SOCL 2211 Chapter : Measurement And Operationalization
Document Summary
The specification of concepts in scientific inquiry depends on nominal and operational definitions. A nominal definition is one that is simply assigned to a term without any claim that the definition represents a real entity. I could define compassion and plucking feathers off helpless birds if i wanted to. But as definitions they can be more, or less, useful. For most purposes, especially communications, that last definition of compassion would be useless. Most nominal definitions represent some consensus, or convention, about how a particular term is to be used. An operational definition specifies precisely how a concept will be measured that is, the operations we choose to perform. An operational definition is nominal rather than real, but it achieves maximum clarity about what a concept means in the context of a given study. The clarification of concepts is a continuing process in social research.
