Important Concepts Relating To Research Design

Dependent and independent variable: Concepts Relating To Research Design
A concept which can take on different quantitative values is called a variable. As such the concept like weight, income are all example of variables. Qualitative phenomena (or the attributes) are also quantified on the basis of the presence or absence of the concerning attribute(s). phenomena which can take on quantitatively different values even in decimal points are called ‘continuous variables’. But all variables are not continuous. If they can only be expressed in integer values, they are non-continuous variables or in statistical language ‘ discrete variable’. Age is an example of continuous variable, but the number of children is an example of non-continuous variables. If the one variable depends upon or is a consequence of the other variable is termed as an independent variable. For instance, if we say that height depends upon age, then height is a dependent variable.