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
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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Which concepts did Weber use to analyse the forms of legitimate domination?
Next question in the 2015 paper (Q1). 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.
PYQ trend
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More from this paper
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Is sociology a science? Give reasons for your answer.
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Sociology is a science of patterned social relations, not a physics of persons. Comte, Durkheim, and Marx claimed laws, facts, and historical regularities. Weber, Mead, and Merton add meaning, interaction, and middle-range theory. The claim holds as systematic social science, not as laboratory naturalism.
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Discuss the relevance of historical method in the study of society.
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Historical method treats institutions as dated products, not as timeless attitudes. Marx, Weber, and Durkheim all needed sequences of production, domination, and solidarity. Indian caste, law, and Census household forms show path dependence. It situates survey and ethnography; it is not a substitute for them.
Q1(d) · UPSC Mains 2015 · Sociology GS 1 · 10 marks
Which concepts did Weber use to analyse the forms of legitimate domination?
Sociology
Weber: domination is structured obedience; legitimacy is believed validity. Three types: traditional custom, charismatic gift, legal-rational office. Bureaucracy and the state’s monopoly of force complete the modern type. Class and status are related but not identical to these forms.
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