we have some standard variables like intelligence, personality, achievement motivation etc. but if I think about a new variable say I term it as "Intellectual discomfort" or "sixth sense" or a, b, c..... what is the process of establishing it?
Variables are needed for empirical research, so they should be objectively measured. Theoretical economics also uses such variables as effort or utility, but it is difficult to measure them empirically. Incentive is different, because it is a drive to do some activity deduced from expected profit (that can be measured). "Sixth sense" is a bit ambiguous even in questionnaire.
First of all you need to think about your conceptual and operational definition of each concept. You need to do some literature for this. Only after you have decided on this, you can think about the statements or questions which will be used to measure it. After that, you need to pilot test the questionnaire and check validity and reliability.
Once you clarify the conceptual and operational definitions, you my need to work on literature. And most probably you may have to use qualitative research techniques to develop the scale. Then a serious effort must be given to test the reliability and validity of the scale. At this stage, you can use EFA (exploratory factor analysis) to delinieate dimensions. Then the purified scale must be validated with a nother survey and you may use CFA (confirmatory factor analysis).
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