KYAMBOGO UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING

BACHELOR OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT

STUDENT'S NAME: OURIEN ISAAC

REG.NO: 19/U/IED/18533/GV

SIGNATURE……………………

YEAR OF STUDY: THREE SEMESTER ONE, BIEM III

WEEKLY TEST PRACTICE IN RESEARCH METHODS ACADEMIC

YEAR 2022 BY PROFESSOR OKAKA WILSON

WEEK SEVEN (7-8) EXERCISE:

1. RESEARCH VARIABLES:

DEFINITION:

In research, variables are any characteristics that can take on different values, such as
height, age, temperature, or test scores.

 A variable in research simply refers to a person, place, thing, or phenomenon that
you are trying to measure in some way. The best way to understand the difference
between a dependent and independent variable is that the meaning of each is implied by
what the words tell us about the variable you are using.

EXAMPLES OF RESEARCH VARIABLES

 It could be demographic, physical or social and include religion, income, occupation,

temperature, humidity, language, food, fashion, etc. Some variables can be quite
concrete and clear, such as gender, birth order, types of blood group etc while others
can be considerably more abstract and vaguer

RELEVANCE OF RESEARCH VARIABLES

 Variables are important to understand because they are the basic units of the information
studied and interpreted in research studies.

 Researchers carefully analyse 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

2. INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

DEFINITION:

An independent variable is exactly what it sounds like. It is a variable that stands alone and
is not changed by the other variables one is trying to measure.
EXAMPLE OF AN INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

 For example, someone's age might be an independent variable. Other factors (such
as what they eat, how much they go to school, how much television they watch) aren't
going to change a person's age. In fact, when you are looking for some kind of
relationship between variables you are trying to see if the independent variable causes
some kind of change in the other variables, or dependent variables.

 Independent variables are also called Explanatory variables (they explain an event

or outcome) Predictor variables (they can be used to predict the value of a dependent
variable) Right-hand-side variables (they appear on the right-hand side of
a regression equation).

These terms are especially used in statistics, where you estimate the extent to which an
independent variable change can explain or predict changes in the dependent variable.

RELEVANCE OF AN INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

 The importance of an independent variable is a measure of how much the network's

model-predicted value changes for different values of the independent variable.
Normalized importance is simply the importance values divided by the largest
importance values and expressed as percentages.

 Manipulating independent variables and measuring the effect on dependent variables

allows researchers to draw conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships. The
dependent variable is called "dependent" because it is thought to depend, in some way, on
the variations of the independent variable.

3. DEPENDENT VARIABLE

DEFINITION:

Just like an independent variable, a dependent variable is exactly what it sounds like. It is
something that depends on other factors.
  A dependent variable is the variable that changes as a result of the independent variable
manipulation. It’s the outcome you’re interested in measuring, and it “depends” on your
independent variable.

In statistics, dependent variables are also called:

 Response variables (they respond to a change in another variable)

 Outcome variables (they represent the outcome you want to measure)

 Left-hand-side variables (they appear on the left-hand side of a regression equation)

THE RELEVANCE OF DEPENDENT VARIABLE

 The dependent variable is what you record after you’ve manipulated the independent
variable. You use this measurement data to check whether and to what extent your
independent variable influences the dependent variable by conducting statistical analyses.

EXAMPLE OF A DEPENDENT VARIABLE

 For example, a test score could be a dependent variable because it could change
depending on several factors such as how much you studied, how much sleep you got the
night before you took the test, or even how hungry you were when you took it. Usually
when you are looking for a relationship between two things you are trying to find out
what makes the dependent variable change the way it does.

 For example, :(Time Spent Studying) causes a change in (Test Score) and it isn't
possible that (Test Score) could cause a change in (Time Spent Studying).

We see that "Time Spent Studying" must be the independent variable and "Test Score" must
be the dependent variable because the sentence doesn't make sense the other way around.

4. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHOD

DEFINITION:
  Quantitative research is the process of collecting and analysing numerical data. It can
be used to find patterns and averages, make predictions, test causal relationships, and
generalize results to wider populations.

Quantitative research is the opposite of qualitative research, which involves collecting and
analysing non-numerical data (e.g., text, video, or audio).

EXAMPLES OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS

 Experiment: Control or manipulate an independent variable to measure its effect on a

dependent variable. To test whether an intervention can reduce procrastination in college
students, you give equal-sized groups either a procrastination intervention or a
comparable task. You compare self-ratings of procrastination behaviours between the
groups after the intervention.

 Survey: Ask questions of a group of people in-person, over-the-phone or online. You

distribute questionnaires with rating scales to first-year international college students to
investigate their experiences of culture shock.

 (Systematic) observation: Identify a behaviour or occurrence of interest and monitor it

in its natural setting. To study college classroom participation, you sit in on classes to
observe them, counting and recording the prevalence of active and passive behaviours by
students from different backgrounds.

 Secondary research: Collect data that has been gathered for other purposes e.g., national
surveys or historical records. To assess whether attitudes towards climate change have
changed since the 1980s, you collect relevant questionnaire data from widely available
longitudinal studies.

RELEVANCE OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHOD

 The purpose of quantitative research is to attain greater knowledge and understanding of

the social world. Researchers use quantitative methods to observe situations or events
that affect people. Quantitative research produces objective data that can be clearly
communicated through statistics and numbers.
5. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHOD

DEFINITION:

 Qualitative research involves collecting and analysing non-numerical data (e.g., text,
video, or audio) to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences. It can be used to gather
in-depth insights into a problem or generate new ideas for research.

 Qualitative research is the opposite of quantitative research, which involves collecting

and analysing numerical data for statistical analysis.

Qualitative research is commonly used in the humanities and social sciences, in subjects such as
anthropology, sociology, education, health sciences, history, etc.

EXAMPLES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS

Each of the research approaches involve using one or more data collection methods.

These are some of the most common qualitative methods:

 Observations: recording what you have seen, heard, or encountered in detailed field

notes.

 Interviews: personally, asking people questions in one-on-one conversations.

 Focus groups: asking questions and generating discussion among a group of people.

Surveys: distributing questionnaires with open-ended questions.

 Secondary research: collecting existing data in the form of texts, images, audio or

video recordings, etc.

RELEVANCE OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHOD

 Qualitative research is very important in educational research as it addresses the “how”
and “why” research questions and enables deeper understanding of experiences,
 phenomena and context. Qualitative research allows you to ask questions that cannot be
easily put into numbers to understand human experience.

REFERENCES

https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/independent-and-dependent-variables/#:~:text=In
%20research%2C%20variables%20are%20any,independent%20variable%20is%20the%20cause.

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/types-of-variables

https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/independent-and-dependent-variables/

https://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/help/user_guide/graph/variables.asp#:~:text=Answer%3A%20An
%20independent%20variable%20is,might%20be%20an%20independent%20variable.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/spss-statistics/23.0.0?topic=overtraining-independent-variable-
importance

https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/quantitative-research/

https://www.gcu.edu/blog/doctoral-journey/why-quantitative-research-important

https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/qualitative-research/#:~:text=Qualitative%20research
%20involves%20collecting%20and,generate%20new%20ideas%20for%20research.

https://www.gcu.edu/blog/doctoral-journey/why-quantitative-research-important