QS101 – Introduction to Quantitative Methods in Social Science Week 3: Conceptualisation, Operationalisation and Measurement Florian Reiche Teaching Fellow in Quantitative Methods Course Director, BA Politics and Sociology

THEORY

The Research Labyrinth Theory Research Questions Concepts New theory Data analysis Data collection Case Selection

Research Questions Why do people vote and why do they vote the way they do? Why do people support racist and xenophobic ideas? Why are some countries (or people) more corrupt than others? Does Islam have a negative impact on democracy?

Examples of Concepts Structure Agency Social Class Religious Orientation Culture Academic Achievement Teacher Expectations Leadership Lifestyle Democracy Inequality Gender

What is a concept? Concepts are the building blocks of theory and represent the points around which social research is conducted. (Bryman, 2012, p. 163)

The Tree-Metaphor Concept Attribute Indicator

Source: Adcock, R.N. and David Collier Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research. American Political Science Review, vol. 95, no. 3,

Source: Adcock, R.N. and David Collier Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research. American Political Science Review, vol. 95, no. 3,

An easy task? “there is no point in arguing about what a ‘correct’ definition is” (Guttman, 1994, p. 12) “claims that disputes about how to specify a concept can be put to rest are inherently suspect” (Munck and Verkuilen, 2002, p. 8)

Source: Adcock, R.N. and David Collier Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research. American Political Science Review, vol. 95, no. 3,

Source: Adcock, R.N. and David Collier Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research. American Political Science Review, vol. 95, no. 3,

EXAMPLE

Economic Development Until the 1950’s and 1960’s: economic growth “Trickle Down” effects Countries hit growth targets, but nothing changed in substantive terms for the population

1960s / 1970s: Beyond GDP Poverty Unemployment Inequality  Redistribution from growth

Poverty: Brainstorming Poverty Line –Headcount / Headcount Index Total Poverty Gap Average Poverty Gap Sen Index Foster-Greer-Thorbecke Measure Human Poverty Index

Inequality: Brainstorming Gini Coefficient –Lorenz Curves 20:20 ratio 10:10 ratio 20:40 ratio (Kuznets ratio) Theil Index / Atkinson Index

Other attributes Example: HDI –Longevity: life expectancy at birth –Knowledge: weighted average of of adult literacy (2/3) and mean years of schooling (1/3) –Standard of Living: real per capita income

Economic Development Poverty Inequality Health Education GDP Population Growth …

Economic Development Health Infant Mortality Life Expectancy Birth At 60

More to come WeekTopic 1(no seminar) 2Preparation of Field Work 3Field Work on Campus 4Building Our Data Set 5Stata Session: Our University 6Reading Week 7The Lottery 8Use and Abuse of Numbers in the Media 9Inequality 10Democracy

ASSESSMENT

Instructions Choose a statistical concept you find interesting, and that is relevant to the social sciences (not democracy or inequality from the seminars). Find a relevant data set. Locate relevant variables in your data set. Seek approval of the concept, the data set, and selected variables from your module director. Ensure you have obtained clearance by Do not leave this to the last minute, it can take a while to find an appropriate concept / data set. Write a report of not more than 2,500 words (not including graphs, tables, figures, or bibliography) according to the following guidelines:

Report Content Your report will consist of two components. You can handle these separately, or combine them, depending on what suits your argument best. 1.A discussion of your concept. This should include the following information: –The relevance of this concept in social science research. –An explanation of the concept to a non-expert. –A review of the extent to which this concept is easy, difficult or problematic to operationalize and measure. (You may wish to use examples in Part B to illustrate your discussion with concrete examples.)

Report Content (contd.) Be sure to include references to the relevant literature in this discussion. 2.A presentation of descriptive statistics of the variables relevant to your concept. Be sure to include graphs to visualize the data. Use your knowledge from the module to select the relevant statistics and to present / visualise the data as appropriate Again, use literature to back your argument up, if necessary.

Submission Deadline: Don’t forget to submit on tabula, not anywhere else. See UG handbook for more details.