SOC 201 Chapter 5: Chapter 5.2
Document Summary
The first step in doing scientific research involves picking the concepts or constructs of interest to us. When sociologists speak or write about their research, they tend to use the term variable a lot. To call a concept or a construct a variable means, in the first place, that it is a thing of interest in a particular piece of research. Variables are special because they have two important characteristics. First, a variable is something that is thought to influence or be influenced by another thing. For example, suppose i were to assert that income is thought to influence voting behavior. That assertion makes reference to two variables: income and voting behavior. The first, income, is a variable because it is thought to influence voting behavior. The second, voting behavior, is a variable because it is thought to be influenced by income. In each case i have italicized the variables. Religious affiliation is thought to be influenced by income.
