SOC 001 Study Guide - Final Guide: Operational Definition, Dependent And Independent Variables
Document Summary
A concept is a label that is applied to things with similar characteristics or attributes. Things that in our minds seem to belong to the same category. The words used to describe things that exist analytically but are not directly observable are called constructs because to observe them we must rely on some constructed measure. The first step in doing science involves picking the concepts or constructs of interest to us. When sociologists speak or write about their research, they tend to use the term variable a lot. To call a concept of a construct a variable, means, in the first place, that it is a thing of interest in a particular piece of research. First, a variable is something that is thought to influence or be influenced by another thing. Second, a variable is a thing that has varying attributes. A characteristic of a quality that describes a thing.
