Explication and interpretation

1
Explication and interpretation

• The essence of empiricism

2
Explication

• Explication is a deductive process where you take
  a general concept, refine it, determine how to
  test for it and then carry out the test
• Interpretation reverses the process
• Your handout is an idealized model of explication
  and interpretation

Construct
Measure
Data
Concept
3
Informed by literature review

• Prior studies should include their own
  explication of important concepts.
• Second, prior research will help assure that you
  include all of the major relevant theories and
  constructs in your study.
• Third, the literature review will help you to
  find and select appropriate measurement
  instruments.
• Were they successfully applied in earlier
  studies?
• Finally, the literature review will help you to
  anticipate common problems in your research
  context.
• What traps did researchers fall into in the past?

4
Conceptualization

• The process of defining concepts concretely and
  narrowly enough to develop valid measures
• Part of the reason for your literature review is
  to draw out the essence of the concept
• You must develop and apply rules to define what
  phenomena are covered by the concept and which
  ones are not
• Criteria for inclusion/exclusion of cases

Concept
Construct
5
Operationalization

• You must develop a strategy to generate data that
  faithfully reflect the constructs
• You must choose a research method
• You must develop Measures representing specific
  concepts
• That includes defining the nature of the
  theoretical relationship in measurement terms

Construct
Measure
6
Data collection

• You must carry out the research in the real world
• Things never go exactly as planned, so you have
  to make choices
• You try to limit/eliminate real-world noise
• Your writeup should include problems that made
  your actual research deviate from the planned
  research

Measure
Data
7
A medieval example of explication
8
Multiple concepts in a given study

• Up to now, we have only looked at a single
  concept, construct, method, data relation
• To test a theory, you have to have at least two
  concepts with a relationship between them
• So, you are probably going to be explicating
  several concepts (and relationships) in the same
  study, and they all will most likely need to be
  measured in much the same way
• May have to compromise

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Theory
Theoretical relationship
Concept 1 (cause)
Concept 2 (effect)
Proposition
Hypothesized relationship
Construct 2 (dependent variable)
Construct 1 (independent variable)
Research Hypothesis
Empirical hypothesis
Measure 1 (manipulation)
Measure 2 (pupil dilation)
Data collection and analysis
Obtained data relationship
Data 1 (Actual presentation of materials to
groups)
Data 2 (Actual computer readings)
10
Exposure to chick flicks
Empathy
Leads to
Ability to understand your partners feelings
Watching Mandy Moore movies
Increases
Empathy scale
Laboratory exposure to A Walk to Remember
Higher mean score
G1 mean 7 G2 mean 6
Group 1 exposed Group 2 not exposed
Data 2 (Actual responses)