As far as I am concerned, different scholars argue about irrelevance about the dependent and independent variables about in the analyses process of data descriptively. However, I am still in confusion of the issues. Would help me in this regard?
If you specify an independent and a dependent variable, then you have a testable hypothesis about the relationship between those two variables. In purely descriptive work, you do not state or test any hypotheses, so you also no not specify any independent and a dependent variables.
Temesgen:
”Purely Descriptive Research“ may start with that intent, but rapidly change during classical data screening/ scrubbing processes (with some researcher oversight). David’s reply is correct — if this change does not occur. … but if it occurs then often strong directional hypothesis can arise. Case example: Descriptive study of one universities grade-inflation over ‘’85-’95 decade revealed negligible change male students, but rather profound increase for females (during period of USA” women’s movement”). Not important are they confirmatory analysis – supporting Interpretation – just that a nominally pure investigation can quickly turn into something quite different.
Regards,
Alvah