In: Nursing
A variable is a characteristic of a unit being observed that may assume more than one of a set of values to which numerical measure or a category from a classification can be assigned (e.g disease,age,weight etc).
An independent variables are variables that are manipulated or are changed by researchers and whose effects are measured and compared.The other name of independent variable is predictors or experimental variable.The dependent variable is the variable being tested and measured in an experiment,and is dependent on the independent variable.An example of a dependent variable is depression symptoms,which depends on the independent variable ( type of therapy)
The independent variable is the one the experiment controls.The dependent variable is the variable that changes in response to the independent variable.The two variables maybe related by cause and effect.If the independent variable changes,then the dependent variable is affected.It is used in scientific research,where we often want to study the effect of one variable on another one.
The independent variable always goes on the x- axis,or the horizontal axis.The dependent variable goes on the y- axis or vertical axis.