Revision summary
A variable is a property with more than one value. Experiments isolate an independent condition and measure a dependent outcome, with controls. Durkheim and Merton already thought in relations among variables. Weber and Mead limit a stimulus–response reading of persons. Most sociology uses quasi-experiments and surveys, not a closed lab.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
A variable is a property that takes more than one value across cases, such as income, caste category, or years of schooling. In experimental research, variables are named so that a cause can be isolated from a background.
Body
What a variable is
- Independent variables are the conditions the researcher varies or selects. Dependent variables are the outcomes to be explained.
- Control variables hold rival causes constant. Intervening variables sit on the path between cause and effect.
- Emile Durkheim already treated integration as a variable that moved suicide rates, even without a laboratory.
Role in experiments
- Random assignment, after R. A. Fisher’s logic, aims to make groups comparable so the treatment is the independent variable.
- Manipulation and measurement convert a theory into an operational test. Reliability of the measure matters as much as the design.
- Robert K. Merton’s middle-range hypotheses are typically statements linking two or more variables.
Sociological caution
- Max Weber warned that meaning is not a simple stimulus. George Herbert Mead’s self is not a lever.
- Field and quasi-experiments, and survey experiments, are more common than a closed lab on society.
- Census and NFHS supply measured variables, not a full experimental isolation of cause.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD IV[Independent variable] --> DV[Dependent variable] CV[Controls] --> DV EXP[Experiment random assignment] --> IV
Conclusion
Variables name changing properties so that experimental and quasi-experimental work can test a relation. They are tools of isolation. They do not erase meaning, power, or history in social life.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Why is random sampling said to have more reliability and validity in research?
Next question on this syllabus topic (2015 · Q3(a)). View answer →
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Is every number a variable?
Only if it is defined, varies, and is tied to a concept. A lone newspaper figure is information, not yet a research variable.
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Can caste be an experimental variable?
It can be a measured independent or control. It cannot be randomly assigned as if it were a laboratory treatment.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2023 · Q2(c) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
What are variables? How do they facilitate research? -
2016 · Q3(c) · Sociology GS 1 · 15 marks
"Hypothesis is a statement of the relationship between two or more variables."Elucidate by giving example of poverty and illiteracy. -
2020 · Q1(e) · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Analyse the relevance of 'Pattern variables' in the study of social change.
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Q7(a) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 1 · 20 marks · Solution
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What is hypothesis? Critically evaluate the significance of hypothesis in social research
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A hypothesis is a testable claim about relations among variables. It guides measurement, sampling, statistical tests and evaluation studies. Mertonian middle-range theory prefers such claims to total systems. Grounded theory and exploratory ethnography warn against premature locking. Bad hypotheses reify official categories and cannot be falsified. Significance is high when the statement can be shown to be wrong.
Q2(c) · UPSC Mains 2023 · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks · Solution
What are variables? How do they facilitate research?
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A variable is a property with more than one value across cases. Independent, dependent, and control variables structure causal claims. They enable hypothesis, measurement, and comparison, as in Durkheim’s suicide rates and survey tables. Operationalisation turns concepts into observable values. A variable remains an index. It is not the whole social relation.