VARIABLES ( Sociology Optional)

Introduction

  • Variables are empirical constructs that take more than one value or intensity; for example, sex (male, female), marital status (single, married, divorced, widowed, deserted), age and education are variables.
  • In statistics A variable is any characteristics, number, or quantity that can be measured or counted. A variable may also be called adata item. 
  • In sociology Variables are properties or characteristics of some event, object, person, place or thing that are measurable and can take on more than one value, or vary.
  • The opposite of variables are constants, which take only one value or intensity.
  • The construction of variables follows a systematic procedure that adheres to the rules of measurement. Failure to meet these requirements will result in distortions and inaccuracies in measurement, and hence in false results.
  • Two very important rules are that variables must relate to one concept only and must be

PYQs: Variables

  • What are variables? Discuss their role in experimental research. (15/10)
  • चर क्या हैं? प्रयोगात्मक अनुसंधान में उनकी भूमिका की विवेचना कीजिए। (15/10)
  • Illustrate with example the significance of variables in sociological research. (17/10)
  • उदाहरण के साथ समाजशास्त्रीय अनुसंधान में चर के महत्व को स्पष्ट करें। (17/10)
  • What are variables? How do they facilitate research? UPSC 2023, 10 Marks
  • चर क्या हैं? वे अनुसंधान को कैसे सुविधाजनक बनाते हैं ? USPC 2023, 10 Marks

Types

There are many types of variables. The following types are most common:

According to research objectives and variable roles

Dependent and independent variables

  • An independent variable is a variable that is set to cause changes in or explain another; a dependent variable is a variable that is set to be affected or explained by another variable.
  • A dependent variable in sociology and other social sciences is the effect, the phenomenon affected or changed by other actions or phenomena.
  • Examples of dependent variables in sociology include levels of crime or poverty in neighborhoods, racist attitudes or order within a civil society.
  • Independent variables are those factors, activities and other phenomena that change or affect the value or level of a dependent variable.
  • For instance, in a research study of family status and scholastic achievement, the same variable (e.g. scholastic achievement) can be an independent variable in one project (when studying the question: does scholastic achievement affect alcohol consumption?), but a dependent variable in another (when studying the question: does gender affect scholastic achievement?).
  • Independent variables are of two types: Active and Attribute Variable.
  • Active variables can also be independent variables. E.g. effectiveness of communication board in meeting the needs of the intubated patients.
    • Communication board is an 'active independent variable' as it can be modified according to the needs of the patients or according to the requirement in the study and it is researcher's concept.
  • Attribute variable is a variable where we do not alter the variable during the study. It can also be the independent variable, but it has limitations.
    • Some attribute variables are age, gender, blood group, color of eyes, etc.
    • An active variable in one study could be an attribute variable in another study.

Demographic variables

  • Demographic variables deal with demographic data such as age, residence, religion, marital status, family size, race, education and sexual preference.
  • A demographic variable can be dependent or independent, discrete or continuous.

Extraneous variables

  • These are variables which are 'outside' the research question, argument or hypothesis; they are distinct from the dependent or independent variable.
  • For instance, in a study investigating the validity of the theory that race (Independent Variable) is associated with scholastic achievement (Dependent Variable) (e.g. with whites doing far better than blacks), the real reason for the changes in scholastic achievement may be not race (IV) but income and prejudice. In this case, income and prejudice are extraneous variables.
  • Extraneous variables that are not recognized until the study is in process, or are recognized before the study is initiated but cannot be controlled, are referred to as confounding variables.
  • Certain external variables may influence the relationship between the research variables, even though researcher cannot see it. These variables are called intervening variables.
  • For example, girl's knowledge and practices helps in maintaining menstrual hygiene. Here, motivation, mother and friends, mass media, are some intervening variables which may also help in maintaining menstrual hygiene.

Controlled Variable

A controlled variable or constant variable is a variable that does not change during an experiment.

Variables classified according to the nature

Quantitative and Qualitative Variables

  • Qualitative variables use nominal scale measurement; racial origin ethnic origin, religious affiliation or sex are qualitative variables.
  • Quantitative variables use either ordinal or metric scales.
  • Quantitative variables are of two types: Discrete and continuous variables.
  • A continuous variable can assume an infinite number of values between two points. Continuous measures in actual use are contained in a range each individual obtains a score within the range.
  • On the other hand, a discrete variable is one that has a finite number of values between any two points, representing discrete quantities.
  • Discrete variables are counted, not measured; continuous variables are measured, not counted. Examples of discrete variables are ethnicity, race, sex, mental status, cause of death or blood type Examples of continuous variables are height, distance, time, age, temperature or IQ scores.

Examples

  • The object of enquiry, treated as a variable, is usually defined as an attribute that takes on a range of values.
  • For example, a piece of social research may be interested in several variables of a group of people, such as the age of each individual, the gender and party political preference.
  • Hence, 25 years, female and Labour would be values of the variables age, gender, and political party, respectively.

Role of variables

  • Variables are important to understand because they are the basic units of the information studied and interpreted in research studies.
  • Researchers carefully analyze and interpret the value(s) of each variable to make sense of how things relate to each other in a descriptive study or what has happened in an experiment.

Criteria in variable selection

  • Being consistent with the goal
  • Being measurable
  • Being replicable
  • Being used widely in recent years. (Sometimes there may be important diagnostic methods to check a disease or to measure a certain amount of ways. Therefore, obsolete and non-valid methods should be avoided and instead of them using the common methods and consider them as variables.
  • Being affordable and can be fitted with the study design
  • Being prevalent and common in the community
  • Being reliable (i.e., produces stable and consistent results over a period of time)
  • Being valid (e.g., kg scale is not a suitable scale to measure the height of the people)
  • Can be measured using available tools
  • Can be mentioned in the review of literature which indicates the importance of the variable and its relevance to the study.
  • Not being so rare that it cannot be measured
  • Not being time-consuming
  • Not being out of research scope

Limitation

  • sociologists must often conduct complex statistical analysis to control other factors besides the independent variables of interest that may affect the dependent variable.