KINDS OF VARIABLES and

THEIR USES
THE VARIABLES IN RESEARCH

 refersto a “characteristics that has two or more

mutually exclusive values or properties” (Sevilla and
Other, 1988).
 Sex,for instance, has two properties which are
maleness and femaleness. The ages of different
persons have different values; so with their size, height,
weight and income.
THE VARIABLES IN RESEARCH

 The root word of the word variable is “vary” or simply

“can change”.
 measurement, validity, reliability, cause and effect;
and theory.
 A variable specifically refers to characteristics, or
attribute of an individual or an organization that can
be measured or observed and that varies among the
people or organization being studied (Creswell, 2002).
TYPES OF VARIABLES (ALLEN, TITSWORTH, HUNT, 2009)

 CONTINUOUS VARIABLES
 DISCRETE VARIABLES
CONTINUOUS VARIABLES

A variable that can take infinite number on the value

that can occur within the population. Its values can
be divided into fractions.
 Examples
of this type of variable include age, height,
and temperature.
CATEGORIES OF CONTINUOUS
VARIABLES
 INTERVALVARIABLES - have values that lie along an
evenly dispersed range of numbers. It is a
measurement where the difference between two
values does have meaning.
 Example: temperature, this may illustrate as the
difference between a temperature of 60 degrees and
50 degrees is the same as difference between 30
degrees and 20 degrees.
CATEGORIES OF CONTINUOUS
VARIABLES
 RATIO VARIABLES - have values that lie along an evenly
dispersed range of numbers when there is absolute zero. It
possesses the properties of interval variable and has a
clear definition of zero, indication that there is none of
that variable.
 Example: height, weight, and distance.
 Temperature measured in degrees Celsius and degrees
Fahrenheit is not a ratio variable because 0 under these
temperatures scales does not mean no temperature at
all.
DISCRETE VARIABLES

 also known as categorical or classificatory variable.

This is any variable that has limited number of distinct
values and which cannot be divided into fractions
 Examples: sex, blood group, and number of children in
family.
CATEGORIES OF DISCRETE VARIABLES

 NOMINAL VARIABLE – represent categories that

cannot be ordered in any particular way. It is a
variable with no quantitative value. It has two or more
categories but does not imply ordering of cases.
 Examples: eye color, business type, religion, biological
sex, political affiliation, basketball fan affiliation.
 A sub-type of nominal scale with only two categories
just like sex is known as dichotomous.
CATEGORIES OF DISCRETE VARIABLES

 ORDINAL VARIABLE - represent categories that can be

ordered from greatest to smallest. This variable has
two or more categories which can be ranked.
 Examples: education level, income brackets.
CATEGORIES OF DISCRETE VARIABLES

 An illustration of this is, if you asked people if they liked listening to

music while studying and they could answer either “NOT VERY
MUCH”, “MUCH”, “VERY MUCH” then you have an ordinal variable.
While you can rank them, we cannot place a value to them. In this
type, distances between attributes do not have any meaning. For
example, you used educational attainment as a variable on survey,
you might code elementary school graduates = 1, high graduates =
2, college undergraduate = 3, and college graduate = 4. In this
measure, higher number means greater education. Even though we
can rank these from lowest to highest, the spacing between the
values may not be the same across the levels of the variables. The
distance between 3 and 4 is not the same with the distance between
1 and 2.
KINDS OF VARIABLES

 Severalexperts have lumped together the following

as the major kinds of variables:
 INDEPENDENT VARIABLES
 DEPENDENT VARIABLES
INTERVENING OR MEDLING VARIABLES
CONTROL VARIABLES
CONFOUNDING VARIABLES
INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

 Thosethat probably cause, influence, or affect

outcomes. They are invariably called treatment,
manipulated, antecedent or predictor variables.
 Example:A study is on the relationship of study habits
and academic performance of INHS senior high
school students. STUDY HABITS is the independent
variable because it influenced the outcome or the
performance of the students.
DEPENDENT VARIABLES

 those that depend on the independent variables; they

are the outcomes or results of the influence of the
independent variable.
 Example: A study is on the relationship of study habits and
academic performance of UTNHS senior high school
students. ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE is the dependent
variable because it is depending on the study habits of
the students; if the students change their study habit the
academic performance also change.
INTERVENING OR MEDLING VARIABLES

 Variables
that “stand between” the independent and
dependent variables, and they show the effects of
the independent variable on the dependent variable.
INTERVENING OR MEDLING VARIABLES

 Example: Consider the given below. Even if farm production is good, if

the attitude towards payment is negative, loan repayment would be
low, whereas, if the attitude towards repayment is positive or favorable,
loan repayment would be high.
CONTROL VARIABLES

A special type of independent variables that are

measured in the study because they potentially
influence the dependent variable. Researchers use
statistical procedures (e.g. analysis of covariance) to
control these variables.
 need to be “controlled” so that the true influence of
the independent variable on the dependent variable
can be determined.
CONFOUNDING VARIABLES

 Variables that are not actually measured or observed in a

study. They exist but their influence cannot be directly
detected in a study.
 Researchers comment on the influence of confounding
variables after the study has been completed, because
these variables may have operated to explain the
relationship between the independent variables and
dependent variable, but they were not or could not be
easily assessed.