SOCY 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Operationalization, Operational Definition, Empirical Measure

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Social Sci, Edu and Soc Work - Sociology
• Course: SOCY 210
• Professor: Vincent F Sacco

Document Summary

Purpose of describing objects and events in terms of their attributes. Describing attributes that make up a variable: most variables are created. They are terms we have made up that have specific meanings or purpose. Concepts: mental images of what we perceive something to be. Being racist, hating women and homosexuals are all terms. These terms all have something in common and are categorized as a concept. Conceptualization: the process of finding what terms have in common and categorizing them, coming to an agreement about what terms mean. Result is an overall concept: making direct and indirect observations come together in a construct, specifying what we mean when we use a particular term in a research project. To specify exact meaning, you must describe indicators. The presence or absence of the concept being studied. Different aspects of the concept: reification. Process of regarding things that are not real as real. 3 classes of things scientists measure: direct observables.