Title: Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Measurement: Operationalization
1Conceptualization, Operationalization, and
MeasurementOperationalization
- October 20, 2004
- Sociology 487
2Lecture Topics
- Connection between conceptualization and
operationalization - What is operationalization?
- Operationalization, variables, and indicators
3From Concept to Measurement
- Progression from sense of what a term means to
measurement in a scientific study - Conceptualization
- Nominal Definition
- Operational Definition
- Measurements in the Real World
4Conceptualization in Practice
- What observations or images should we associate
with the concept player quality?
5The Concept of Player Quality Specific
Measurement Ideas
- Variables
- Home Runs
- RBIs
- Hits
- Batting Average
6From Concepts to Observations
- Operationalization is the process of connecting
concepts to observations - When we conceptualize, we specify what we mean by
a term - When we operationalize, we identify specific
observations that we will take to indicate that
concept in empirical reality
7So how would we operationalize player quality?
- Home runs
- Operationalized as number of home runs
- Batting average -
- operationalized as of times at bat with a hit,
minus walks, being hit by pitcher - Fielding
- Operationalized as number of errors
- What is the problem with our operational
definitions?
8Conceptualization in practice
- What observations or images should we associate
with the concept pet therapy? - Pets helping patients through the healing
process? - Pets getting acupuncture?
- Pets getting massages?
9Conceptualization continued
- Concept Pet Therapy
- Nominal Definition Pets helping patients in the
Healing Process - To come up with an operational definition, we
need to specify what we mean by helped in the
healing process - shorter hospital stays?
- normal heart rates and blood pressures?
- increased morale?
- all of the above?
10So how would we operationalize the hypothesized
effects of pet therapy?
- Shorter hospital stays
- operationalized as days spent in the hospital
- Normal heart rates and blood pressures
- operationalized in beats per minute and
diastolic and systolic pressures. - Increased morale
- operationalized by asking patients a series of
questions about their attitude, current outlook,
emotions.
11Variables and Indicators
- Variables
- Some aspect of a concept that varies from which
we select more concrete indicators - Example
- Concept Social Class
- Variable Education
- Indicator Years of education
- Constant
- Variables that do not vary in a particular
situation - Same-sex schools gender will have only one
attribute or value
12Operationalization Choices
- Range of Variation
- When should attributes be combined in categories?
- How should attributes be combined?
- Examples
- Income
- Attitudes / orientations
13Operationalization Choices
- Variations between Extremes
- Degree of precision
- How finely will you measure attributes of a
variable? - Examples
- Age
- Political affiliation
- Useful guideline when youre not certain about
what degree of precision in measurement is
needed, collect more information instead of less
information
14Measurement Operations
- Measurement
- Process of linking abstract concepts to empirical
indicants - Operation
- Procedure for identifying or indicating the value
of cases on a variable - Research question determines which variables to
measure and how to measure them
15Key Points
- When we conceptualize, we specify what we mean by
a term - Specify dimensions, variables, and indicators
- Concepts may be similar to actual variables used
in a study or they may be more abstract - When we operationalize, we specify how variables
relevant to a concept will be measured