Posted: May 22nd, 2023
Much like the definition of a scientific variable, its nature is not that easy to nail down. Ellis, Harley and Walsh are quite vague on the nature of a scientific variable, much like they are vague on defining the phenomenon in general. However, judging by the explanations that the authors give, scientific variable stems from different aspects of people’s social. In other words, society defines scientific variables.
The process of searching for the nature of a scientific variable is even more complicated by the fact that there are a number of types of variables used in research. According to what Ellis, Harley and Walsh say, variables fall into four key categories, which are social instructional, demographical, behavior and personality, and cognitive variables. However, the former falls into two categories, which are artifactual cultural variables and customary cultural variables. (Ellis, Harley & Walsh, 2010, p. 29). To display the full array of meanings that a scientific variable can take, one will have to provide an example to each of the types listed above.
Posted: May 22nd, 2023
Much like the definition of a scientific variable, its nature is not that easy to nail down. Ellis, Harley and Walsh are quite vague on the nature of a scientific variable, much like they are vague on defining the phenomenon in general. However, judging by the explanations that the authors give, scientific variable stems from different aspects of people’s social. In other words, society defines scientific variables.
The process of searching for the nature of a scientific variable is even more complicated by the fact that there are a number of types of variables used in research. According to what Ellis, Harley and Walsh say, variables fall into four key categories, which are social instructional, demographical, behavior and personality, and cognitive variables. However, the former falls into two categories, which are artifactual cultural variables and customary cultural variables. (Ellis, Harley & Walsh, 2010, p. 29). To display the full array of meanings that a scientific variable can take, one will have to provide an example to each of the types listed above.
Demographic variables are related to the specifics of a particular group of people or a human population in general, as one might have guessed. These include such characteristics as age, gender, etc. For example, a particular group of people aged between 11 and 87 can be split into eight key categories, i.e., girls (aged 11–17), boys (aged 11–17), young men (aged 18–25), young women (aged 18–25), adult men (aged 26–50), adult women (aged 26–50), elderly women (aged 51–87) and elderly men (aged 51–87).
In their turn, social instructional variables are related to the social status or background of a particular person or a group of people, as Ellis, Harley and Walsh explain. To find a good example of social instructional variables for a sociological research, one may take a look at the people that work or study at literally any school. In each of these schools, there will be at least one person that represents the lower class (e.g., a janitor) and middle class (e.g., the majority of students and teachers). Even the upper class will be, probably, represented by some of the students whose parents have excelled in their business career. Likewise, the staff of any company can be taken into account to have a full list of class oriented variables (Maxfield & Babbie, 2011, p. 83).
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