The Practice of Social Research

Chapter 5 – Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Measurement

Chapter Outline Measuring Anything That Exists Conceptualization Definitions in Descriptive and Explanatory Studies Operationalization Choices Criteria of Measurement Quality The Ethics of Measurement Quick Quiz

Measuring Anything that Exists Measurement – careful, deliberate observations of

the real world for the purpose of describing objects and events in terms of the attributes composing the variable.

Measuring Anything that Exists Measurement – Practice

Political Party Affiliation Age Grade Point Average Satisfaction with College Religious Affiliation

Measuring Anything that Exists Conceptions, Concepts, and Reality

Practice: Prejudice

Conceptualization – the mental process whereby fuzzy and imprecise notions (concepts) are made more specific and precise.

Measuring Anything that Exists Concepts as Constructs

Concepts are constructs derived by mutual agreement from mental images.

Conceptions summarize collections of seemingly related observations and experiences.

Conceptualization The process through which we specify what we

mean when we use particular terms in research.

We cannot meaningfully answer a question without a working agreement about the meaning of the outcome.

Conceptualization processes a specific, agreed-upon meaning for a concept for the purposes of research.

Conceptualization Indicators and Dimensions

Indicator – an observation that we choose to consider as a reflection of a variable we wish to study.

Dimension – a specifiable aspect of a concept.

Conceptualization Indicators and Dimensions – Practice

Religious Affiliation College Success Political Activity Poverty Binge Drinking Fear of Crime

Conceptualization The Interchangeability of Indicators

If several different indicators all represent the same concept, all of them will behave the same way the concept would behave if it were real and could be observed.

Conceptualization Real, Nominal, and Operational Definitions

Specification – the process through which concepts are made more specific.

A nominal definition is one that is simply assigned to a term without any claim that the definition represents a “real” entity.

An operational definition specifies precisely how a concept will be measured – that is, the operations we will perform.

Conceptualization Creating Conceptual Order

Conceptualization Nominal Definition Operational Definition Real World Measurement

Conceptualization Conceptualization – Practice

Anomie

Definitions in Descriptive and Explanatory Studies Definitions are more problematic for descriptive

research than for explanatory research.

Operationalization Choices Conceptualization is the refinement and specification

of abstract concepts. Operationalization is the development of specific

research procedures that will result in empirical observations representing those concepts in the real world.

Operationalization Choices Range of Variation

To what extent is the research willing to combine attributes in fairly gross categories?

Variation between the Extremes To what degree is the operationalization of variables

precise?

A Note on Dimensions

Operationalization Choices Defining Variables and Attributes

An attribute is a characteristic or quality of something (ex: female, old, student).

A variable is a logical set of attributes (ex: gender, age).

Every variable must have two important qualities.1. The attributes composing it should be exhaustive.

2. Attributes must be mutually exclusive.

Operationalization Choices Levels of Measurement

Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio

Operationalization Choices Levels of Measurement – Nominal

Variables whose attributes have only the characteristics of exhaustiveness and mutually exclusiveness.

Examples: gender, religious affiliation, college major, hair color, birthplace, nationality

Operationalization Choices Levels of Measurement – Ordinal

Variables with attributes we can logically rank in order.

Examples: socioeconomic status, level of conflict, prejudice, conservativeness, hardness

Operationalization Choices Levels of Measurement – Interval

Variables for which the actual distance between attributes has meaning.

Examples: temperature (Fahrenheit), IQ score

Operationalization Choices Levels of Measurement – Ratio

Variables whose attributes meet the requirements of an interval measure, and has a true zero point.

Examples: temperature (Kelvin), age, length of time, number of organizations, number of groups, number of As received in college

Operationalization Choices Implications of Levels of Measurement

Analyses require minimum levels of measurement Some variables can be treated as multiple levels of

measurement

Operationalization Choices Single or Multiple Indicators

Criteria of Measurement Quality Precision and Accuracy Reliability Validity

Criteria of Measurement Quality Precision and Accuracy

Precise measures are superior to imprecise ones.

Precision is not the same as accuracy.

Criteria of Measurement Quality Reliability – the quality of measurement method that

suggests the same data would have been collected each time in repeated observations of the same phenomenon.

Reliability is not the same as accuracy.

Criteria of Measurement Quality Test-Retest Method

To make the same measurement more than once.

Split-Half Method Multiple sets of randomly assigned variables should produce

the same classifications

Established Measures

Reliability of Research Workers

Criteria of Measurement Quality Validity – a term describing a measure that

accurately reflects the concept it is intended to measure. Face Validity – the quality of an indicator that makes it a

reasonable measure of some variable. Criterion-Related Validity – the degree to which a

measure relates to some external criterion. Construct Validity – the degree to which a measure

relates to other variables as expected within a system of theoretical relationships.

Content Validity – the degree to which a measure covers the range of meanings included within a concept.

Quick Quiz

Chapter 5 Quiz

1. The mental processes whereby fuzzy and imprecise notions are made more specific and precise is called

A. construction.

B. reification.

C. conceptualization

D. operationalization.

Chapter 5 Quiz

Answer: C.

The mental processes whereby fuzzy and imprecise notions are made more specific and precise is called conceptualization.

Chapter 5 Quiz

2. Which of the following are examples of nominal measures?

A. gender

B. religious affiliation

C. political party affiliation

D. birthplace

E. all of the above

Chapter 5 Quiz

Answer: E.

Gender, religious affiliation, political affiliation, and birthplace are all examples of nominal measures.

Chapter 5 Quiz

3. _____ is the degree to which a measure covers the range of meanings included within a concept.

A. Construct validity

B. Criterion-related validity

C. Face validity

D. Content validity

Chapter 5 Quiz

Answer: D.

Content validity is the degree to which a measure covers the range of meanings included within a concept.

Chapter 5 Quiz

4. In social research, the process of coming to an agreement about what terms mean is

A. hypothesizing.

B. conceptualization.

C. variable naming.

D. operationalization.

Chapter 5 Quiz

Answer: B.

In social research, the process of coming to an agreement about what terms mean is conceptualization.

Chapter 5 Quiz

5. The _____ of concepts in scientific inquiry depends on nominal and operational definitions.

A. specification

B. interchangeability

C. functioning

D. network

Chapter 5 Quiz

Answer: A.

The specification of concepts in scientific inquiry depends on nominal and operational definitions.

Chapter 5 Quiz

6. A level of measurement describing a variable whose attributes are rank-ordered and have equal distances between adjacent attributes are _____ measures.

A. ratio

B. interval

C. nominal

D. ordinal

Chapter 5 Quiz

Answer: B.

A level of measurement describing a variable whose attributes are rank-ordered and have equal distances between adjacent attributes are interval measures