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Types of Variables in Research

Researchers and research students use different types of variables in research to describe and measure the items or places and people they are studying on. Many types of variables in research exist and the researchers can choose accordingly to measure when designing the research study or interpreting results and selecting tests. When researchers choose the right types of variables in research they get accurate analysis and results to their study. Variables are things that can be measured, manipulated, controlled in statistics and research.

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The types of variables in research can change in reference to the subject of the research study, be it a place or person, or any other. Researchers commonly include the types of variables for research in various categories, namely, Independent variables, Dependent variables, Intervening variables, Moderating variables, control variables, extraneous variables, quantitative variables, qualitative variables, confounding variables, composite variables. An independent variable is a singular characteristic that the other variables in your experiment. Then comes the dependent variable relies on and can be changed by other components. An intervening variable, sometimes called a mediator variable, is a variable that researchers use as a cause or connection between other study variables. Then comes a moderating variable, which changes the relationship between dependent and independent variables by strengthening or weakening the intervening variable’s effect. Control variables are characteristics that are constant and do not change during a study. Then comes extraneous variables that affect the dependent variable and the variables that the researcher did not originally consider while making the experiment. The quantitative variables are any data that involve numbers or generate revenue by teaching and qualitative variables are non-numerical values. Lastly, confounding variables is one you did not account project for that can disguise another variable’s effects, composite is two or more variables combined to make a more complex variable. 

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