SCS 2150 Lecture 5: (5) Concepts to Variables; Variables to Indicators

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Social Sciences
• Course: SCS 2150
• Professor: Stephanie Mullen

Document Summary

Our conceptual definitions need to be clear. It is important to have consistent understandings between researchers of the concepts under study; this doesn"t happen all the time. Even what may appear to be self-evident concepts (e. g. voting) may not be as conceptually clear to others. In order to make generalizations about the concepts, it is important that the variables are an accurate reflection of the concepts. Understand how to move from variables to indicators. Take your testable variables and find questions on the survey that are appropriate to measure the variables. Most of the time, there will be several indicators, but for your project, there should be one indicator/question on the survey for each variable. Secondary datasets may be limiting because the researcher may not have asked the questions that you would have liked to ask, but it does save you money since you don"t have to conduct your own research.