SSCI 2900U Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Clothing Sizes, Cancer Staging, Theoretical Definition
11 Aug 2017
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Document Summary
Concept an idea expresses as a symbol or in words (e. g. poverty, racism, intelligence) How we measure concepts varies between quantitative and qualitative researchers. Much more concerned about details surrounding measurement. Measurement protocol determined well before actual data collection. Deductive approach begins with concept, moves to developing precise measures to capture that concept in numerical form. Develop ways to capture and express concepts using various alternatives to numbers. Important implications for how we conceptualize and operationalize concepts. The same measure repeated under identical or very similar conditions should yield same results. Validity suggests truthfulness and refers to the match between a construct and the way a researcher conceptualizes an idea or conceptual definition and a measure. Measurement validity something measuring what is supposed to be measuring. Increase the level of measurement: use multiple indicators of a variable, use pretests, pilot surveys, and replication.
