Measurement and
Operationalization
Week 3
Chapter 3
How Do Researchers Identify and Evaluate Social
Concepts?
Chapter Objectives
• understand general
approaches to measuring
• apply strategies for defining
and implementing concepts
• describe the role of previous
research in developing
concepts
• identify levels of
measurement
• evaluate the reliability and
validity of measures
What is Measurement?
• The process of defining,
observing, and recording
ideas, experiences, and
outcomes of interest.
Identifying and Measuring Concepts
• Social science studies
abstract dynamics, not
directly observable objects
– Examples?
• Decide what to measure,
then decide how to
measure it
Why Measure?
• Helps researchers describe relationships between abstract
concepts
– Examples?
What is a Concept?
• A general or abstract
idea that describes
observations about some
aspect of the social
world
• Building blocks for the
analysis and theory
Conceptualization
• The description or clarification of a concept's meaning
• Example: family
Operationalization
• Outlines how a researcher
will observe the presence,
absence, or degree of a
concept
Figure 3.1
Conceptualization & Operationalization
• Conceptualization explains • Operationalization defines
what you are studying how you will measure it
– Theoretical meaning – Concrete steps
Table 3.1 Concepts, Conceptualization, and Operationalization
in Wingfield’s “Racializing the Glass Escalator”
Concept Conceptualization Operationalization using a
single indicator
Minority men BIPOC men, men who are not Men who identify as Black or
white African American
Women’s professions Jobs predominantly filled by Employment in nursing
women and requiring
“feminine” traits (e.g.,
nurturing, caring, and empathy)
Concept Conceptualization Operationalization using
multiple indicators
Advancement and Entry into better-paying, Participants’ responses to
upward mobility higher- status positions questions about work histories,
current experiences, and career
goals as nurses
Interactions, norms, Relationships with colleagues Participants’ descriptions of
and expectations and supervisors; suitability for patients’ and colleagues’
nursing and higher-status work; responses to and perceptions of
establishing distance from them at work and their own
femininity gendered behavior at work
Measurement in Quantitative
Research
• Independent variable: variable that affects other variables
• Dependent variable: variable to be affected by other
variables
Identify the independent and
dependent variables
• How does education impact a person’s lifetime earnings?
• How does social mobility affect a person’s political attitudes?
• How does poverty impact homeownership rates?
• How is income impacted by gender?
Practice
• How is academic performance impacted by class
attendance?
– Identify the independent variable and dependent variable
– Conceptualize both variables
– Operationalize both variables
Levels of Measurement
Mutually Exclusive Categories
• Mutually exclusive: options
do not overlap, so only one
answer is possible
– Example: "Under 18" and
"18-29”
– Incorrect Example: "0-10
years" and "10-20 years"
Exhaustive Categories
• Exhaustive: all possible
options are covered, leaving
no gaps
– Example: Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
Sunday
– Incorrect Example: Age
ranges "20-30" and "40-
50"
Measurement should be
mutually exclusive and
exhaustive!!!
Nominal Measurement
– Nominal measurement:
categories only name
variables and do not rank
order or assign numerical
value
– Examples: gender, race,
major
Ordinal Measurement
• Ordinal measurement: categories are in rank order
– The distance between the categories is not necessarily
consistent or meaningful
• Examples: Likert scales
– Strongly disagree → Strongly agree
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
Interval Measurement
• Interval measurement: distance between categories is
meaningful and consistent
– 0 doesn’t mean none
– Examples: IQ and temperature
Ratio Measurement
• Ratio measurement: distance between named categories is
meaningful and consistent, a true zero category is possible
– Examples: height and weight