VARIABLES

Musarat Alvi
 What is Variable?
 Variable is central idea in research. Simply defined, variable is a concept
that varies or changes in value. Variables take on two or more values.
Because variable represents a quality that can exhibit differences in value,
usually magnitude or strength, it may be said that a variable generally is
anything that may assume different numerical or categorical values. Once
you begin to look for them, you will see variables everywhere. For example
gender is a variable; it can take two values: male or female. Marital status is
a variable; it can take on values of never married, single, married, divorced,
or widowed. Family income is a variable; it can take on values from zero to
billions of Rupees. A person's attitude toward women empowerment is
variable; it can range from highly favorable to highly unfavorable. In this
way the variation can be in quantity, intensity, amount, or type; the examples
can be production units, absenteeism, gender, religion, motivation, grade,
and age. A variable may be situation specific; for example gender is a
variable but if in a particular situation like a class of Research Methods if
there are only female students, then in this situation gender will not be
considered as a variable.
 Variable vs Constant
 A variable can also be thought of as something whose value
(quantitative or qualitative) can be different from subject to subject.
 A constant, on the other hand, always has the SAME value
(quantitative or qualitative) for each research subject.

Gender of Course sequence
students of students
enrolled in enrolled in
Research Research
Methodology Methodology

V: 1 of 2 possible C: Exact same

values: male or value for each and
female every student

Do you see why, in the above, "Gender" (of students enrolled in ENG …., Research
Methodology, course by modem, SS I) is a 'variable?' It can 'vary' (albeit not very much
... only two possible 'values', but still .... !) from student to student: male or female.
 Operational Definition of Variable
 How you choose to EXACTLY measure or define variables
is something called "operationally defining your
variables." This will depend on 'what it is you want to know,
exactly, about this variable,' which in turn comes from how
you are using it in your problem statement or research
question.
 Grouping or coding categories need to possess two (2) key
properties; namely, they must be:
 Mutually exclusive (that is, each 'unit' can go in one and only
one grouping category -- not overlap into 2 or more); and
 Exhaustive (you must 'cover all the bases;' that is, there needs to
be SOME category that EVERY 'unit' gets classified into
 Types of Variables
 How a variable is classified depends on the role the
variable plays in a study and the type of research design
being used. In other words, the same variable can be
independent in one study, dependent in another, moderating
in a third, and extraneous in a fourth.
 Dependent Variable/ Independent Variable

 Moderating Variables

 Intervening Variables

 Extraneous Variables
 Independent/ Dependent Variable
 Researchers who focus on causal relations usually begin with an effect, and
then search for its causes. The cause variable, or the one that identifies forces
or conditions that act on something else, is the independent variable. The
variable that is the effect or is the result or outcome of another variable is
the dependent variable (also referred to as outcome variable or effect
variable). The independent variable is "independent of" prior causes that act
on it, whereas the dependent variable "depends on" the cause. It is not
always easy to determine whether a variable is independent or dependent.
Two questions help to identify the independent variable. First, does it come
before other variable in time? Second, if the variables occur at the same
time, does the researcher suggest that one variable has an impact on another
variable? Independent variables affect or have an impact on other variables.
When independent variable is present, the dependent variable is also
present, and with each unit of increase in the independent variable, there is
an increase or decrease in the dependent variable also. In other words, the
variance in dependent variable is accounted for by the independent
variable. Dependent variable is also referred to as criterion variable.
 Continued
 In statistical analysis a variable is identified by the
symbol (X) for independent variable and by the
symbol (Y) for the dependent variable. In the research
vocabulary different labels have been associated
with the independent and dependent variables like.
 Independent variable Dependent variable
Presumed cause presumed effect
Stimulus Response
Predicted from ... Predicted to ...
Antecedent Consequence
Manipulated Measured outcome
Predictor Criterion
 Identify IV and DV
 Treiman, Kessler, and Bourassa’s (2001) “Children’s Own
Names Influence Their Spelling.”
 Zahar et al. (2001) “Acquiring Vocabulary Through
Reading: Effects of Frequency and Contextual Richness”
Intervening Variables (IV)/ Mediating
Variable (MV)
 A basic causal relationship requires only independent and
dependent variable. A third type of variable, the
intervening variable, appears in more complex causal
relationships. It comes between the independent and
dependent variables and shows the link or mechanism
between them. Advances in knowledge depend not only
on documenting cause and effect relationship but also on
specifying the mechanisms that account for the causal
relation. In a sense, the intervening variable acts as a
dependent variable with respect to independent variable
and acts as an independent variable toward the
dependent variable.
 Continued
 A theory of suicide states that married people are less
likely to commit suicide than single people. The assumption
is that married people have greater social integration
(e.g. feelings of belonging to a group or family). Hence a
major cause of one type of suicide was that people
lacked a sense of belonging to group (family). Thus this
theory can be restated as a three-variable relationship:
marital status (independent variable) causes the degree
of social integration (intervening variable), which affects
suicide (dependent variable). Specifying the chain of
causality makes the linkages in theory clearer and helps a
researcher test complex relationships.
Examples
 Mediating Variable explains the relationship
between other two Variables (IV & DV).

 High Income------------------------Long Life

 Medical care

 Parent’s status-----------------------------child’s status

 Child’s education
 Moderating Variables (MV)
 As the name suggests, this variable works as a go-between from the
IV to the DV; that is, it moderates the effect that the IV has on the
DV. A moderator may increase the strength of a relationship,
decrease the strength of a relationship, or change the direction of a
relationship.
 Zahar et al. (2001), the two IVs were frequency of word
occurrences and richness of context. The DV was vocabulary
acquisition. However, they used an MV as well: learner
proficiency. In other words, they wanted to know whether the
effect of the two IVs on the DV was different depending on
different levels of language proficiency.
 Education (Mediator)

 Social Class------------------------------B.P. Self-Exam

 Age (Moderator)
Extraneous Variables (EV), Confounding
Variables, Control Variables
 An almost infinite number of extraneous variables (EV)
exist that might conceivably affect a given relationship.
Some can be treated as independent or moderating
variables, but most must either be assumed or excluded
from the study. Such variables have to be identified by
the researcher. In order to identify the true relationship
between the independent and the dependent variable,
the effect of the extraneous variables may have to be
controlled.
 An Extraneous Variable becomes Confounding Variable
when it is not adequately controlled
Task
 Use a recent journal related to applied linguistics.
Find a research study of interest and examine the
introduction and methodology sections carefully.
Perform the following tasks:
 1. Locate the variables in the study.
 2. Classify the variables according to the previous
definitions.