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Variables

This document defines and describes different types of variables that may be involved in research studies. It discusses variables as qualities or characteristics that can vary or change over time or situations. The main types of variables discussed are continuous variables like age or height that can be divided into fractions, and discrete variables like gender or blood group that have a limited number of distinct values. Continuous variables are further broken down into interval and ratio variables, while discrete variables are nominal or ordinal. The document also discusses independent, dependent, intervening, control, and confounding variables in relation to causal relationships.

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Josephine Gallardo
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38 views6 pages

Variables

This document defines and describes different types of variables that may be involved in research studies. It discusses variables as qualities or characteristics that can vary or change over time or situations. The main types of variables discussed are continuous variables like age or height that can be divided into fractions, and discrete variables like gender or blood group that have a limited number of distinct values. Continuous variables are further broken down into interval and ratio variables, while discrete variables are nominal or ordinal. The document also discusses independent, dependent, intervening, control, and confounding variables in relation to causal relationships.

Uploaded by

Josephine Gallardo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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VARIABLES

DEFINITION OF VARIABLES
 These are “changing qualities or characteristics”
of persons or things like age, gender, intelligence,
ideas, achievements, confidence and many more
that are involved in a research study.
 Variables have different or varying values in
relation to time and situation
 Determining the variables is one of the important
thing one have to focus at the start of a study.
TYPES OF VARIABLES
1. 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.
a. INTERVAL VARIABLES – It have values
that lie along an evenly dispersed range of numbers.
It is a measurement where the difference between two
values does have meaning. Examples of interval data
include temperature, a person’s net worth
b. RATIO VARIABLES – It 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
TYPES OF VARIABLES
2. DISCRETE VARIABLES – This is 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 like sex, blood group,
and number of children in family.
a. NOMINAL VARIABLE – It 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.
b. ORDINAL VARIABLE – It represent categories
that can be ordered from greatest to smallest. This
variable has two or more categories which can be
ranked.
KINDS OF VARIABLES
1. Independent variables – are those that
cause changes in the subject
2. Dependent variables – are those that bear
or manifest the effects caused by the
independent variables
*Hence, in a causal relationship, the cause
comes from the independent variables;
the effects, on the dependent variables
KINDS OF VARIABLES
3. 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.
4. CONTROL VARIABLES – A special types of
independent variables that are measured in the study
because they potentially influence the dependent
variable.
5. 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.

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