POL242Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Theoretical Definition, Observational Error, Operational Definition
14 May 2020
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Document Summary
Pol242 may 8: theories, concepts, variables, and levels of measurements. We mean something very vague, ambiguous, and unclear. It is a concept that can be understood as something different for everybody; for example, democracy, development, economy, participation, etc. We slowly build on this concept and make it more clear and precise. This identifies variation within a characteristic, and measurable properties of a subject to which the concept applies. Looking at the rabbits on the slides, we can see there is a clear variation; we acknowledge the different sizes and colours. We need variation in our samples and this is important to conceptually define a concept. If we do not, we make our sample very constant; for example, we need students of different perspectives, backgrounds, races, sexes, etc. We need to also find the characteristics of the subjects that we can measure; for example, rabbits have long hair, large eyes, etc.
