SOCA02H3 Lecture Notes - Operationalization, Ethnomethodology, Social Desirability Bias
Document Summary
Facts are port of the real world and can be observed. Scientific truths, achieved by use of scientific methods, reflect the real world better than other kinds of knowledge because science is less subjective than other kinds of knowledge. Our past experience creates a perceptual bias (remember the role of values in sociology). Objectivity is achieved by testing theories against systematically collected data and by leaving research open to public scrutiny. Theory is a tentative explanation of social phenomena. Aristotle: concept is a thought about the essence of that whereof we are thinking. Operationalization is the process of translating theories and concepts ( abstract ideas) into hypotheses and variables (ideas about concrete, observable phenomena). It is the link between theory and research. Research: collecting and analysing observations of relevant phenomena. Variable is an observable phenomenon (an indicator / measure of a concept) that can assume different values.
