Friday 24 February 2017

What are various types of Variables?

Types of Variables:

Before explaining the types of variables, let's understand first the concept of variable and constant in educational research. Then after, we will discuss the types of variables.  

Variables Research

Variable:
A variable is a condition or characteristic that can take on different values or categories. A much-studied educational variable is intelligence, which varies from low to high for different people. Age is another variable.

Constant:
A constant is a single value or category of a variable. The variable gender is a marker for two constants: male and female. The category (that is constant) male is a marker for only one thing; it is one of the two constants forming the variable called gender. Gender varies, but male does not vary. Therefore, gender is a variable, and male is a constant.

Now, let's understand the types of variables. Following are the major types of variables which are being used in educational research.  

Quantitative variable: It is a variable that varies in degree or amount. It usually involves numbers.

Categorical variable: It is a variable that varies in type or kind. It usually involves different groups.

Independent variable: It is a variable that is presumed to cause a change to occur in another variable.

Dependent variable: It is a variable that is presumed to be influenced by one or more independent variables. The dependent variable is the variable that is “dependent on” the independent (that is antecedent) variable(s).

A cause-and-effect relationship between an independent variable and dependent variable is present when changes in the independent variable tend to cause changes in the dependent variable. Sometimes researchers call the dependent variables an outcome variable or a response variable because it is used to measure the effect of one or more independent variables.