Friday, October 28, 2011

Why Relations between Variables are Important

Why Relations between Variables are Important
Generally speaking, the ultimate goal of every research or scientific analysis is to find relations between variables. The philosophy of science teaches us that there is no other way of representing "meaning" except in terms of relations between some quantities or qualities; either way involves relations between variables. Thus, the advancement of science must always involve finding new relations between variables. Correlational research involves measuring such relations in the most straightforward manner. However, experimental research is not any different in this respect. For example, the above mentioned experiment comparing WCC in males and females can be described as looking for a correlation between two variables: Gender and WCC. Statistics does nothing else but help us evaluate relations between variables. Actually, all of the hundreds of procedures that are described in this online textbook can be interpreted in terms of evaluating various kinds of inter-variable relations.

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