topic 6 Flashcards
Concept
a family of conceptions, such as “chair”, representing the whole class of actual chairs
Direct observables
physical characteristics (sex, height, skin, color) of a person being observed and/or interviewed
Indirect observables
– characteristics of a person as indicated by answers given in a self- administered questionnaire
Constructs
level of alienation, as measured by a scale that is created by combining several direct and/or indirect observables
Conceptualization
– the mental process whereby fuzzy and imprecise notions (concepts) are made more specific and precise.
Indicator
an observation that we choose 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
Dimension
a specifiable aspect of a concept. “Religiosity”, for example, might be specified in terms of a belief dimension, a ritual dimension, a devotional dimension, a knowledge dimension, and so forth.
Cognitive interviewing
testing potential questions in an interview setting, probing to learn how respondents understand or interpret the questions
Index
ORDINAL VALUE, a type of composite measure that summarizes and rank-orders several specific observations and represents some more-general dimension
Scale
a type of composite measure composed of several items that have a logical or empirical structure among them. Examples of scales include the Bogardus social distance
Typology
CRREATING A NOMINAL USING TWO OR MORE VARIABLES, TYPES, the classification (typically nominal) of observations in terms of their attributes on two or more variables. The classification of newspaper as liberal-urban, liberal-rural, conservative-urban, or conservative-rural would be an example.
the 3 steps
conceptualisation, operalisation, measurement
conceptionalisation
provides clarity, defines the construct in theoretical terms, specifying what it means
operionalization
definition into specific measurable criteria, how it will be observed and measured
measurement
actual process of collecting data to quantify the construct, selecting tools and methods, MEASURING
composite measure
combines multiple indicators or dimensions to represent a single construct
TRIANGULATION
using at least two different operationalisations to measure the same theoretical concept from he same units
dimension
a specific aspect or subcomponent of a construct
trait
characteristic or quality, that helps define a construct, often stable
what is good conceptualisation
is it clear enough to tell what a unit is
is it possible to measure the concept
does it help to create meaningful theories that stand tests
AND
combination of facets, if one is missing then can’t be true, incomplete
NOT
creation of typology, AA, BA,AB,BB, CRETA UNIQUE COMBINATIONS AND TYPES
OR
no need of all to, set of facts is sufficient to meet certain criteria but not all facets are required, only some to meet the DETERMINATION
missing
the facets relate to each other but not combine, describe diff aspects of a person, but they don’t combine to form a singular classification type
