1. Foundations of Sociological Inquiry
Measurement, Conceptualization, and Operationalization

2. Today’s Objectives Measurement Conceptualization Operationalization
Quality
Questions?

4. Which is your favorite poem?
Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling
Dig In
Grandpa’s Poem
Pizza Pie
Horrible Hiccups
Clara
Fighting with My Brother
Guess Who?

5. Do you think song lyrics should count as poetry?
Yes No
I don’t know

6. Who is your favorite poet?
Roger Dalton
Paul Simon
Bob Dylan
Other

7. How often do you read/listen to poetry?
Less than 3 times a week
3-6 times a week
1-5 times a day
More than five times a day

8. The mental process whereby fuzzy and imprecise notions are made more specific and precise is called
construction
reification
conceptualization
operationalization

9. Measurement
careful, deliberate observations of the real world for the purpose of describing objects and events in terms of the attributes composing the variable.

10. What kinds of things might social scientists want to measure?
Age
Gender
Race
Education
Grade Point Average
Political Party Affiliation
Employment Status
Wage/Salary/Income
Religious Affiliation
Criminal Justice Contact
Marital Status
Attitudes
Behaviors

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

13. Conceptualization
the refinement and specification of abstract concepts.
In other words, specifying what we mean when we use particular terms in research.

14. Conceptualization Indicators Religious Affiliation College Success
Political Activity
Poverty
Binge Drinking
Fear of Crime

15. Operationalization
is the development of specific research procedures that will result in empirical observations representing those concepts in the real world.

16. Operationalization typically considers:
Range of variation
To what extent is the research willing to combine attributes in fairly gross categories?
Precision
To what degree is the operationalization of variables precise?
Definitions
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.

18. Measurement Quality often involves assessments of:
Reliability
Validity

19. Reliability involves
whether a particular technique applied repeatedly to the same object would yield the same results each time.
ensuring accuracy.
ensuring that your measure measures what you think it should measure.
ensuring precision.
All of these choices are correct.

20. Reliability – the quality of measurement method that suggests the same data would have been collected each time in repeated observations of the same phenomenon.
Validity – a term describing a measure that accurately reflects the concept it is intended to measure.

21. High Reliability and High Validity• • • • • • • • • • • • .

22. High Reliability and High Validity
(Self-reported educational attainment) • • • • • • • • • • • • .

23. High Reliability and Low Validity• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • .

24. High Reliability and Low Validity
(Self-reported number of sexual partners) • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • .

25. Low Reliability and High Validity• • • • • • • • • • • • • .

26. Low Reliability and High Validity (Self-reported happiness)• • • • • • • • • • • • • .

27. must be corroborated by colleagues
Elmer worked hard to establish the meaning of the term “prejudice” for his study on students. He consulted the literature and colleagues who have studied prejudice in order to come to an agreement about what the term means. Elmer engaged in
reification.
dimensionalization.
conceptualization.
validity.
must be corroborated by colleagues

28. Questions?