SOCIOL 3487 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Likert Scale, Pita Pit, Internal Validity
12 Jul 2017
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How to measure a variable: step 1) conceptualization, define the concept you want to measure, step 2) operationalization, write a survey question to capture that concept, step 3) questionnaire design. Conceptualization: arrange your survey questions in a logical and attractive format. Operationalization: when you create your survey, you need to make those variables measurable. Demographic questions: include in your questionnaire, think about question order; is it better to answer these up front or at the end, include age, sex, class rank, race/ethnicity, etc. Soc 3487: can omit irrelevant or intrusive questions, but you want enough data on your sample to provide descriptive statistics, so you can compare with study population. Characteristics of a good measure: question is value-neutral (does not make judgements, exhaustive, all possible answers among responses, mutually exclusive, response fits in only one category, reliable and valid. If so, the data are reliable: reliability also includes how precise a measure is.
