Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Measurement: Operationalization

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Conceptualization, Operationalization, and
MeasurementOperationalization

• October 20, 2004
• Sociology 487

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Lecture Topics

• Connection between conceptualization and
  operationalization
• What is operationalization?
• Operationalization, variables, and indicators

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From Concept to Measurement

• Progression from sense of what a term means to
  measurement in a scientific study
• Conceptualization
• Nominal Definition
• Operational Definition
• Measurements in the Real World

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Conceptualization in Practice

• What observations or images should we associate
  with the concept player quality?

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The Concept of Player Quality Specific
Measurement Ideas

• Concept
• Player Quality

• Variables
• Home Runs
• RBIs
• Hits
• Batting Average

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From Concepts to Observations

• Operationalization is the process of connecting
  concepts to observations
• When we conceptualize, we specify what we mean by
  a term
• When we operationalize, we identify specific
  observations that we will take to indicate that
  concept in empirical reality

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So how would we operationalize player quality?

• Home runs
• Operationalized as number of home runs
• Batting average -
• operationalized as of times at bat with a hit,
  minus walks, being hit by pitcher
• Fielding
• Operationalized as number of errors
• What is the problem with our operational
  definitions?

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Conceptualization in practice

• What observations or images should we associate
  with the concept pet therapy?
• Pets helping patients through the healing
  process?
• Pets getting acupuncture?
• Pets getting massages?

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Conceptualization continued

• Concept Pet Therapy
• Nominal Definition Pets helping patients in the
  Healing Process
• To come up with an operational definition, we
  need to specify what we mean by helped in the
  healing process
• shorter hospital stays?
• normal heart rates and blood pressures?
• increased morale?
• all of the above?

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So how would we operationalize the hypothesized
effects of pet therapy?

• Shorter hospital stays
• operationalized as days spent in the hospital
• Normal heart rates and blood pressures
• operationalized in beats per minute and
  diastolic and systolic pressures.
• Increased morale
• operationalized by asking patients a series of
  questions about their attitude, current outlook,
  emotions.

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Variables and Indicators

• Variables
• Some aspect of a concept that varies from which
  we select more concrete indicators
• Example
• Concept Social Class
• Variable Education
• Indicator Years of education
• Constant
• Variables that do not vary in a particular
  situation
• Same-sex schools gender will have only one
  attribute or value

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Operationalization Choices

• Range of Variation
• When should attributes be combined in categories?
• How should attributes be combined?
• Examples
• Income
• Attitudes / orientations

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Operationalization Choices

• Variations between Extremes
• Degree of precision
• How finely will you measure attributes of a
  variable?
• Examples
• Age
• Political affiliation
• Useful guideline when youre not certain about
  what degree of precision in measurement is
  needed, collect more information instead of less
  information

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Measurement Operations

• Measurement
• Process of linking abstract concepts to empirical
  indicants
• Operation
• Procedure for identifying or indicating the value
  of cases on a variable
• Research question determines which variables to
  measure and how to measure them

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Key Points

• When we conceptualize, we specify what we mean by
  a term
• Specify dimensions, variables, and indicators
• Concepts may be similar to actual variables used
  in a study or they may be more abstract
• When we operationalize, we specify how variables
  relevant to a concept will be measured