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36 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
"Measuring anything that exists" - Babbie
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*social scientists can measure anything
Measurement - means careful, deliberate observations of the real world for the purpose of describing objects and events in terms of the attributes composing a variable. -our concepts don't exist in real world, so can't be measured directly. We can measure things that our concepts summarize. |
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Conceptualization
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the mental process whereby concepts are made more specific and precise
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Operationalization
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the development of specific research procedures (operations) that will result in empirical observations representing those concepts in the real world.
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Concepts
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fuzzy and imprecise notions/ mental images
ex- compassion |
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Constructs
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theoretical creations based on observation but can not actually be directly of indirectly observed
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Indicators
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a sign of the presence or absence of the concept we're studying.
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Direct indicator
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something we can apprehend with our senses
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Indirect indicator
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through other peoples accounts, diaries, journals
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Interchangeability of indicators
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different things can indicate the same thing(or term)
ex- putting bird in a nest is compassionate/ acts of violence considered compassionate |
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Dimensions
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types/kinds
Love for... family, significant other, pet, objects |
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Specification
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The process through which concepts are made more specific.
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3 types of definitions
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Real
Nominal Operational conceptualization>Nominal definition>Operational definition> Measurements in the Real World |
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Real definition
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focuses on the "essence" - very general.
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Nominal definition
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specific/ assigned particularly to concepts
* most represent some consensus or convention about how a particular term is to be used |
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Operational definitions
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specifies how a concept will be measured - that is, the operations we'll perform.
* achieves maximum clarity about what a concept means in a given study * operational is nominal, not real. |
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4 Levels of measurement
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Nominal
Ordinal Interval Ratio |
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Nominal Measures
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categorizes/ offer names or labels for characteristics
ex- Gender (variable) -male and female (attributes) |
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Ordinal Measures
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Categories with ranks - one is "more" than another.
ex- class year |
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Interval Measure
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Meaningful distance measure
ex- Fahrenheit temp. scale, because the distance between 17 and 18 is the same as that between 89 and 90. temps are different(nominal) and one is higher than another (ordinal) |
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Ratio Measures
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Highest level of measurement- based on true zero point.
ex- income,compare 2 people and can conclude 1)whether they are dif. or same. 2)whether one is more than the other. 3)how much they differ 4)what the ratio of one to another is |
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Criteria of measurement
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precision and accuracy
reliability and vailidity |
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Reliability and Validity
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Reliability - repeatability/will yield the same results each time, uses established measures
-Test-Retest Method(= results) validity - are you doing what you say you're doing? Face""- does this make sense? Construct v""- does it relate to other variables ex-SATs good predictor of how students perform on average |
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Precision and Accuracy
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precision-how specifically you measure something
ex- "woman is 43 years old" more precise than "woman is in her 40's" precision not always necessary Accuracy -How correct it is. Sometimes less precise means more accurate "in the ball park" |
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Pretesting
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allows us to narrow down questions
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Typologies
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The classification (nominal) of observations in terms of their attributes on two or more variables.
*we try to create categories of people *typologies can only be used as independent variables. ex-in class exercise categorizing RU students. too many!! |
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Indexes & Scales
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-most common in survey research and other quantitative methods.
-both measure variables allow us to summarize several indicators in a single numerical score & maintain details of individual indicators |
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Scales
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Verticle, Have hierarchical structure to them.
-takes advantage of differences in intensity among attributes. - identifies distinct reponses (check box 1/2 and 1/2) ex- no1 says "woman should not vote" and "men and women are =" |
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Index
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horizontal, ordinal measure
-composite measure that summaraizes rank-orders (ordinal measures) -point system |
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Scale Construction
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offers more assurance of ordinality by tapping the intensity structures among the indicators
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Scale Types
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Bogardus
Thurstone Semantic Differential Likert Guttman |
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Handling Missing Data
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-is a judgment call
-sometimes make an educated guess |
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Bogardus Scale
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-about prejudice, willingness of people to participate in social relations of varying degrees of closeness
-talks about physical space, we let certain people be physically closer than others -thing dart-board (i'm center) -how close would you let a sex offender live. Country? Neighborhood? Next door? |
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Thurstone Scales
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-uses judges
ex- rate prejudice on scale 1-10. -judge agreement between judges |
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Likert Scaling
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-not used as often
"strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree" |
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Semantic Differential
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-choose between two opposite
ex- good----------------------bad smart-------------------stupid outgoing----------------introverted |
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Guttman Scaling
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based on idea that anyone who gives a strong indicator of some variable will also give the weaker indicators.
ex-abortion (Disapprove under all circumstances, Approve under all circumstances) |