SOCI 2150Y Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Nomothetic, Operationalization, Dependent And Independent Variables
Document Summary
Research design and measurement in quantitative research: from concepts to variables, variables (& their attributes, levels of measurement, dependent and independent variables. Review: the purposes of research: locating quantitative research , nomothetic logic & criteria for nomothetic causality in quantitative research, units of analysis in quantitative social science research, the time dimensions. Assuming the world is objectively knowable (positivism), social scientists measure: Ddirect & indirect observables: life/death; earned income, biological sex; Concepts: phenomenon that we experience but that cannot be directly or indirectly observed . Nominal variables: attributes having only the characteristic of exhaustiveness and mutually exclusiveness; i. e. gender, religious affiliation, hair colour, occupation, place of birth [attributes differ from one another but can"t quantify their difference] Ordinal variables: attributes can be logically rank order. Different attributes of the variable represent relatively more or less of the variable; i. e. social class, anomie, prejudice, [can rank order one attribute and the next ]
