What is the difference between a sociological concept and a variable?

What is the difference between a concept and a variable and How does a researcher transform one into the other?

• Answer:

  A concept is simply a word or an abstraction that stands for something. A concept becomes a variable when it is operationalized....or when it can be categorized or observed or counted. For example, marital satisfaction...is a concept....BUT, it becomes a variable when a definition it attached to it that makes it 'measurable'....you can ask a married person....how happy are you in your marriage? If you attach levels of happiness to it, it becomes a variable. All variables are concepts, but not all concepts are variables....if you can 'meausre' a concept and operationalize the definition of the concept...it is a variables...it has to have at least two or more values to be considered a variable. Social norms....is not a variable.....it is a concept. You can determine how well people adhehre to social norms....but social norms is a concept...not measurable.