Andrade Chittaranjan
Dept. of Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neurotoxicology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
Indian J Psychol Med. 2021 Mar;43(2):177-179. doi: 10.1177/0253717621994334. Epub 2021 Feb 26.
Students without prior research experience may not know how to conceptualize and design a study. This article explains how an understanding of the classification and operationalization of variables is the key to the process. Variables describe aspects of the sample that is under study; they are so called because they vary in value from subject to subject in the sample. Variables may be independent or dependent. Independent variables influence the value of other variables; dependent variables are influenced in value by other variables. A hypothesis states an expected relationship between variables. A significant relationship between an independent and dependent variable does not prove cause and effect; the relationship may partly or wholly be explained by one or more confounding variables. Variables need to be operationalized; that is, defined in a way that permits their accurate measurement. These and other concepts are explained with the help of clinically relevant examples.
没有先前研究经验的学生可能不知道如何构思和设计一项研究。本文解释了对变量的分类和操作化的理解是这一过程的关键。变量描述了所研究样本的各个方面；之所以这样称呼它们，是因为它们在样本中的不同个体之间具有不同的值。变量可以是自变量或因变量。自变量影响其他变量的值；因变量的值受其他变量的影响。一个假设陈述了变量之间的预期关系。自变量和因变量之间的显著关系并不证明因果关系；这种关系可能部分或全部由一个或多个混杂变量来解释。变量需要进行操作化；也就是说，要以允许对其进行准确测量的方式来定义。这些以及其他概念将借助临床相关示例进行解释。
