PSCI 2024 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Construct Validity, Operational Definition, Fallacy
7 Feb 2017
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Measurement: critical to quantitative research, need to be able to measure concepts, for example, income and voter turnout. One of the essential questions is how do. Iii: obtain the measurement- translate the concept into a variable. Unit of analysis: is the entity (person, city, country, university, state, agency, etc. ) we want to describe and analyze, individual or aggregate level, individual level- survey respondents, voters, aggregate level- precincts, congressional districts, states, countries, or counties. Iv: needs to be consistent; it guides your research design. Ecological fallacy: the improper use of aggregate date to draw conclusions about the characteristics of individual cases or groups, the relationship between your concepts may be stronger, weaker, or completely different at different levels. Vi: variation within the characteristic, unit of analysis, how it is going to be measured. Xi: elaboration of how to measure the concept empirically, want it to have high congruency with the conceptual definition.
