SOCPSY 2K03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Operationalization, Collectively Exhaustive Events, Celsius

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Social Psychology
• Course: SOCPSY 2K03
• Professor: Dr Glavin

Document Summary

The stage in social research at which we specify what we mean when we use particular terms (concepts or constructs) Caution: avoid the trap of reification - the process of regarding things that are not real as real, or regarding constructs or concepts as real. Conceptualization - the processes of coming to an agreement about what concepts mean and represent with regards to social and physical reality - or. The mental processes where fuzzy and imprecise notions are made more specific and precise (e. g. , prejudice and religiosity) An observation that we choose to consider as a reflection of a variable we want to study (e. g. , attending a religious service might be considered an indicator of religiosity) Indicators can be classified depending on their dimension. Religiosity may have several dimensions: ritual, believe, devotional) Despite there being different indicators for one concept, they should generally behave the same way if the concept is observed.