Exam 5: Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Measurement

If unsure as a researcher how specific a measurement needs to be, it is best to be more general to simplify data collection.

Sarah has compiled a list of 40 indicators of prejudice and its dimensions. She finds that women are more prejudiced than men on some of the indicators but not on others. Sarah should:

Precision and accuracy are synonyms.

Classifying someone as employed or not employed treats employment as:

Please conceptualize child abuse (or another abstract concept of your choice). What indicators would you use to measure the concept? Are there dimensions to the concept?

Professor Smith gave the class an exam on Monday. On Wednesday Professor Smith gave the same class the same exam. Professor Smith was clearly interested in assessing the exam's:

How would you measure family size at the nominal, ordinal, and ratio levels?

It is impossible to have several indicators of only one concept.

Which of the following is a sign of the presence or absence of the concept that one is studying?

Dr. Brown is conducting a study on opinions about gun control in the United States. How might she conceptualize and measure this subject? What are some potential biases that might affect the outcomes of her research?

What is validity in terms of social science research? How do social science researchers evaluate the relative validity of their measurements? Identify.

Conceptions are:

Considering the fact that low marital satisfaction should lead to divorce, Professor Rogers checked his measure of marital satisfaction by examining whether couples with low marital satisfaction scores got divorced and those with high levels of marital satisfaction were still married. This illustrates the use of:

Dr. Jones is developing a research study in which he plans to use the length of a participant's ring finger to determine mathematical prowess. At the most basic level, his indicator fails which test for validity?

Jeremy can't decide whether he should ask people whether they "very strongly agree," "agree," "disagree," "very strongly disagree," or simply "agree" or "disagree" with statements about the war in Iraq. Jeremy is dealing with the problem of:

Dr. Ross is looking to examine if the indicators that make up her measurement of romantic attraction are truly related to one another and make for an accurate representation of the variable she is researching. What sort of validity is she examining?

Provide one example each of how definitions are used in descriptive and explanatory studies. Why might a social scientist say that definitions are more important in descriptive studies than in explanatory ones?

Validity refers to the extent to which an empirical measure adequately reflects the real meaning of the concept under consideration.

When we fall into the trap of believing that terms have real meanings we are guilty of:

A measure of religiosity that is extremely consistent but is actually targeting the respondent's political affiliation could be considered: