2 Classification of Variables
2 Classification of Variables
VARIABLES
PREPARED BY
MARIA JESSICA M. PIEDAD
WHAT IS A VARIABLE?
WHAT IS A VARIABLE?
variable
is… an object, event, idea, feeling, time period, or any other type of category
you are trying to measure
Continuous • These variables can assume any value between a certain set
of real numbers
• Can only assume any whole value within the limits of the
Discrete given variables
• Number of registered cars, number of business locations,
Variables number of children in the family, population of students,
total number of faculty members
CATEGORICAL VARIABLES
Ordinal Variables
• Can take a value which can be logically ordered or ranked
• Academic grades such A,B,C; clothing size such as X,L,M,S; measures of
attitudes like strongly agree,agree,disagree,or strongly disagree
Nominal Values
• Variables whose values cannot be organized in a logical sequence
• Business types, eye colors, kinds of religion, various languages, types of
learners
CATEGORICAL VARIABLES
Dichotomous Variables
• Represents only two categories
• Gender (male/female); answer( yes/no); Veracity (True/False)
Polychotomous Variables
• Variables that have many categories
• Educational attainment (elementary, high school, college, graduate,
postgraduate); level of performance (Excellent, Very Good, Good,
Satisfactory, Poor)
EXPERIMENTAL VARIABLES
Also called as
mediating or
intervening
variables
EXAMPLES
Predictor Criterion
Variables Variables
PREDICTOR VARIABLES
Polyvariate Variables
SUMMARY