This another variable identified is supposed to be
contributing significantly or have contingent effect on the simple and
straightforward relationship between the independent and dependent variable. Such
a variable is termed as a moderating variable. If this appears to complicated, let us
look at an example:
“To study the relationship between the training of employees and their work
productivity.” Here work productivity is the dependent variable and the training an
independent variable. The type of training that the employee receives can have a
significant impact on the outcome of work productivity and impact the relationship
better so the “type of training received” will be the extraneous variable.