Chapter 5, Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Measurement

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Chapter 5, Conceptualization, Operationalization,
and Measurement
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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

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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.

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• How would you measure
• political party affiliation?
• age?
• grade point average?
• satisfaction with college?
• religious affiliation?

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• Conceptions, Concepts, and Reality
• How would you conceptualize
• prejudice?
• compassionate?
• Conceptualization The mental process whereby
  fuzzy and imprecise notions (concepts) are made
  more specific and precise.

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• Concepts as Constructs
• Concepts are constructs derived by mutual
  agreement from mental images.
• Conceptions summarize collections of seemingly
  related observations and experiences.

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Conceptualization

• 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-on
  meaning for a concept for the purposes of
  research.

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• 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.

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• Identify appropriate indicators and dimensions
  for
• religious affiliation
• college success
• political activity
• poverty
• binge drinking
• fear of crime

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• Creating Conceptual Order
• Conceptualization
• Nominal Definition
• Operational Definition
• Real World Measurement

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• Conceptualization Practice
• Anomie

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Definitions in Descriptive and Explanatory Studies

• Definitions are more problematic for descriptive
  research than for explanatory research.

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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.

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• 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?
• Dimensions

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• 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.
• The attributes composing it should be exhaustive.
• Attributes must be mutually exclusive.

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• Levels of Measurement
• Nominal
• Ordinal
• Interval
• Ratio

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• Levels of Measurement Nominal
• Variables who attributes have only the
  characteristics of exhaustiveness and mutually
  exclusiveness.
• Examples gender, religious affiliation, college
  major, hair color, birthplace, nationality

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• Levels of Measurement Ordinal
• Variables with attributes we can logically rank
  order.
• Examples socioeconomic status, level of
  conflict, prejudice, conservativeness, hardness

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• Levels of Measurement Interval
• Variables for which the actual distance between
  attributes has meaning.
• Examples temperature, (Fehrenheit) IQ score

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• Levels of Measurement Ratio
• Variables whose attributes meet the requirements
  of a 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

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Figure 5.1
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• Implications of Levels of Measurement
• Analyses require minimum levels of measurement
• Some variables can be treated as multiple levels
  of measurement

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• Single or Multiple Indicators

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Criteria of Measurement Quality

• Precision and Accuracy
• Reliability
• Validity

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• Precision and Accuracy
• Precise measures are superior to imprecise ones.
• Precision is not the same as accuracy.

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• Reliability That quality of measurement method
  that suggests that the same data would have been
  collected each time in repeated observations of
  the same phenomenon.
• Reliability is not the same as accuracy.

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• 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

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• Validity a term describing a measure that
  accurately reflects the concept it is intended to
  measure.
• Face Validity That quality of an indicator that
  makes it seem a reasonable measure of some
  variable.
• Criterion-Related Validity The degree to which
  a measure related 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
  coves the range of meanings included within a
  concept.

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Figure 5.2
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Quick Quiz
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• 1. It is truly possible to measure the stuff of
  life.
• True
• False

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• Answer A.
• It is truly possible to measure the stuff of life.

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• 2. _____ refer to mental images.
• Perspectives
• Theories
• Conceptions
• Methods

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• Answer C.
• Conceptions refer to mental images.

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• 3. The mental processes whereby fuzzy and
  imprecise notions are made more specific and
  precise is called
• construction
• reification
• conceptualization
• operationalization

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

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• 4. Which of the following are examples of nominal
  measures?
• gender
• religious affiliation
• political party affiliation
• birthplace
• all of the above

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• Answer E.
• Gender, religious affiliation, political
  affiliation, and birthplace are examples of
  nominal measures.

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• 5. _____ is the degree to which a measure covers
  the range of meanings included within a concept.
• Construct validity
• Criterion-related validity
• Face validity
• Content validity

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

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• 6. In social research, the process of coming to
  an agreement about what terms mean is
• hypothesizing
• conceptualization
• variable determination
• operationalization

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

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• 7. The _____ of concepts in scientific inquiry
  depends on nominal and operational definitions.
• specification
• interchangeability
• functioning
• network

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

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• 8. A level of measurement describing a variable
  whose attributes are rank-ordered and have equal
  distances between adjacent attributes are _____
  measures.
• ratio
• interval
• nominal
• ordinal

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