chapter 5 conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement

Question 1

conceptualization

Answer 1

the mental process whereby fuzzy and imprecise notions (concepts) are made more specific and precise. So you want to study prejudice. What do you mean by ‘‘prejudice’’? Are there different kinds of prejudice? What are they?

Question 2

indicator

Answer 2

an observation that we choose to to consider as a reflection of a variable we wish to study. Thus, for example, attending religious services might be considered an indicator of religiosity.

Question 3

dimension

Answer 3

A specifiable aspect of a concept. ‘‘Religiosiy,’’ for example might be specified in terms of a belief dimension, ritual dimension, a devotional dimension, a knowledge dimension, and so forth.

Question 4

specification

Answer 4

the process through which concepts are made more specific.

Question 5

nominal measure

Answer 5

a nominal variable has attributes that are merely different, as distinguished from ordinal, interval or ration measures. Sex is an example of a nominal measure. All a nominal variable can tell us about two people is if they are the same or different.

Question 6

ordinal measure

Answer 6

a level of measurement describing a variable with attributes we can rank-order along some dimension. An example is socioeconomic status as composed of the. attributes high, medium, low.

Question 7

interval measure

Answer 7

a level of measurement describing a variable whose attributes are rank- ordered and have equal distances between adjacent attributes. The Fahrenheit temperature scale is an example of this, because the distance between 17 and 18 is the same as that between 89 and 90.

Question 8

ratio measure

Answer 8

a level of measurement describing a variable with attributes that have all the qualities of nominal, ordinal, and interval measures and in addition are based on a
‘‘true zero’’ point. Age Is an example of a ratio measure.

Question 9

reliability

Answer 9

That quality of measurement method that suggests that the same data would have been collected each time in repeated observations of the same phenomenon. In the context of a survey, we would expect that the question ‘‘Did you attend religious services last week?’’ would have higher reliability than the question ‘’ About how many times have you attended religious services in your life?’’ This is not to be confused with validity.

Question 10

validity

Answer 10

a term describing a measure that. accurately reflects the concept it is intended to measure. For example, your IQ would seem a more valid measure of your intelligence than the number of hours you spend in a the library would. Though the ultimate validity of a measure can never be proved, we may agree to its relative validity on the basis of face validity, criterion-related validity, construct validity, content validity, internal validation, and external validation. This must not be confused with reliability.

Question 11

face validity

Answer 11

That quality of an indicator that makes it seem a reasonable measure of some variable. That the frequency of attendance at religious services is some indication of a person’s religiosity seems to make sense without a lot of explanation. It has face validity.

Question 12

criterion- related validity

Answer 12

The degree to which a measure relates to some external criterion. For example, the validity of College Boards tests is shown in their ability to predict the college success of students. Also called predictive validity.

Question 13

construct validity

Answer 13

the degree to which a measure relates to other variables as expected within a system of theoretical relationships.

Question 14

content validity

Answer 14

the degree to which a measure coversthe range of meanings included within a concept.