Concepts Concepts are used at all stages of research.

Research topics or questions are expressed in terms of concepts; so are hypotheses and conclusions. Think back to the Sudan Fertility Survey. The conclusions ere expressed in concepts! one as that fertility" a concept" declined as the education of omen" another concept" increased. #enerali$ations are also expressed in concepts. The conclusion e %ust cited from the Sudan Fertility Survey is also accepted as a broad generali$ation because so many studies found the same result. Concepts" ho ever" cannot be observed directly. &s e said" they are abstractions that exist only as mental images of things e ant to talk about. To do research" e have to convert concepts to things e can observe. 'e do this by defining concepts in terms of measurable variables. Variables (ariables represent concepts. )ike concepts" variables are defined in ords" but" as used in social research" variables have a special characteristic. (ariables have t o or more observable forms or values. *n short" they vary. &ny condition or aspect of social behavior or social life that has at least t o conditions or amounts of something is a variable. *n the previous chapter" e described several variables central to the Sudan Fertility Survey. These included fertility and education. +ach could and did vary from $ero to some number. (ariables to hich e can assign numbers are kno n as quantitative variables. & fe examples of quantitative variables include your age" your height" your intelligence" your family,s income" or the number of students at your university. -ther variables exist in terms of qualities or categories rather than in terms of numbers. #ender is a variable ith only t o .the minimum/ categories 0 male and female. -ther examples of categorical or qualitative variables are social class" hich is often described as 1high"1 1middle"1 or 11lo ;1 occupation" hich can be expressed in various categories as 1farmer"1 1merchant"1 1official1 and so on; or marital status" commonly described as 1single"1 1married"1 1divorced"1 1separated"1 or 1 ido ed.1 -nce you think about it" you ill see all kinds of quantitative and qualitative variables. Attributes of variables The values or categories making up a variable are its attributes. &ttributes are hat social scientists measure to describe a variable. *t is easy to mix up the name of a variable ith its attributes. Box 3.1 illustrates the attributes for a fe variables. To summari$e" attributes are the observable characteristics of variable; variables are the logical combinations of attributes. 2ale and female" for example" are the

attributes of the variable e call gender. The numbers of persons in a household" from 3 to perhaps 45 or more" represent the attributes of the variable" household. Box 3.1 Some variables and their attributes Variable #ender 6ationality *ntelligence Student;s ma%or Family si$e Social status Attributes 2ale" female Sudanese" 7ambian" +gyptian" etc. 345" 89" 333" 35: 2anagement" chemistry <" 34" =" 35" 4 )o " middle" high psychology"

Concepts A concept (abstract term: "conception") is a cognitive unit of meaning an abstract idea or a mental symbol sometimes defined as a "unit of knowledge," built from other units which act as a concept's characteristics A concept is typically associated with a corresponding representation in a language or symbology!citation needed" such as a word Variables A variable (pronounced #v$r$bl#) is a symbol that stands for a value that may vary% the term usually occurs in opposition to constant, which is a symbol for a non&varying value, i e completely fi'ed or fi'ed in the conte't of use (ariables need not be numeric )n a spreadsheet, the variable lastname might stand for a customer's last name *he concepts of constants and variables are fundamental to all modern mathematics, science, engineering, and computer programming

Different types of variables Quantitative Variable A +uantitative variable is naturally measured as a number for which meaningful arithmetic operations make sense ,'amples: -eight, age, crop yield, ./A, salary, temperature, area, air pollution inde' (measured in parts per million), etc Categorical Variable Any variable that is not +uantitative is categorical 0ategorical variables take a value that is one of several possible categories As naturally measured, categorical variables have no numerical meaning ,'amples: -air color, gender, field of study, college attended, political affiliation, status of disease infection Different uses of variables )n many studies more than one variable is recorded per case or individual )t is often the purpose of the study to determine if and#or how one or more variables affect another *his is a basic paradigm in statistical analysis% the distinctions that are made here are integral to the way a problem is stated and analy1ed Response Variable *he outcome of a study A variable you would be interested in predicting or forecasting 2ften called a dependent variable or predicted variable. Explanatory Variable Any variable that e'plains the response variable 2ften called an independent variable or predictor variable. WHAT AR R S AR!H VAR"AB# S$ *he research variables, of any scientific e'periment or research process, are factors that can be manipulated and measured Any factor that can take on different values is a scientific variable and influences the outcome of e'perimental research 3ost scientific e'periments measure +uantifiable factors, such as time or weight, but this is not essential for a component to be classed as a variable .ender, color and country are all perfectly acceptable variables, because they are inherently changeable, although difficult to analy1e statistically As an e'ample, most of us have filled in surveys where a researcher asks +uestions and asks you to rate answers *hese responses generally have a numerical range, from 45 6 7trongly Agree8 through to 49 6 7trongly :isagree8 *his type of measurement allows opinions to be statistically analy1ed and evaluated

% & '% 'T A'% "'% & '% 'T VAR"AB# S *he key to designing any e'periment is to look at what research variables could affect the outcome A researcher must then determine which variable needs to be manipulated to generate +uantifiable results *here are many types of variable but the most important, for the vast ma;ority of research methods, are the independent and dependent variables *he independent variable is the core of the e'periment and is isolated and manipulated by the researcher *he dependent variable is the measurable outcome of this manipulation, the results of the e'perimental design <or many physical e'periments, isolating the independent variable and measuring the dependent is generally easy )f you designed an e'periment to determine how +uickly a cup of coffee cools, the manipulated independent variable is time and the dependent measured variable is temperature )n other fields of science, the variables are often are more difficult to determine and an e'periment needs a robust design TH %"(("!)#T* +( "S+#AT"', VAR"AB# S )n biology, social science and geography, for e'ample, isolating a single independent variable is more difficult and any e'perimental design must consider this <or e'ample, in a social research setting, you might wish to compare the effect of different foods upon hyperactivity in children *he initial research and inductive reasoning leads you to postulate that certain foods and additives are a contributor to increased hyperactivity =ou decide to create a hypothesis and design an e'periment, to establish if there is solid evidence behind the claim *he type of food is an independent variable, as is the amount eaten, the period of time and the gender and age of the child All of these factors must be accounted for during the e'perimental design stage >andomi1ation and controls are generally used to ensure that only one independent variable is manipulated *o eradicate some of these research variables and isolate the process, it is essential to use various scientific methods to nullify or negate them <or e'ample, if you wanted to isolate the different types of food as the manipulated variable, you should use children of the same age and gender *he test groups should eat the same amount of the food at the same times and the children should be randomly assigned to groups *his will minimi1e the physiological differences between children A control group, acting as a buffer against unknown research variables, might involve some children eating a food type with no known links to hyperactivity

)n this e'periment, the dependent variable is the level of hyperactivity, with the resulting statistical tests easily highlighting any correlation :epending upon the results, you could try to measure a different variable, such as gender, in a follow up e'periment !+'V RT"', R S AR!H VAR"AB# S "'T+ !+'STA'TS ,nsuring that certain research variables are controlled increases the reliability and validity of the e'periment, by ensuring that other causal effects are eliminated *his safeguard makes it easier for other researchers to repeat the e'periment and comprehensively test the results ?hat you are trying to do, in your scientific design, is to change most of the variables into constants, isolating the independent variable Any scientific research does contain an element of compromise and inbuilt error, but eliminating other variables will ensure that the results are robust and valid