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Chapter 4: Conceptualization and Measurement

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1 Chapter 4: Conceptualization and Measurement

2 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

3 Conceptualization Process: Of specifying what we mean when we use particular terms in research. Conceptualization process creates an agreed- on meaning for a concept For the purposes of research

4 Conceptions, Concepts, and Reality
Conceptualization – The mental process whereby fuzzy and imprecise notions (concepts) are made more specific and precise. How would you conceptualize… Prejudice? Compassionate?

5 Concepts Mental representations Typically based on experience
Concepts can be of real phenomena Dogs, Clouds, Pain, Cars, Cell phones Concepts can be of agree-upon phenomena Truth, Beauty, Justice, Prejudice, Value,

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

7 Things that can be Measured
Three classes of things can be measured 1. Direct Observables 2. Indirect Observables 3. Constructs

8 Things that can be Measured
Three classes of things can be measured 1. Direct observables Height, weight, color, etc. 2. Indirect observables Questionnaires Information on Gender, age, income, etc.

9 Things that can be Measured
3. Constructs Theoretical creations based on observations Cannot be seen either directly or indirectly, such as: IQ Leisure Satisfaction Environmental Values

10 Indicators and Dimensions
Concept or direct observable used to measure a construct. For example, consider a person’s extent of agreement with this statement: “I am a person of worth” As an indicator of person’s self-esteem

11 Indicators Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale contains ten statements used to measure self-esteem. Each statement assumed to accurately measure self-esteem as an indicator of it.

12 Indicators Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale contains ten statements used to measure self-esteem. Each statement assumed to accurately measure self-esteem as an indicator of it. (Handout)

13 Gallup Index of Leading Religious Indicators
1. Believe in God 2. Religious preference 3. Member of a church 4. Attended church last 7 days 5. Religion very important in life 6. Religion answers problems 7. High confidence in organized religion 8. Give high ratings to ethical standards of clergy

14 Indicators: How would you measure…
Political party affiliation? Age? Grade point average? Satisfaction with college? Religious affiliation?

15 Dimensions For example: The construct Locus-of-Control
Constructs sometimes have multiple dimensions, each with indicators. For example: The construct Locus-of-Control Three dimensions: Internal External Powerful others

16 1/27 Identify Indicators & Dimensions
Identify appropriate indicators and dimensions for… College success Political activity Poverty Binge drinking Fear of crime

17 Nominal, and Operational Definitions
Nominal definition: Assigned to a term without any claim that the definition represents a “real” entity. Name Operational definition: Specifies precisely how a concept will be measured

18 Levels of Measurement Level of Measurement=Mathematical precision with which values of a variable can be expressed. Nominal level of measurement: Qualitative No mathematical interpretation From Text: {T}here are many ways of collecting information, or different operations for gathering data: asking questions, using previously gathered data, analyzing texts, and so on. Some of this data contains mathematically detailed information; it represents a higher level of measurement.

19 Levels of Measurement Quantitative levels of measurement: Ordinal
Interval Ratio Progressively more precise mathematically

20 Nominal Measures (Labels)
Identifies variables whose values have no mathematical interpretation Categories are not ordered If only two categories: Referred to as a dichotomous or “Dummy” variable

21 Examples of Nominal Measures

22 Ordinal Measures Categorical--Some categories are higher than others.
For example: Income tax brackets Social class Levels of education From Text: The first of the three quantitative levels is the ordinal level of measurement. At this level, you specify only the order of the cases, in “greater than” and “less than” distinctions. At the coffee shop, for example, you might choose between a small, medium, or large cup of decaf—that’s ordinal measurement. The small might be an 8 oz. cup. The medium might have 12 oz., and the large might have 20 oz. The intervals separating the sizes of cups of coffee are not equal, but they can be ordered.

23 Ordinal Measures Cannot measure the distance between categories
Only which is higher or lower Cannot say that someone is twice as educated as someone else Can be used as a dependent variable

24 Example: Ordinal Measures
When attributes can be rank-ordered… Distances between attributes do not have any meaning For example : code Educational Attainment as 0=less than H.S. 1=some H.S. 2=H.S. degree 3=some college 4=college degree 5=post college Is the distance from 0 to 1 the same as 3 to 4?

25 Example: Ordinal Measures

26 Interval Measures Called scalar or index variables
Provide scale or index to measure between levels Can measure which is higher or lower and how much Measured between points on a scale with even units Example: Temperature in Fahrenheit or Celsius This level of measurement is represented by the difference between two Fahrenheit temperatures. Note, for example, that 60 degrees is 30 degrees higher than 30 degrees; but 60 is not “twice as hot” as 30. Why not? Because heat does not “begin” at 0 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale.

27 Example: Interval Measures
When distance between attributes has meaning, for example, temperature (in Fahrenheit) Distance from degrees = Distance from degrees Used for a variety of statistical analyses: Central tendency can be measured by mode, median, or mean Standard deviation can be calculated Cannot calculate ratios

28 Index of Feminist Attitudes
An index of their feminist attitudes was calculated from 6 questions, but the index had no absolute zero. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? (SD =1, D=2, N=3, A=4, SA=5) A woman should have the same job opportunities as a man. Men should respect women more than they currently do. America should pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Women should be considered as seriously as men as candidates for the Presidency of the United States. Doctors need to take women's health concerns more seriously. Women have been treated unfairly on the basis of their gender throughout most of human history. If an index was calculated from answers to six questions that measured one’s feminist attitude, and the lowest score for each question was 1, Strongly Disagree, and the highest was 5, Strongly Agree, then the lowest possible score on the index would be 5 and the highest possible score would be 30. It’s important to recognize that many social scientists consider indices to be only ordinal measures, even though they are often treated as though they were interval level, by conducting correlation or regression analyses with them. Feminist Attitude index = 30 (highest score possible) Feminist Attitude index = 5 (lowest score possible)

29 Ratio Level Measurement
Similar to interval level Can measure distance between two points But can do so in absolute terms Ratio measures have a true zero (unlike interval measures) Example, can say that someone is twice as rich as someone else based on the value of their assets. To have no money is based on a starting point of zero

30 Ratio Level Measurement
Has an absolute zero that is meaningful Can construct a meaningful ratio (fraction), for example, number of clients in past six months It is meaningful to say that “...we had twice as many clients in this period as we did in the previous six months.

31 Ratio Level Measurement
Ratio scales are the ultimate when it comes to measurement scales They tell us about the order They tell us the exact value between units AND also have an absolute zero Allows for a wide range of both descriptive and inferential statistics

32 Types of Comparisons That Can Be Made With Different Levels of Measurement

33 Measurement Hierarchy
RATIO STRONGEST INTERVAL ORDINAL NOMINAL WEAKEST


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