SOCB05H3 Lecture Notes - Operationalization, Stipulative Definition, Empirical Measure
Document Summary
Socb05 lecture 3 may 23 2013. Concepts: term (nominal definition) that represents an idea that you wish to study. Typically based on experience: collections of seemingly related observations or phenomenon. Concepts as constructs: something that we have created or socially constructed, example: racism, prejudice, etc, constructs: agreed upon phenomenon. When they are agreed upon it is an example of something that we have socially constructed. Three classes of things that social scientists measure: directly observable. Example: number of people in the room: indirectly observable. Example: gender: can be directly observable (gender presentation, can be indirectly observable (check boxes on surveys) The process of coming to an agreement about what concepts mean and represent. The stage in social research at which we specify what we mean when we use particular terms/concepts: give meaning. Can be your own words, or use an outside source: name it, develop the dimensions of it that identify the subgroups, give it indicators for each subgroup.