In: Psychology
What is a variable?
What is an independent variable?
What makes something a variable?
Anything that is liable to change or lacks rigidity is known as a variable. For instance, a person’s weight or height may be a variable. Anything that can be manipulated or controlled for the sake of research is therefore termed as a variable. As opposed to this, those objects with little variation are constants. In a controlled experiment, the factor that is manipulated in order to conduct research is called independent variable. Independent variable therefore is the factor in research that impacts the outcome of the experiment. The dependent variable on the other hand is the change in outcome as a result of the manipulation of IV. For instance, impact of previous night’s sleep on the performance in a test. Here, the independent variable (which is manipulated) would be the amount of sleep of participants. The dependent variable would be the outcome, i.e. the performance in the test for the control group as well as the experimental group. The flexibility for manipulation or ability to be controlled is what makes something a variable.