Senior High School Department

UNIT TITLE: NATURE OF INQUIRY AND RESEARCH

Week 2
LESSON TITLE: Different Types of Variables

Learning Competency:
 Differentiates kinds of variables and their uses
Learning Objectives:
 Define variables Gaining Attention:
 Characterize variables; and
 Distinguish independent from dependent variable
Directions: Imagine that you own a
business company. In the space
provided, create a poster or an
advertisement to promote the product
of your company. Provide your work
with a caption that uses the words you
have newly learned.

In research, especially in a quantitative research, one important thing you have to focus on at the start of
your study is to determine the variables involved in your study.

Unless you spend some time pondering on variables in your research, your work has no chance of
attaining its goal. Your research problem or research topic to which you devote much of your initial research
time finalizing stands great, if it has wordings on the basic variables involved in your study.

A variable is a characteristic, or a quantity of a phenomenon that can be measured or classified. As the

name suggests, the values of variables can vary over time or across units. Quantitative research focuses on
explaining the relationship between variables. Therefore, understanding the purpose, operationalization and
measurement of variables is a key part of quantitative research.

Variables are an essential part of quantitative research. Variables are characteristics, or a quantity of a
phenomenon that is the focus of a research project. Variables can be measured or categorized, and their values
vary across unit, or across time. Gender, hair color, shoe size, income levels, disease status – all of these are
examples
Anotherofexample
variables.
is a study on academic achievement of 5th graders. Here, we could use “annual exam grade”
as the variable denoting academiccan
However, variables also measure
achievement abstract concepts
or “average – for
test grade” example,
(the averageself- esteem,
of all examswell-being, sense of
and tests conducted
religiosity, intelligence, etc. Some variables are more complex, and may be studied through different dimensions
during the year) or “literacy level” to denote academic achievement. Thus, different researchers studying the same topic
of a particular
may choose differentitem or phenomenon.
variables, depending For example,
on the in atheir
focus of study on socioeconomic
research. status we may use
Different researchers also“income” as
use different
our variable or we may use
ways of measuring the same concept. ownership of a permanent housing structure or amount of savings.

Quantitative research places great emphasis on variables because the main goal of quantitative research is to
examine the relationship between two or more variables. Therefore, once the researcher identifies a research topic, the
next step is to identify the key variables in the study. The best way to do this is to read studies that are similar to your
chosen study. Once you analyze the different types of variables identified by other researchers, you will have a better
idea of what variables might work best in your project.
 Examples of independent and dependent variables

Research Question Independent variable(s) Dependent variable(s)

Do tomatoes grow fastest under fluorescent,  The type of light the
incandescent, or natural light? tomato plant is grown
under
What is the effect of diet and regular soda  The type of soda you
on blood sugar levels? drink (diet or regular)
How does phone use before bedtime  The amount of phone use
affect sleep? before bed
How well do different plant species tolerate  The amount of salt added
salt water? to the plants’ water
 The rate of growth of
the tomato plant
 Your blood sugar levels
 Number of hours of
sleep
 Quality of sleep
 Plant growth
 Plant wilting
 Plant survival rate

In research, variables are any characteristics that can take on different values, such as height,
age, species, or exam score. In scientific research, we often want to study the effect of one
variable on another one. For example, you might want to test whether students who spend
more time studying get better exam scores.
INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT VARIABLES

The variables in a study of a cause-and-effect relationship are called the independent and dependent
variables.

 The independent variable is the cause. Its value is independent of other variables in your study.
 The dependent variable is the effect. Its value depends on changes in the independent variable.

Don't feel bad if you are confused about what is the dependent variable and what is the independent variable in social and
behavioral sciences research. However, it's important that you learn the difference because framing a study using these
variables is a common approach to organizing the elements of a social sciences research study in order to discover relevant
and meaningful results. Specifically, it is important for these two reasons:
1. You need to understand and be able to evaluate their application in other people's research.
2. You need to apply them correctly in your own research.

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. You can do this with a simple exercise from the
website, Graphic Tutorial. Take the sentence, "The [independent variable] causes a change in [dependent variable] and it is
not possible that [dependent variable] could cause a change in [independent variable]." Insert the names of variables you
are using in the sentence in the way that makes the most sense. This will help you identify each type of variable. If you're
still not sure, consult with your professor before you begin to write.

Determining cause and effect is one of the most important parts of scientific
research.

It’s essential to know which is the cause – the independent variable – and which is the effect – the
dependent variable.