Babbie Kapitel 6

CHAPTER 6
From Concept to Measurement
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
The interrelated steps of
conceptualization, operationalization,
and measurement allow research-
ers to turn a general idea for a
research topic into useful and valid
measurements in the real world.
An essential part of this process Introduction A Note on Dimensions
involves transforming the relatively Measuring Anything That Exists Defining Variables and Attributes
Conceptions, Concepts, and Reality Levels of Measurement
vague terms of ordinary language Concepts as Constructs Single or Multiple Indicators
Some Illustrations of
into precise objects of study with Conceptualization
Operationalization Choices
Indicators and Dimensions
Operationalization Goes On and
well-defined and measurable The Interchangeability of Indicators
On
Real, Nominal, and Operational
meanings. Definitions Criteria of Measurement Quality
Creating Conceptual Order Precision and Accuracy
An Example of Conceptualization: Reliability

The Concept of Anomie Validity
Definitions in Descriptive Who Decides What’s Valid?

and Explanatory Studies Tension between Reliability and
Validity
Range of Variation The Ethics of Measurement
Variations between the Extremes
Aplia for The Practice of Social Research

After reading, go to “Online Study Resources” at the end of this chapter for
instructions on how to use Aplia’s homework and learning resources.
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164 ■ Chapter 6: From Concept to Measurement
Introduction use the term measurement instead, meaning careful,

deliberate observations of the real world for the
This chapter and the next one deal with how purpose of describing objects and events in terms of
researchers move from a general idea about what the attributes composing a variable.
they want to study to effective and well-defined You may have some reservations about the
measurements in the real world. This chapter ability of science to measure the really important
discusses the interrelated processes of conceptu- aspects of human social existence. If you’ve read
alization, operationalization, and measurement. research reports dealing with something like liber-
Chapter 7 builds on this foundation to discuss types alism or religion or prejudice, you may have been
of measurements that are more complex. dissatisfied with the way the researchers measured
Consider a notion such as “satisfaction with col- whatever they were studying. You may have felt
lege.” I’m sure you know some people who are very that they were too superficial, that they missed the
satisfied, some who are very dissatisfied, and many aspects that really matter most. Maybe they mea-
who are between those extremes. Moreover, you can sured religiosity as the number of times a person
probably place yourself somewhere along that satis- went to religious services, or maybe they measured
faction spectrum. While this probably makes sense liberalism by how people voted in a single election.
to you as a general matter, how would you go about Your dissatisfaction would surely have increased if
measuring how different students were in this re- you had found yourself being misclassified by the
gard, so you could place them along that spectrum? measurement system.
There are some comments students make in Your feeling of dissatisfaction reflects an im-
conversations (such as “This place sucks”) that portant fact about social research: Most of the var-
would tip you off as to where they stood. Or, in iables we want to study don’t actually exist in the
a more active effort, you can probably think of way that rocks exist. Indeed, they are made up.
questions you might ask students to learn about Moreover, they seldom have a single, unambigu-
their satisfaction (such as “How satisfied are you ous meaning.
with . . . ?”). Perhaps there are certain behaviors To see what I mean, suppose we want to study
(class attendance, use of campus facilities, setting political party affiliation. To measure this variable,
the dean’s office on fire) that would suggest differ- we might consult the list of registered voters to
ent levels of satisfaction. As you think about ways note whether the people we were studying were
of measuring satisfaction with college, you are en- registered as Democrats or Republicans and take
gaging in the subject matter of this chapter. that as a measure of their party affiliation. But we
We begin by confronting the hidden concern could also simply ask someone what party they
people sometimes have about whether it’s truly identify with and take their response as our mea-
possible to measure the stuff of life: love, hate, sure. Notice that these two different measurement
prejudice, religiosity, radicalism, alienation. The possibilities reflect somewhat different definitions
answer is yes, but it will take a few pages to see of political party affiliation. They might even pro-
how. Once we establish that researchers can mea- duce different results: Someone may have reg-
sure anything that exists, we’ll turn to the steps istered as a Democrat years ago but gravitated
involved in doing just that. more and more toward a Republican philosophy
over time. Or someone who is registered with
neither political party may, when asked, say she is
Measuring Anything That Exists affiliated with the one she feels the most kinship
Earlier in this book, I said that one of the two pil- with.
lars of science is observation. Because this word Similar points apply to religious affiliation. Some-
can suggest a casual, passive activity, scientists often times this variable refers to official membership in
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Measuring Anything That Exists ■ 165
a particular church, temple, mosque, and so forth; With additional experience, we notice some-
other times it simply means whatever religion, if thing more. A lot of the people who call African
any, you identify yourself with. Perhaps to you it Americans ugly names also seem to want women to
means something else, such as attendance at reli- “stay in their place.” They are also likely to think mi-
gious services. norities are inferior to the majority and that women
The truth is that neither party affiliation nor are inferior to men. These several tendencies often
religious affiliation has any real meaning, if by “real” appear together in the same people and also have
we mean corresponding to some objective aspect of something in common. At some point, someone
reality. These variables do not exist in nature. They had a bright idea: “Let’s use the word prejudiced as a
are merely terms we’ve made up and assigned shorthand notation for people like that. We can use
specific meanings to for some purpose, such as the term even if they don’t do all those things—as
doing social research. long as they’re pretty much like that.”
But, you might object, political affiliation and Being basically agreeable and interested in
religious affiliation—and a host of other things social efficiency, we went along with the system. That’s
researchers are interested in, such as prejudice or where “prejudice” came from. We never observed
compassion—have some reality. After all, research- it. We just agreed to use it as a shortcut, a name
ers make statements about them, such as “In that represents a collection of apparently related
Happytown, 55 percent of the adults affiliate with phenomena that we’ve each observed in the course
the Republican Party, and 45 percent of them are of life. In short, we made it up.
Episcopalians. Overall, people in Happytown are Here’s another clue that prejudice isn’t some-
low in prejudice and high in compassion.” Even thing that exists apart from our rough agreement
ordinary people, not just social researchers, have to use the term in a certain way. Each of us devel-
been known to make statements like that. If these ops our own mental image of what the set of real
things don’t exist in reality, what is it that we’re phenomena we’ve observed represents in general
measuring and talking about? and what these phenomena have in common.
What indeed? Let’s take a closer look by When I say the word prejudice, it evokes a mental
considering a variable of interest to many social image in your mind, just as it evokes one in mine.
researchers (and many other people as It’s as though file drawers in our minds contained
well)—prejudice. thousands of sheets of paper, with each sheet of
paper labeled in the upper right-hand corner. A
sheet of paper in each of our minds has the term
Conceptions, Concepts, prejudice on it. On your sheet are all the things
and Reality you’ve been told about prejudice and everything
As we wander down the road of life, we observe you’ve observed that seems to be an example of it.
a lot of things and know they are real through My sheet has what I’ve been told about it plus all
our observations, and we hear reports from other the things I’ve observed that seem examples of it—
people that seem real. For example: and mine isn’t the same as yours.
The technical term for those mental images,
• We personally hear people say nasty things
those sheets of paper in our mental file drawers,
about minority groups.
is conception. That is, I have a conception of preju-
• We hear people say that women are inferior dice, and so do you. We can’t communicate these
to men. mental images directly, so we use the terms written
• We read that women and minorities earn less in the upper right-hand corner of our own mental
for the same work. sheets of paper as a way of communicating about
• We learned about “ethnic cleansing” and wars our conceptions and the things we observe that
in which one ethnic group tries to eradicate are related to those conceptions. These terms make
another. it possible for us to communicate and eventually
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Research in Real Life

Gender and Race in City Streets You can read excerpts of the book online and can hear Anderson
In the early 1970s, Elijah Anderson spent three years observing life in a black, discuss the book in an interview with BBC’s Laurie Taylor at the links on
working-class neighborhood in South Chicago, focusing on Jelly’s, a combina- your Sociology CourseMate at www.cengagebrain.com.
tion bar and liquor store. While some people still believe that impoverished
Elijah Anderson, A Place on the Corner: A Study of Black Street Corner Men
neighborhoods in the inner city are socially chaotic and disorganized,
Anderson’s study and others like it have clearly demonstrated a definite social
structure there that guides the behavior of its participants. Much of his interest
centered on systems of social status and how the 55 or so regulars at Jelly’s
worked those systems to establish themselves among their peers.
In the second edition of this classic study of urban life, Elijah
Anderson returned to Jelly’s and the surrounding neighborhood. There
he found several changes, largely due to the outsourcing of manufactur-
(University of Chicago Press, 2004).

ing jobs overseas that has brought economic and mental depression to
many of the residents. These changes, in turn, had also altered the nature
of social organization.
For a research methods student, the book offers many insights into
the process of establishing rapport with people being observed in their
natural surroundings. Further, Anderson offers excellent examples of
how concepts are established in qualitative research.
agree on what we specifically mean by those words—ranging from 1 to 400. Several sources,
terms. In social research, the process of coming moreover, will suggest that if the Inuit have sev-
to an agreement about what terms mean is eral words for snow, so does English. Cecil Adams,
conceptualization, and the result is called a for example, lists “snow, slush, sleet, hail, powder,
concept. See “Research in Real Life” for a glimpse at hard pack, blizzard, flurries, flake, dusting, crust,
a project that reveals a lot about conceptualization. avalanche, drift, frost, and iceberg” (Straight Dope
Perhaps you’ve heard some reference to the 2001). This illustrates the ambiguities in the field
many words Eskimos have for snow, as an example with regard to the concepts and words that we use
of how environment can shape language. Here’s in everyday communications and that also serve as
an exercise you might enjoy when you’re ready the grounding for social research.
to take a break from reading. Search the web Let’s take another example of a conception.
for “Eskimo words for snow.” You may be sur- Suppose that I’m going to meet someone named
prised by what you find. You’re likely to discover Pat, whom you already know. I ask you what Pat is
wide disagreement on the number of, say, Inuit, like. Now suppose that you’ve seen Pat help lost chil-
dren find their parents and put a tiny bird back in its
nest. Pat got you to take turkeys to poor families on
Thanksgiving and to visit a children’s hospital on
conceptualization The mental process whereby Christmas. You’ve seen Pat weep through a movie
fuzzy and imprecise notions (concepts) are made about a mother overcoming adversities to save and
more specific and precise. So you want to study protect her child. As you search through your mental
prejudice. What do you mean by “prejudice”? Are files, you may find all or most of those phenomena
there different kinds of prejudice? What are they?
recorded on a single sheet labeled “compassionate.”
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Measuring Anything That Exists ■ 167
You look over the other entries on the page, and you his or her mental images to correspond with such
find they seem to provide an accurate description of agreements. But because all of us have different
Pat. So you say, “Pat is compassionate.” experiences and observations, no two people end
Now I leaf through my own mental file drawer up with exactly the same set of entries on any
until I find a sheet marked “compassionate.” I then sheet in their file systems. If we want to measure
look over the things written on my sheet, and I say, “prejudice” or “compassion,” we must first stipulate
“Oh, that’s nice.” I now feel I know what Pat is like, what, exactly, counts as prejudice or compassion
but my expectations reflect the entries on my file for our purposes.
sheet, not yours. Later, when I meet Pat, I happen Returning to the assertion made at the outset
to find that my own experiences correspond to the of this chapter, we can measure anything that’s
entries I have on my “compassionate” file sheet, real. We can measure, for example, whether Pat
and I say that you sure were right. actually puts the little bird back in its nest, visits
But suppose my observations of Pat contradict the hospital on Christmas, weeps at the movie, or
the things I have on my file sheet. I tell you that refuses to contribute to saving the whales. All of
I don’t think Pat is very compassionate, and we those behaviors exist, so we can measure them.
begin to compare notes. But is Pat really compassionate? We can’t answer
You say, “I once saw Pat weep through a movie that question; we can’t measure compassion in any
about a mother overcoming adversity to save and objective sense, because compassion doesn’t exist
protect her child.” I look at my “compassionate in the way that those things I just described exist.
sheet” and can’t find anything like that. Looking Compassion exists only in the form of the agree-
elsewhere in my file, I locate that sort of phenom- ments we have about how to use the term in
enon on a sheet labeled “sentimental.” I retort, communicating about things that are real.
“That’s not compassion. That’s just sentimentality.”
To further strengthen my case, I tell you that
I saw Pat refuse to give money to an organiza- Concepts as Constructs
tion dedicated to saving whales from extinction. If you recall the discussions of postmodernism in
“That represents a lack of compassion,” I argue. Chapter 3, you’ll recognize that some people would
You search through your files and find saving the object to the degree of “reality” I’ve allowed in
whales on two sheets—“environmental activism” the preceding comments. Did Pat “really” visit the
and “cross-species dating”—and you say so. Even- hospital on Christmas? Does the hospital “really”
tually, we set about comparing the entries we have exist? Does Christmas? Though we aren’t going
on our respective sheets labeled “compassionate.” to be radically postmodern in this chapter, I think
We then discover that many of our mental images you’ll recognize the importance of an intellectually
corresponding to that term differ. tough view of what’s real and what’s not. (When
In the big picture, language and communica- the intellectual going gets tough, the tough become
tion work only to the extent that you and I have social scientists.)
considerable overlap in the kinds of entries we In this context, Abraham Kaplan (1964) dis-
have on our corresponding mental file sheets. The tinguishes three classes of things that scientists
similarities we have on those sheets represent the measure. The first class is direct observables: those
agreements existing in our society. As we grow up, things we can observe rather simply and directly,
we’re told approximately the same thing when like the color of an apple or the check mark on a
we’re first introduced to a particular term, though questionnaire. The second class, indirect observables,
our nationality, gender, race, ethnicity, region, require “relatively more subtle, complex, or indi-
language, or other cultural factors may shade our rect observations” (1964: 55). We note a person’s
understanding of concepts. check mark beside “female” in a questionnaire and
Dictionaries formalize the agreements our soci- have indirectly observed that person’s sex. History
ety has about such terms. Each of us, then, shapes books or minutes of corporate board meetings
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TABLE 61
What Social Scientists Measure
Examples
Direct observables Physical characteristics (sex, height, skin color) of a person

being observed and/or interviewed
Indirect observables Characteristics of a person as indicated by answers given in a
self-administered questionnaire
Constructs Level of alienation, as measured by a scale that is created by
combining several direct and/or indirect observables
provide indirect observations of past social actions. Usually, however, we fall into the trap of be-
Finally, the third class of observables consists of lieving that terms for constructs do have intrinsic
constructs—theoretical creations that are based on meaning, that they name real entities in the world.
observations but that cannot be observed directly That danger seems to grow stronger when we begin
or indirectly. A good example is intelligence quo- to take terms seriously and attempt to use them
tient, or IQ. It is constructed mathematically from precisely. Further, the danger is all the greater in
observations of the answers given to a large num- the presence of experts who appear to know more
ber of questions on an IQ test. No one can directly than we do about what the terms really mean: It’s
or indirectly observe IQ. It is no more a “real” char- easy to yield to authority in such a situation.
acteristic of people than is compassion or prejudice. Once we assume that terms like prejudice and
See Table 6-1 for more examples of what social compassion have real meanings, we begin the tor-
scientists measure. tured task of discovering what those real meanings
Kaplan (1964: 49) defines concept as a “family are and what constitutes a genuine measurement
of conceptions.” A concept is, as Kaplan notes, a of them. Regarding constructs as real is called
construct, something we create. Concepts such as reification. The reification of concepts in day-to-day
compassion and prejudice are constructs created life is quite common. In science, we want to be quite
from your conception of them, my conception of clear about what it is we are actually measuring, but
them, and the conceptions of all those who have this aim brings a pitfall with it. Settling on the “best”
ever used these terms. They cannot be observed way of measuring a variable in a particular study
directly or indirectly, because they don’t exist. We may imply that we’ve discovered the “real” mean-
made them up. ing of the concept involved. In fact, concepts have
To summarize, concepts are constructs derived no real, true, or objective meanings—only those we
by mutual agreement from mental images (con- agree are best for a particular purpose.
ceptions). Our conceptions summarize collections Does this discussion imply that compassion,
of seemingly related observations and experiences. prejudice, and similar constructs can’t be mea-
Although the observations and experiences are sured? Interestingly, the answer is no. (And a good
real, at least subjectively, conceptions, and the con- thing, too, or a lot of us social researcher types
cepts derived from them, are only mental creations. would be out of work.) I’ve said that we can mea-
The terms associated with concepts are merely sure anything that’s real. Constructs aren’t real
devices created for the purposes of filing and com- in the way that trees are real, but they do have
munication. A term such as prejudice is, objectively another important virtue: They are useful. That
speaking, only a collection of letters. It has no in- is, they help us organize, communicate about,
trinsic reality beyond that. Is has only the meaning and understand things that are real. They help us
we agree to give it. make predictions about real things. Some of those
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Conceptualization ■ 169
predictions even turn out to be true. Constructs presence or absence of the concept we’re studying.
can work this way because, although not real or Here’s an example.
observable in themselves, they have a definite rela- We might agree that visiting children’s hospitals
tionship to things that are real and observable. The during Christmas and Hanukkah is an indicator of
bridge from direct and indirect observables to useful compassion. Putting little birds back in their nests
constructs is the process called conceptualization. might be agreed on as another indicator, and so
forth. If the unit of analysis for our study is the
individual person, we can then observe the pres-
Conceptualization ence or absence of each indicator for each person
As we’ve seen, day-to-day communication usually under study. Going beyond that, we can add up
occurs through a system of vague and general the number of indicators of compassion observed
agreements about the use of terms. Although for each individual. We might agree on ten specific
you and I do not agree completely about the use of indicators, for example, and find six present in our
the term compassionate, I’m probably safe in assum- study of Pat, three for John, nine for Mary, and so
ing that Pat won’t pull the wings off flies. A wide forth.
range of misunderstandings and conflict—from the Returning to our question about whether men
interpersonal to the international—is the price we or women are more compassionate, we might
pay for our imprecision, but somehow we muddle calculate that the women we studied displayed an
through. Science, however, aims at more than average of 6.5 indicators of compassion, the men
muddling; it cannot operate in a context of such an average of 3.2. On the basis of our quantitative
imprecision. analysis of group difference, we might therefore
The process through which we specify what conclude that women are, on the whole, more
we mean when we use particular terms in research compassionate than men.
is called conceptualization. Suppose we want to Usually, though, it’s not that simple. Imagine
find out, for example, whether women are more you’re interested in understanding a small fun-
compassionate than men. I suspect many people damentalist religious cult, particularly their harsh
assume this is the case, but it might be interest- views on various groups: gays, nonbelievers,
ing to find out if it’s really so. We can’t meaning- feminists, and others. In fact, they suggest that
fully study the question, let alone agree on the anyone who refuses to join their group and abide
answer, without some working agreements about by its teachings will “burn in hell.” In the context
the meaning of compassion. They are “working” of your interest in compassion, they don’t seem
agreements in the sense that they allow us to work to have much. And yet, the group’s literature
on the question. We don’t need to agree or even often speaks of their compassion for others. You
pretend to agree that a particular specification is want to explore this seeming paradox.
ultimately the best one. To pursue this research interest, you might
Conceptualization, then, produces a specific, arrange to interact with cult members, getting to
agreed-on meaning for a concept for the purposes know them and learning more about their views.
of research. This process of specifying exact mean- You could tell them you were a social researcher
ing involves describing the indicators we’ll be using interested in learning about their group, or per-
to measure our concept and the different aspects of haps you would just express an interest in learning
the concept, called dimensions. more, without saying why.
Indicators and Dimensions indicator An observation that we choose to con-

Conceptualization gives definite meaning to a consider as a reflection of a variable we wish to study.
Thus, for example, attending religious services might
cept by specifying one or more indicators of what
be considered an indicator of religiosity.
we have in mind. An indicator is a sign of the
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In the course of your conversations with group dimension” of compassion and the “action di-
members and perhaps attendance of religious mension” of compassion. In a different grouping
services, you would put yourself in situations scheme, we might distinguish “compassion for
where you could come to understand what the humans” from “compassion for animals.” Or we
cult members mean by compassion. You might might see compassion as helping people have
learn, for example, that members of the group what we want for them versus what they want
were so deeply concerned about sinners burning in for themselves. Still differently, we might distin-
hell that they were willing to be aggressive, even guish compassion as forgiveness from compas-
violent, to make people change their sinful ways. sion as pity.
Within their own paradigm, then, cult members Thus, we could subdivide compassion into sev-
would see beating up gays, prostitutes, and abor- eral clearly defined dimensions. A complete con-
tion doctors as acts of compassion. ceptualization involves both specifying dimensions
Social researchers focus their attention on and identifying the various indicators for each.
the meanings that the people under study give to When Jonathan Jackson (2005: 301) set out
words and actions. Doing so can often clarify the to measure “fear of crime,” he considered seven
behaviors observed: At least now you understand different dimensions:
how the cult can see violent acts as compassionate.
On the other hand, paying attention to what words • The frequency of worry about becom-
ing a victim of three personal crimes and
and actions mean to the people under study almost
two property crimes in the immediate
always complicates the concepts researchers are
neighbourhood . . .
interested in. (We’ll return to this issue when we
discuss the validity of measures, toward the end of • Estimates of likelihood of falling victim to each
this chapter.) crime locally
Whenever we take our concepts seriously and
• Perceptions of control over the possibility of
set about specifying what we mean by them, we becoming a victim of each crime locally
discover disagreements and inconsistencies. Not
only do you and I disagree, but each of us is likely • Perceptions of the seriousness of the conse-
quences of each crime
to find a good deal of muddiness within our own
mental images. If you take a moment to look at • Beliefs about the incidence of each crime
what you mean by compassion, you’ll probably locally
find that your image contains several kinds of
• Perceptions of the extent of social physical inci-
compassion. That is, the entries on your mental file vilities in the neighbourhood
sheet can be combined into groups and subgroups,
say, compassion toward friends, co-religionists,
• Perceptions of community cohesion, including
informal social control and trust/social capital
humans, and birds. You may also find several dif-
ferent strategies for making combinations. For Sometimes conceptualization aimed at identi-
example, you might group the entries into feelings fying different dimensions of a variable leads to a
and actions. different kind of distinction. We may conclude that
The technical term for such groupings is we’ve been using the same word for meaningfully
dimension, a specifiable aspect of a concept. distinguishable concepts. In the following example,
For instance, we might speak of the “feeling the researchers find (1) that “violence” is not a
sufficient description of “genocide” and (2) that the
concept “genocide” itself comprises several distinct
dimension A specifiable aspect of a concept. “Reli- phenomena. Let’s look at the process they went
giosity,” for example, might be specified in terms of through to come to this conclusion.
a belief dimension, a ritual dimension, a devotional
When Daniel Chirot and Jennifer Edwards
dimension, a knowledge dimension, and so forth.
attempted to define the concept of “genocide,”
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they found existing assumptions were not precise worries that the growing Albanian population
enough for their purposes: of Kosovo was gaining political strength
through numbers. Similarly, the Hutu attempt
The United Nations originally defined it as
to eradicate the Tutsis of Rwanda grew out
an attempt to destroy “in whole or in part, a
of a fear that returning Tutsi refugees would
national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.” If
seize control of the country. Often intergroup
genocide is distinct from other types of vio-
fears such as these grow out of long histories of
lence, it requires its own unique explanation.
atrocities, often inflicted in both directions.
(2003: 14)
4. Purification: The Nazi Holocaust, probably the
Notice the final comment in this excerpt, as it most publicized case of genocide, was intended
provides an important insight into why research- as a purification of the “Aryan race.” While
ers are so careful in specifying the concepts they Jews were the main target, gypsies, homosexu-
study. If genocide, such as the Holocaust, were als, and many other groups were also included.
simply another example of violence, like assaults Other examples include the Indonesian witch-
and homicides, then what we know about violence hunt against Communists in 1965–1966 and
in general might explain genocide. If it differs from the attempt to eradicate all non-Khmer Cam-
other forms of violence, then we may need a differ- bodians under Pol Pot in the 1970s.
ent explanation for it. So, the researchers began by
No single theory of genocide could explain these
suggesting that “genocide” was a concept distinct
various forms of mayhem. Indeed, this act of con-
from “violence” for their purposes.
ceptualization suggests four distinct phenomena,
Then, as Chirot and Edwards examined histori-
each needing a different set of explanations.
cal instances of genocide, they began concluding
Specifying the different dimensions of a con-
that the motivations for launching genocidal may-
cept often paves the way for a more sophisticated
hem differed sufficiently to represent four distinct
understanding of what we’re studying. We might
phenomena that were all called “genocide” (2003:
observe, for example, that women are more com-
15–18).
passionate in terms of feelings, and men more
1. Convenience: Sometimes the attempt to eradi- so in terms of actions—or vice versa. Whichever
cate a group of people serves a function for the turned out to be the case, we would not be able to
eradicators, such as Julius Caesar’s attempt to say whether men or women are really more com-
eradicate tribes defeated in battle, fearing they passionate. Our research would have shown that
would be difficult to rule. Or when gold was there is no single answer to the question. That
discovered on Cherokee land in the Southeast- alone represents an advance in our understanding
ern United States in the early nineteenth cen- of reality. To get a better feel for concepts, vari-
tury, the Cherokee were forcibly relocated to ables, and indicators, go to the General Social
Oklahoma in an event known as the “Trail of Survey codebook and explore some of the ways
Tears,” which ultimately killed as many as half the researchers have measured various concepts
of those forced to leave. (see the link at your Sociology CourseMate at
2. Revenge: When the Chinese of Nanking bravely www.cengagebrain.com).
resisted the Japanese invaders in the early
years of World War II, the conquerors felt they
had been insulted by those they regarded as
The Interchangeability
inferior beings. Tens of thousands were slaugh- of Indicators
tered in the “Rape of Nanking” in 1937–1938. There is another way that the notion of indicators
3. Fear: The ethnic cleansing that recently oc- can help us in our attempts to understand real-
curred in the former Yugoslavia was at least ity by means of “unreal” constructs. Suppose, for
partly motivated by economic competition and the moment, that you and I have compiled a list
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of 100 indicators of compassion and its various di- conceptualization by looking at some of the ways
mensions. Suppose further that we disagree widely social researchers provide standards, consistency,
on which indicators give the clearest evidence and commonality for the meanings of terms.
of compassion or its absence. If we pretty much
agree on some indicators, we could focus our at- Real, Nominal,
tention on those, and we would probably agree on
the answer they provided. We would then be able and Operational Definitions
to say that some people are more compassionate As we have seen, the design and execution of social
than others in some dimension. But suppose we research requires us to clear away the confusion
don’t really agree on any of the possible indicators. over concepts and reality. To this end, logicians and
Surprisingly, we can still reach an agreement on scientists have found it useful to distinguish three
whether men or women are the more compas- kinds of definitions: real, nominal, and operational.
sionate. How we do that has to do with the inter- The first of these reflects the reification of
changeability of indicators. terms. As Carl Hempel cautions,
The logic works like this. If we disagree totally
A “real” definition, according to traditional
on the value of the indicators, one solution would
logic, is not a stipulation determining the
be to study all of them. Suppose that women turn
meaning of some expression but a statement
out to be more compassionate than men on all 100
of the “essential nature” or the “essential at-
indicators—on all the indicators you favor and on
tributes” of some entity. The notion of essential
all of mine. Then we would be able to agree that
nature, however, is so vague as to render this
women are more compassionate than men, even
characterization useless for the purposes of rig-
though we still disagree on exactly what compas-
orous inquiry.
sion means in general.
(1952: 6)
The interchangeability of indicators means
that if several different indicators all represent, to In other words, trying to specify the “real” meaning
some degree, the same concept, then all of them of concepts only leads to a quagmire: It mistakes a
will behave the same way that the concept would construct for a real entity.
behave if it were real and could be observed. Thus, The specification of concepts in scientific in-
given a basic agreement about what “compas- quiry depends instead on nominal and operational
sion” is, if women are generally more compas- definitions. A nominal definition is one that is
sionate than men, we should be able to observe simply assigned to a term without any claim that
that difference by using any reasonable measure the definition represents a “real” entity. Nominal
of compassion. If, on the other hand, women are definitions are arbitrary—I could define compas-
more compassionate than men on some indica- sion as “plucking feathers off helpless birds” if I
tors but not on others, we should see if the two wanted to—but they can be more or less useful.
sets of indicators represent different dimensions of For most purposes, especially communication, that
compassion. last definition of compassion would be pretty use-
You have now seen the fundamental logic less. Most nominal definitions represent some con-
of conceptualization and measurement. The sensus, or convention, about how a particular term
discussions that follow are mainly refinements is to be used.
and extensions of what you’ve just read. Before An operational definition, as you may remem-
turning to a technical elaboration of measure- ber from Chapter 4, specifies precisely how a
ment, however, we need to fill out the picture of concept will be measured—that is, the operations
we’ll perform. An operational definition is nomi-
nal rather than real, but it has the advantage of
specification The process through which concepts
achieving maximum clarity about what a concept
are made more specific.
means in the context of a given study. In the midst
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of disagreement and confusion over what a term meaning of the text as it is anticipated. The
“really” means, we can specify a working definition closer determination of the meaning of the
for the purposes of an inquiry. Wishing to examine separate parts may eventually change the origi-
socioeconomic status (SES) in a study, for example, nally anticipated meaning of the totality, which
we may simply specify that we are going to treat again influences the meaning of the separate
SES as a combination of income and educational parts, and so on.
attainment. In this decision, we rule out other pos- (Kvale 1996: 47)
sible aspects of SES: occupational status, money in
the bank, property, lineage, lifestyle, and so forth. Consider the concept “prejudice.” Suppose you
Our findings will then be interesting to the extent needed to write a definition of the term. You might
that our definition of SES is useful for our purpose. start out thinking about racial/ethnic prejudice. At
some point you would realize you should prob-
ably allow for gender prejudice, religious prejudice,
Creating Conceptual Order antigay prejudice, and the like in your definition.
The clarification of concepts is a continuing pro- Examining each of these specific types of prejudice
cess in social research. Catherine Marshall and would affect your overall understanding of the
Gretchen Rossman (1995: 18) speak of a “concep- general concept. As your general understanding
tual funnel” through which a researcher’s changed, however, you would likely see each of
interest becomes increasingly focused. Thus, a the individual forms somewhat differently.
general interest in social activism could narrow to The continual refinement of concepts occurs
“individuals who are committed to empowerment in all social research methods. Often you will find
and social change” and further focus on discovering yourself refining the meaning of important con-
“what experiences shaped the development of fully cepts even as you write up your final report.
committed social activists.” This focusing process is Although conceptualization is a continuing
inescapably linked to the language we use. process, it is vital to address it specifically at the
In some forms of qualitative research, the beginning of any study design, especially rigorously
clarification of concepts is a key element in the structured research designs such as surveys and
collection of data. Suppose you were conducting experiments. In a survey, for example, operational-
interviews and observations of a radical political ization results in a commitment to a specific set of
group devoted to combating oppression in U.S. questionnaire items that will represent the concepts
society. Imagine how the meaning of oppression under study. Without that commitment, the study
would shift as you delved more and more deeply could not proceed.
into the members’ experiences and worldviews. Even in less-structured research methods,
For example, you might start out thinking of op- however, it’s important to begin with an initial set
pression in physical and perhaps economic terms. of anticipated meanings that can be refined during
The more you learned about the group, however, data collection and interpretation. No one seriously
the more you might appreciate the possibility of believes we can observe life with no preconcep-
psychological oppression. tions; for this reason, scientific observers must be
The same point applies even to contexts where conscious of and explicit about these conceptual
meanings might seem more fixed. In the analysis starting points.
of textual materials, for example, social researchers Let’s explore initial conceptualization the way
sometimes speak of the “hermeneutic circle,” a it applies to structured inquiries such as surveys
cyclical process of ever-deeper understanding. and experiments. Though specifying nominal
definitions focuses our observational strategy, it
The understanding of a text takes place does not allow us to observe. As a next step we
through a process in which the meaning of the must specify exactly what we are going to observe,
separate parts is determined by the global how we will do it, and what interpretations we are
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TABLE 62
Progression of Measurement
Measurement Step Example: Social Class
Conceptualization What are the different meanings and dimensions of the concept “social class”?
Nominal definition For our study, we will define “social class” as representing economic differences: specifically, income.
Operational definition We will measure economic differences via responses to the survey question “What was your
annual income, before taxes, last year?”
Measurements in the real world The interviewer will ask, “What was your annual income, before taxes, last year?”
going to place on various possible observations. means to specific measurements in a fully struc-
All these further specifications make up the opera- tured scientific study.
tional definition of the concept.
In the example of socioeconomic status, we
might decide to ask survey respondents two
An Example of Conceptualization:
questions, corresponding to the decision to mea- The Concept of Anomie
sure SES in terms of income and educational To bring this discussion of conceptualization in
attainment: research together, let’s look briefly at the history
1. What was your total family income during the of a specific social science concept. Researchers
past 12 months? studying urban riots are often interested in the part
played by feelings of powerlessness. Social scientists
2. What is the highest level of school you
sometimes use the word anomie in this context.
completed?
This term was first introduced into social science by
To organize our data, we’d probably want Emile Durkheim, the great French sociologist, in
to specify a system for categorizing the answers his classic 1897 study, Suicide.
people give us. For income, we might use catego- Using only government publications on
ries such as “under $5,000,” “$5,000 to $10,000,” suicide rates in different regions and countries,
and so on. Educational attainment might be simi- Durkheim produced a work of analytic genius.
larly grouped in categories: less than high school, To determine the effects of religion on suicide,
high school, college, graduate degree. Finally, we he compared the suicide rates of predominantly
would specify the way a person’s responses to these Protestant countries with those of predominantly
two questions would be combined in creating a Catholic ones, Protestant regions of Catholic coun-
measure of SES. tries with Catholic regions of Protestant countries,
In this way we would create a working and and so forth. To determine the possible effects of
workable definition of SES. Although others might the weather, he compared suicide rates in north-
disagree with our conceptualization and operation- ern and southern countries and regions, and he
alization, the definition would have one essential examined the different suicide rates across the
scientific virtue: It would be absolutely specific and months and seasons of the year. Thus, he could
unambiguous. Even if someone disagreed with draw conclusions about a supremely individualistic
our definition, that person would have a good idea and personal act without having any data about
how to interpret our research results, because what the individuals engaging in it.
we meant by SES—reflected in our analyses and At a more general level, Durkheim suggested
conclusions—would be precise and clear. that suicide also reflects the extent to which a
Table 6-2 shows the progression of measure- society’s agreements are clear and stable. Noting
ment steps from our vague sense of what a term that times of social upheaval and change often
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present individuals with grave uncertainties about Powell went on to suggest there were two dis-
what is expected of them, Durkheim suggested tinct kinds of anomia and to examine how the two
that such uncertainties cause confusion, anxiety, rose out of different occupational experiences to re-
and even self-destruction. To describe this societal sult at times in suicide. In his study, however, Powell
condition of normlessness, Durkheim chose the did not measure anomia per se; he studied the re-
term anomie. Durkheim did not make this word up. lationship between suicide and occupation, making
Used in both German and French, it literally meant inferences about the two kinds of anomia. Thus, the
“without law.” The English term anomy had been study did not provide an operational definition of
used for at least three centuries before Durkheim to anomia, only a further conceptualization.
mean disregard for divine law. However, Durkheim Although many researchers have offered oper-
created the social science concept of anomie. ational definitions of anomia, one name stands out
In the years that have followed the publica- over all. Two years before Powell’s article appeared,
tion of Suicide, social scientists have found anomie Leo Srole (1956) published a set of questionnaire
a useful concept, and many have expanded on items that he said provided a good measure of
Durkheim’s use. Robert Merton, in a classic article anomia as experienced by individuals. It consists of
entitled “Social Structure and Anomie” (1938), five statements that subjects were asked to agree or
concluded that anomie results from a disparity be- disagree with:
tween the goals and means prescribed by a society.
Monetary success, for example, is a widely shared 1. In spite of what some people say, the lot of
goal in our society, yet not all individuals have the the average man is getting worse.
resources to achieve it through acceptable means. 2. It’s hardly fair to bring children into the
An emphasis on the goal itself, Merton suggested, world with the way things look for the
produces normlessness, because those denied the future.
traditional avenues to wealth go about getting 3. Nowadays a person has to live pretty much
it through illegitimate means. Merton’s discussion, for today and let tomorrow take care of itself.
then, could be considered a further conceptualiza- 4. These days a person doesn’t really know
tion of the concept of anomie. who he can count on.
Although Durkheim originally used the con- 5. There’s little use writing to public officials
cept of anomie as a characteristic of societies, as did because they aren’t really interested in the
Merton after him, other social scientists have used problems of the average man.
it to describe individuals. To clarify this distinction, (1956: 713)
some scholars have chosen to use anomie in refer-
ence to its original, societal meaning and to use the In the half-century following its publication,
term anomia in reference to the individual charac- the Srole scale has become a research staple for
teristic. In a given society, then, some individuals ex- social scientists. You’ll likely find this particular
perience anomia, and others do not. Elwin Powell, operationalization of anomia used in many of the
writing 20 years after Merton, provided the follow- research projects reported in academic journals.
ing conceptualization of anomia (though using the This abbreviated history of anomie and anomia
term anomie) as a characteristic of individuals: as social science concepts illustrates several points.
First, it’s a good example of the process through
When the ends of action become contradic- which general concepts become operationalized
tory, inaccessible or insignificant, a condition of measurements. This is not to say that the issue of
anomie arises. Characterized by a general loss how to operationalize anomie/anomia has been
of orientation and accompanied by feelings of resolved once and for all. Scholars will surely con-
“emptiness” and apathy, anomie can be simply tinue to reconceptualize and reoperationalize these
conceived as meaninglessness. concepts for years to come, continually seeking
(1958: 132) more-useful measures.
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The Srole scale illustrates another important of why this is so (we’ll discuss this point more fully
point. Letting conceptualization and operationaliza- in Part 4).
tion be open-ended does not necessarily produce It’s easy to see the importance of clear and
anarchy and chaos, as you might expect. Order precise definitions for descriptive research. If we
often emerges. For one thing, although we could want to describe and report the unemployment
define anomia any way we chose—in terms of, rate in a city, our definition of being unemployed
say, shoe size—we’re likely to define it in ways not is obviously critical. That definition will depend on
too different from other people’s mental images. If our definition of another term: the labor force. If
you were to use a really offbeat definition, people it seems patently absurd to regard a three-year-old
would probably ignore you. child as being unemployed, it is because such a
A second source of order is that, as researchers child is not considered a member of the labor force.
discover the utility of a particular conceptualization Thus, we might follow the U.S. Census Bureau’s
and operationalization of a concept, they’re likely convention and exclude all people under 14 years
to adopt it, which leads to standardized definitions of age from the labor force.
of concepts. Besides the Srole scale, examples This convention alone, however, would not
include IQ tests and a host of demographic and give us a satisfactory definition, because it would
economic measures developed by the U.S. Census count as unemployed such people as high school
Bureau. Using such established measures has two students, the retired, the disabled, and homemak-
advantages: They have been extensively pretested ers. We might follow the census convention further
and debugged, and studies using the same scales by defining the labor force as “all persons 14 years
can be compared. If you and I do separate stud- of age and over who are employed, looking for
ies of two different groups and use the Srole scale, work, or waiting to be called back to a job from
we can compare our two groups on the basis of which they have been laid off or furloughed.” If a
anomia. student, homemaker, or retired person is not look-
Social scientists, then, can measure anything ing for work, such a person would not be included
that’s real; through conceptualization and opera- in the labor force. Unemployed people, then,
tionalization, they can even do a pretty good job would be those members of the labor force, as
of measuring things that aren’t. Granting that such defined, who are not employed.
concepts as socioeconomic status, prejudice, com- But what does “looking for work” mean? Must
passion, and anomia aren’t ultimately real, social a person register with the state employment service
scientists can create order in handling them. It is or go from door to door asking for employment?
an order based on utility, however, not on ultimate Or would it be sufficient to want a job or be open
truth. to an offer of employment? Conventionally, “look-
ing for work” is defined operationally as saying yes
in response to an interviewer’s asking “Have you
Definitions in Descriptive been looking for a job during the past seven days?”
and Explanatory Studies (Seven days is the period most often specified, but
for some research purposes it might make more
As you’ll recall from Chapter 4, two general pur- sense to shorten or lengthen it.)
poses of research are description and explanation. As you can see, the conclusion of a descrip-
The distinction between them has important impli- tive study about the unemployment rate depends
cations for definition and measurement. If it seems directly on how each issue of definition is resolved.
that description is simpler than explanation, you Increasing the period during which people are
may be surprised to learn that definitions are more counted as looking for work would add more
problematic for descriptive research than for ex- unemployed people to the labor force as defined,
planatory research. Before we turn to other aspects thereby increasing the reported unemployment
of measurement, you’ll need a basic understanding rate. If we follow another convention and speak of
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Operationalization Choices ■ 177
the civilian labor force and the civilian unemploy- is best? As we saw in the discussion of indicators,
ment rate, we’re excluding military personnel; that, this is not necessarily an insurmountable obstacle
too, increases the reported unemployment rate, to our research. Suppose we found old people to
because military personnel would be employed— be more conservative than young people in terms
by definition. Thus, the descriptive statement that of all 25 definitions. Clearly, the exact definition
the unemployment rate in a city is 3 percent, or wouldn’t matter much. We would conclude that old
9 percent, or whatever it might be, depends directly people are generally more conservative than young
on the operational definitions used. people—even though we couldn’t agree about
This example is relatively clear because there exactly what conservative means.
are several accepted conventions relating to the In practice, explanatory research seldom results
labor force and unemployment. Now, consider how in findings quite as unambiguous as this example
difficult it would be to get agreement about the suggests; nonetheless, the general pattern is quite
definitions you would need in order to say, “Forty- common in actual research. There are consistent
five percent of the students at this institution are patterns of relationships in human social life that
politically conservative.” Like the unemployment result in consistent research findings. However,
rate, this percentage would depend directly on the such consistency does not appear in a descriptive
definition of what is being measured—in this case, situation. Changing definitions almost inevitably
political conservatism. A different definition might results in different descriptive conclusions. The
result in the conclusion “Five percent of the stu- Tips and Tools feature, “The Importance of Variable
dent body are politically conservative.” Names,” explores this issue in connection with the
What percentage of the population do you sup- variable citizen participation.
pose is “disabled”? That’s the question Lars Gronvik
asked in Sweden. He analyzed several databases
that encompassed four different definitions or mea-
sures of disablility in Swedish society. One study
asked people if they had hearing, seeing, walking, In discussing conceptualization, I frequently have
or other functional problems. Two other measures referred to operationalization, for the two are
were based on whether people received one of two intimately linked. To recap: Conceptualization is
forms of government disability support. Another the refinement and specification of abstract con-
study asked people whether they believed they cepts, and operationalization is the development of
were disabled. specific research procedures (operations) that will
The four measures indicated different popula- result in empirical observations representing those
tion totals for those citizens defined as “disabled,” concepts in the real world.
and each measure produced different demographic As with the methods of data collection, social
profiles that included variables such as sex, age, researchers have a variety of choices when opera-
education, living arrangement, education, and tionalizing a concept. Although the several choices
labor-force participation. As you can see, it is im- are intimately interconnected, I’ve separated them
possible to answer a descriptive question such as for the sake of discussion. Realize, though, that
this without specifying the meaning of terms. operationalization does not proceed through a
Ironically, definitions are less problematic in the systematic checklist.
case of explanatory research. Let’s suppose we’re
interested in explaining political conservatism. Why
are some people conservative and others not? More Range of Variation
specifically, let’s suppose we’re interested in whether In operationalizing any concept, researchers must
conservatism increases with age. What if you and be clear about the range of variation that interests
I have 25 different operational definitions of con- them. The question is, to what extent are they will-
servative, and we can’t agree on which definition ing to combine attributes in fairly gross categories?
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Tips and Tools

The Importance of Variable Names local government meetings; another might maintain a record of the
Patricia Fisher different topics addressed by private citizens at similar meetings;
Graduate School of Planning, University of Tennessee while a third might record the number of local government meeting
attendees, letters and phone calls received by the mayor and other
Operationalization is one of those things that’s easier said than done. It
public officials, and meetings held by special interest groups during
is quite simple to explain to someone the purpose and importance of
a particular time period. As skilled researchers, we can readily see
operational definitions for variables, and even to describe how operation-
that each planner would be measuring (in a very simplistic fashion)
alization typically takes place. However, until you’ve tried to operationalize
a different dimension of citizen participation: extent of citizen par-
a rather complex variable, you may not appreciate some of the subtle
ticipation, issues prompting citizen participation, and form of citizen
difficulties involved. Of considerable importance to the operationalization
participation. Therefore, the original naming of our variable, citizen
effort is the particular name that you have chosen for a variable. Let’s
participation, which was quite satisfactory from a conceptual point of
consider an example from the field of Urban Planning.
view, proved inadequate for purposes of operationalization.
A variable of interest to planners is citizen participation. Planners
The precise and exact naming of variables is important in
are convinced that participation in the planning process by citizens is
research. It is both essential to and a result of good operationaliza-
important to the success of plan implementation. Citizen participation
tion. Variable names quite often evolve from an iterative process of
is an aid to planners’ understanding of the real and perceived needs of
forming a conceptual definition, then an operational definition, then
a community, and such involvement by citizens tends to enhance their
renaming the concept to better match what can or will be measured.
cooperation with and support for planning efforts. Although many differ-
This looping process continues (our example illustrates only one
ent conceptual definitions might be offered by different planners, there
iteration), resulting in a gradual refinement of the variable name and
would be little misunderstanding over what is meant by citizen partici-
its measurement until a reasonable fit is obtained. Sometimes the
pation. The name of the variable seems adequate.
concept of the variable that you end up with is a bit different from
However, if we ask different planners to provide very simple op-
the original one that you started with, but at least you are measur-
erational measures for citizen participation, we are likely to find a variety
ing what you are talking about, if only because you are talking about
among their responses that does generate confusion. One planner might
what you are measuring!
keep a tally of attendance by private citizens at city commission and other
Let’s suppose you want to measure people’s the general U.S. population, a bottom category of
incomes in a study by collecting the information $5,000 or less usually works fine.
from either records or interviews. The highest In studies of attitudes and orientations, the
annual incomes people receive run into the mil- question of range of variation has another dimen-
lions of dollars, but not many people earn that sion. Unless you’re careful, you may end up mea-
much. Unless you’re studying the very rich, it suring only half an attitude without really meaning
probably won’t add much to your study to keep to. Here’s an example of what I mean.
track of extremely high categories. Depending on Suppose you’re interested in people’s attitudes
whom you study, you’ll probably want to estab- toward expanding the use of nuclear power gen-
lish a highest income category with a much lower erators. You’d anticipate that some people consider
floor—maybe $100,000 or more. Although this nuclear power the greatest thing since the wheel,
decision will lead you to throw together people whereas other people have absolutely no inter-
who earn a trillion dollars a year with paupers est in it. Given that anticipation, it would seem to
earning a mere $100,000, they’ll survive it, and make sense to ask people how much they favor
that mixing probably won’t hurt your research expanding the use of nuclear energy and to give
any, either. The same decision faces you at the them answer categories ranging from “Favor it very
other end of the income spectrum. In studies of much” to “Don’t favor it at all.”
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This operationalization, however, conceals half a group labeled 10 to 19 years old? Don’t answer
the attitudinal spectrum regarding nuclear energy. too quickly. If you wanted to study rates of voter
Many people have feelings that go beyond simply registration and participation, you’d definitely want
not favoring it: They are, with greater or lesser to know whether the people you studied were
degrees of intensity, actively opposed to it. In this old enough to vote. In general, if you’re going to
instance, there is considerable variation on the left measure age, you must look at the purpose and
side of zero. Some oppose it a little, some quite a procedures of your study and decide whether fine
bit, and others a great deal. To measure the full or gross differences in age are important to you.
range of variation, then, you’d want to operation- In a survey, you’ll need to make these decisions in
alize attitudes toward nuclear energy with a range order to design an appropriate questionnaire. In
from favoring it very much, through no feelings the case of in-depth interviews, these decisions will
one way or the other, to opposing it very much. condition the extent to which you probe for details.
This consideration applies to many of the vari- The same thing applies to other variables. If
ables social scientists study. Virtually any public you measure political affiliation, will it matter to your
issue involves both support and opposition, each inquiry whether a person is a conservative Democrat
in varying degrees. In measuring religiosity, people rather than a liberal Democrat, or will it be sufficient
are not just more or less religious; some are posi- to know the party? In measuring religious affiliation,
tively antireligious. Political orientations range is it enough to know that a person is Protestant, or
from very liberal to very conservative, and depend- do you need to know the denomination? Do you
ing on the people you’re studying, you may want simply need to know if a person is married, or will
to allow for radicals on one or both ends. it make a difference to know if he or she has never
The point is not that you must measure the full married or is separated, widowed, or divorced?
range of variation in every case. You should, how- There is, of course, no general answer to such
ever, consider whether you need to, given your questions. The answers come out of the purpose of
particular research purpose. If the difference be- a given study, or why we are making a particular
tween not religious and antireligious isn’t relevant measurement. I can give you a useful guideline,
to your research, forget it. Someone has defined though. Whenever you’re not sure how much de-
pragmatism as “any difference that makes no tail to pursue in a measurement, get too much detail
difference is no difference.” Be pragmatic. rather than too little. When a subject in an in-depth
Finally, decisions on the range of variation interview volunteers that she is 37 years old, record
should be governed by the expected distribution “37” in your notes, not “in her thirties.” When
of attributes among the subjects of the study. In you’re analyzing the data, you can always combine
a study of college professors’ attitudes toward the precise attributes into more general categories, but
value of higher education, you could probably stop you can never separate any variations you lumped
at no value and not worry about those who might together during observation and measurement.
consider higher education dangerous to students’
health. (If you were studying students, however . . .)
A Note on Dimensions
We’ve already discussed dimensions as a charac-
Variations between the Extremes teristic of concepts. When researchers get down
Degree of precision is a second consideration in to the business of creating operational measures
operationalizing variables. What it boils down to of variables, they often discover—or worse, never
is how fine you will make distinctions among the notice—that they’re not exactly clear about which
various possible attributes composing a given vari- dimensions of a variable they’re really interested
able. Does it matter for your purposes whether in. Here’s an example.
a person is 17 or 18 years old, or could you con- Let’s suppose you’re studying people’s attitudes
duct your inquiry by throwing them together in toward government, and you want to include an
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examination of how people feel about corruption. Although people sometimes use the terms, sex
Here are just a few of the dimensions you might and gender, interchangeably, they mean different
examine: things. “Sex” is the proper name of the variable
composed of the physical attributes female and
• Do people think there is corruption in male, while “gender” is a social-identity and behav-
government? ioral variable composed of the attributes, feminine
• How much corruption do they think there is? and masculine. Femininity represents those qualities
• How certain are they in their judgment of how we traditionally associate with women, and mascu-
much corruption there is? linity represents those qualities we traditionally as-
sociate with men. However, women and men often
• How do they feel about corruption in govern-
feel, act on, and are perceived as having qualities
ment as a problem in society?
associated with the other sex. Although the distinc-
• What do they think causes it?
tions between these two concepts are sometimes
• Do they think it’s inevitable? blurred, even in social research reports, my inten-
• What do they feel should be done about it? tion is to stick to their technical meanings in this
• What are they willing to do personally to elimi- textbook.
nate corruption in government? In any case, the conceptualization and oper-
ationalization processes can be seen as the speci-
• How certain are they that they would be will-
fication of variables and the attributes composing
ing to do what they say they would do?
them. Thus, in the context of a study of unemploy-
The list could go on and on—how people feel ment, employment status is a variable having the
about corruption in government has many dimen- attributes employed and unemployed; the list of attri-
sions. It’s essential to be clear about which ones are butes could also be expanded to include the other
important in our inquiry; otherwise, you may mea- possibilities discussed earlier, such as homemaker.
sure how people feel about corruption when you
really wanted to know how much they think there Levels of Measurement
is, or vice versa.
Once you’ve determined how you’re going All variables are composed of attributes, but as we
to collect your data (for example, survey, field re- are about to see, the attributes of a given variable
search) and have decided on the relevant range of can have a variety of different relationships to one
variation, the degree of precision needed between another. In this section, we’ll examine four levels of
the extremes of variation, and the specific dimen- measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.
sions of the variables that interest you, you may
have another choice: a mathematical-logical one.
Nominal Measures
That is, you may need to decide what level of mea- Variables whose attributes are simply different
surement to use. To discuss this point, we need to from one another are called nominal measures. Ex-
take another look at attributes and their relation- amples include gender, religious affiliation, political
ship to variables. party affiliation, birthplace, college major, and hair color.
Although the attributes composing each of these
variables—as male and female compose the vari-
Defining Variables and Attributes able gender—are distinct from one another, they
An attribute, you’ll recall, is a characteristic or have no additional structures. Nominal measures
quality of something. Female is an example. So merely offer names or labels for characteristics.
is old or student. Variables, on the other hand, are Imagine a group of people characterized in
logical sets of attributes. Thus, sex is a variable terms of one such nominal variable and physically
composed of the attributes female and male. What grouped by the applicable attributes. For example,
could be simpler? say we’ve asked a large gathering of people to stand
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together in groups according to the states in which group. This manner of grouping people satisfies
they were born: all those born in Vermont in one the nominal-variable quality of being different, as
group, those born in California in another, and so discussed earlier. In addition, however, we might
forth. The variable is state of birth; the attributes are logically arrange the three groups in terms of the
born in California, born in Vermont, and so on. All the relative amount of formal education (the shared
people standing in a given group have at least one attribute) each had. We might arrange the three
thing in common and differ from the people in all groups in a row, ranging from most to least for-
other groups in that same regard. Where the indi- mal education. This arrangement would provide
vidual groups form, how close they are to one an- a physical representation of an ordinal mea-
other, or how the groups are arranged in the room sure. If we knew which groups two individuals
is irrelevant. What matters is that all the members were in, we could determine that one had more,
of a given group share the same state of birth and less, or the same formal education as the other.
that each group has a different shared state of In this example, it is irrelevant how close or far
birth. All we can say about two people in terms of apart the educational groups are from one another.
a nominal variable is that they are either the same The college and high school groups might be 5 feet
or different. apart, and the less-than-high-school group 500 feet
farther down the line. These actual distances don’t
Ordinal Measures have any meaning. The high school group, how-
Variables with attributes we can logically rank- ever, should be between the less-than-high-school
order are ordinal measures. The different attributes group and the college group, or else the rank order
of ordinal variables represent relatively more or less will be incorrect.
of the variable. Variables of this type are social class,
conservatism, alienation, prejudice, intellectual sophisti- Interval Measures
cation, and the like. In addition to saying whether For the attributes composing some variables, the
two people are the same or different in terms of actual distance separating those attributes does have
an ordinal variable, you can also say one is “more” meaning. Such variables are interval measures. For
than the other—that is, more conservative, more these, the logical distance between attributes can be
religious, older, and so forth. expressed in meaningful standard intervals.
In the physical sciences, hardness is the most For example, in the Fahrenheit temperature
frequently cited example of an ordinal measure. scale, the difference, or distance, between 80 degrees
We may say that one material (for example, dia-
mond) is harder than another (say, glass) if the
former can scratch the latter and not vice versa. By nominal measure A nominal variable has at-
tributes that are merely different, as distinguished
attempting to scratch various materials with other from ordinal, interval, or ratio measures. Sex is an
materials, we might eventually be able to arrange example of a nominal measure. All a nominal vari-
several materials in a row, ranging from the soft- able can tell us about two people is if they are the
est to the hardest. We could never say how hard same or different.
a given material was in absolute terms; we could ordinal measure A level of measurement describ-
only say how hard in relative terms—which mate- ing a variable with attributes we can rank-order
along some dimension. An example is socioeconomic
rials it is harder than and which softer than.
status as composed of the attributes high, medium,
Let’s pursue the earlier example of group- low.
ing the people at a social gathering. This time interval measure A level of measurement describ-
imagine that we ask all the people who have ing a variable whose attributes are rank-ordered and
graduated from college to stand in one group, all have equal distances between adjacent attributes.
those with only a high school diploma to stand The Fahrenheit temperature scale is an example of
in another group, and all those who have not this, because the distance between 17 and 18 is the
same as that between 89 and 90.
graduated from high school to stand in a third
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and 90 degrees is the same as that between mentioned previously, are based on a true zero
40 degrees and 50 degrees. However, 80 degrees point. The Kelvin temperature scale is one such
Fahrenheit is not twice as hot as 40 degrees, measure. Examples from social science research in-
because the zero point in the Fahrenheit scale clude age, length of residence in a given place, number of
is arbitrary; zero degrees does not really mean organizations belonged to, number of times attending reli-
lack of heat. Similarly, minus 30 degrees on this gious services during a particular period of time, number
scale doesn’t represent 30 degrees less than no of times married, and number of Arab friends.
heat. (This is true for the Celsius scale as well. In Returning to the illustration of methodological
contrast, the Kelvin scale is based on an absolute party games, we might ask a gathering of people
zero, which does mean a complete lack of heat.) to group themselves by age. All the one-year-olds
About the only interval measures commonly would stand (or sit or lie) together, the two-year-
used in social science research are constructed mea- olds together, the three-year-olds, and so forth. The
sures such as standardized intelligence tests that fact that members of a single group share the same
have been more or less accepted. The interval sepa- age and that each different group has a different
rating IQ scores of 100 and 110 may be regarded shared age satisfies the minimum requirements for
as the same as the interval separating scores of 110 a nominal measure. Arranging the several groups
and 120 by virtue of the distribution of observed in a line from youngest to oldest meets the addi-
scores obtained by many thousands of people who tional requirements of an ordinal measure and lets
have taken the tests over the years. But it would be us determine if one person is older than, younger
incorrect to infer that someone with an IQ of 150 than, or the same age as another. If we space the
is 50 percent more intelligent than someone with groups equally far apart, we satisfy the additional
an IQ of 100. (A person who received a score of 0 requirements of an interval measure and can say
on a standard IQ test could not be regarded, strictly how much older one person is than another. Fi-
speaking, as having no intelligence, although we nally, because one of the attributes included in age
might feel he or she was unsuited to be a college represents a true zero (babies carried by women
professor or even a college student. But perhaps a about to give birth), the phalanx of hapless party
dean . . . ?) goers also meets the requirements of a ratio mea-
When comparing two people in terms of an sure, permitting us to say that one person is twice
interval variable, we can say they are different from as old as another. (Remember this in case you’re
each other (nominal), and that one is more than asked about it in a workbook assignment.) Another
the other (ordinal). In addition, we can say “how example of a ratio measure is income, which extends
much” more. from an absolute zero to approximately infinity, if
you happen to be the founder of Microsoft.
Comparing two people in terms of a ratio vari-
Ratio Measures able, then, allows us to conclude (1) whether they
Most of the social science variables meeting the are different (or the same), (2) whether one is
minimum requirements for interval measures more than the other, (3) how much they differ, and
also meet the requirements for ratio measures. In (4) what the ratio of one to another is. Figure 6-1
ratio measures, the attributes composing a vari- summarizes this discussion by presenting a graphic
able, besides having all the structural characteristics illustration of the four levels of measurement.
ratio measure A level of measurement describing

Implications of Levels of Measurement
a variable with attributes that have all the qualities Because it’s unlikely that you’ll undertake the
of nominal, ordinal, and interval measures and in physical grouping of people just described (try it
addition are based on a “true zero” point. Age is an
once, and you won’t be invited to many parties), I
example of a ratio measure.
should draw your attention to some of the practical
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Nominal Measure Example: Sex
FIGURE 61
Levels of Measurement. Often you can choose among different levels of measurement—nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio—carrying progressively
more amounts of information.
implications of the differences that have been dis- More precisely, you should anticipate drawing
tinguished. These implications appear primarily in research conclusions appropriate to the levels of
the analysis of data (discussed in Part 4), but you measurement used in your variables. For example,
need to anticipate such implications when you’re you might reasonably plan to determine and report
structuring any research project. the mean age of a population under study (add up
Certain quantitative analysis techniques re- all the individual ages and divide by the number
quire variables that meet certain minimum levels of people), but you should not plan to report the
of measurement. To the extent that the variables to mean religious affiliation, because that is a nominal
be examined in a research project are limited to a variable, and the mean requires ratio-level data.
particular level of measurement—say, ordinal—you (You could report the modal—the most common—
should plan your analytic techniques accordingly. religious affiliation.) Cengage Lear ning
Babbie: The Practice of
Social Research, 13/e
1-133-04979-6 Fig. 5-1
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At the same time, you can treat some variables measure to a higher-level one. That is a one-way
as representing different levels of measurement. street worth remembering.
Ratio measures are the highest level, descending The level of measurement is significant in
through interval and ordinal to nominal, the low- terms of the arithmetic operations that can be ap-
est level of measurement. A variable representing plied to a variable and the statistical techniques
a higher level of measurement—say, ratio—can using those operations. The accompanying table
also be treated as representing a lower level of summarizes some of the implications, including
measurement—say, ordinal. Recall, for example, ways of stating the comparison of two incomes.
that age is a ratio measure. If you wished to exam-
ine only the relationship between age and some
How to Express the Fact That Jan
ordinal-level variable—say, self-perceived religios- Level of Arithmetic Earns $80,000 a Year and Andy
ity: high, medium, and low—you might choose Measurement Operations Earns $40,000
to treat age as an ordinal-level variable as well.
Nominal =≠ Jan and Andy earn different amounts.
You might characterize the subjects of your study
as being young, middle-aged, and old, specifying Ordinal >< Jan earns more than Andy.
what age range composed each of these groupings. Interval +− Jan earns $40,000 more than Andy.
Finally, age might be used as a nominal-level vari- Ratio ÷× Jan earns twice as much as Andy.
able for certain research purposes. People might
be grouped as being born during the Depression Typically a research project will tap variables
or not. Another nominal measurement, based on at different levels of measurement. For example,
birth date rather than just age, would be the group- William Bielby and Denise Bielby (1999) set out to
ing of people by astrological signs. examine the world of film and television, using a
The level of measurement you’ll seek, then, is nomothetic, longitudinal approach (take a moment
determined by the analytic uses you’ve planned for to remind yourself what that means). In what they
a given variable, keeping in mind that some vari- referred to as the “culture industry,” the authors
ables are inherently limited to a certain level. If a found that reputation (an ordinal variable) is the
variable is to be used in a variety of ways, requiring best predictor of screenwriters’ future productivity.
different levels of measurement, the study should More interestingly, they found that screenwriters
be designed to achieve the highest level required. who were represented by “core” (or elite) agencies
For example, if the subjects in a study are asked were not only far more likely to find jobs (a nomi-
their exact ages, they can later be organized into nal variable), but also jobs that paid more (a ratio
ordinal or nominal groupings. variable). In other words, the researchers found
Again, you need not necessarily measure that agencies’ reputations (ordinal) were a key in-
variables at their highest level of measurement. dependent variable for predicting a screenwriter’s
If you’re sure to have no need for ages of people career success. The researchers also found that
at higher than the ordinal level of measurement, being older (ratio), female (nominal), an ethnic
you may simply ask people to indicate their age minority (nominal), and having more years of ex-
range, such as 20 to 29, 30 to 39, and so forth. In perience (ratio) were disadvantageous for a writer’s
a study of the wealth of corporations, rather than career. On the other hand, higher earnings from
seek more precise information, you may use Dun previous years (measured in ordinal categories) led
& Bradstreet ratings to rank corporations. When- to more success in the future. In Bielby and Biel-
ever your research purposes are not altogether by’s terms, “success breeds success” (1999: 80).
clear, however, seek the highest level of measurement
possible. As we’ve discussed, although ratio mea-
sures can later be reduced to ordinal ones, you Single or Multiple Indicators
cannot convert an ordinal measure to a ratio one. With so many alternatives for operationalizing
More generally, you cannot convert a lower-level social science variables, you may find yourself
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worrying about making the right choices. To coun- courses vary in number of credits, we adjust the
ter this feeling, let me add a momentary dash of point values accordingly.) Creating such composite
certainty and stability. measures in social research is often appropriate.
Many social research variables have fairly obvi-
ous, straightforward measures. No matter how you
cut it, sex usually turns out to be a matter of male
Some Illustrations
or female: a nominal-level variable that can be of Operationalization Choices
measured by a single observation—either by look- To bring together all the operationalization choices
ing (well, not always) or by asking a question (usu- available to the social researcher and to show the
ally). In a study involving the size of families, you’ll potential in those possibilities, let’s look at some
want to think about adopted and foster children, of the distinct ways you might address various
as well as blended families, but it’s usually pretty research problems. The alternative ways of op-
easy to find out how many children a family has. erationalizing the variables in each case should
For most research purposes, the resident popula- demonstrate the opportunities that social research
tion of a country is the resident population of that can present to our ingenuity and imaginations. To
country—you can look it up in an almanac and simplify matters, I have not attempted to describe
know the answer. A great many variables, then, all the research conditions that would make one
have obvious single indicators. If you can get one alternative superior to the others, though in a given
piece of information, you have what you need. situation they would not all be equally appropriate.
Sometimes, however, there is no single Here are specific research questions, then, and
indicator that will give you the measure of a vari- some of the ways you could address them. We’ll
able you really want. As discussed earlier in this begin with an example discussed earlier in the
chapter, many concepts are subject to varying chapter. It has the added advantage that one of the
interpretations—each with several possible indica- variables is straightforward to operationalize.
tors. In these cases, you’ll want to make several
observations for a given variable. You can then 1. Are women more compassionate than men?
combine the several pieces of information you’ve a. Select a group of subjects for study, with
collected, creating a composite measurement of equal numbers of men and women. Pres-
the variable in question. Chapter 7 is devoted to ent them with hypothetical situations that
ways of doing that, so here let’s just discuss one involve someone being in trouble. Ask
simple illustration. them what they would do if they were
Consider the concept “college performance.” confronted with that situation. What would
All of us have noticed that some students per- they do, for example, if they came across a
form well in college courses and others don’t. In small child who was lost and crying for his
studying these differences, we might ask what or her parents? Consider any answer that
characteristics and experiences are related to high involves helping or comforting the child as
levels of performance (many researchers have an indicator of compassion. See whether
done just that). How should we measure overall men or women are more likely to indicate
performance? Each grade in any single course is a they would be compassionate.
potential indicator of college performance, but it b. Set up an experiment in which you pay a
also may not typify the student’s general perfor- small child to pretend that he or she is lost.
mance. The solution to this problem is so firmly Put the child to work on a busy sidewalk
established that it is, of course, obvious: the grade and observe whether men or women are
point average (GPA). We assign numerical scores more likely to offer assistance. Also be sure
to each letter grade, total the points earned by a to count the total number of men and
given student, and divide by the number of courses women who walk by, because there may
taken, thus obtaining a composite measure. (If the be more of one than the other. If that’s the
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case, simply calculate the percentage of what they consider the best state to live in.
men and the percentage of women who Look up some recent results in the library or
help. through your local newspaper.
c. Select a sample of people and do a survey c. Compare suicide rates in the two states.
in which you ask them what organizations 4. Who are the most popular instructors on your
they belong to. Calculate whether women campus, those in the social sciences, the natural
or men are more likely to belong to those sciences, or the humanities?
that seem to reflect compassionate feelings. a. If your school has a provision for student
To account for the case in which one group evaluation of instructors, review some
belongs to more organizations than the recent results and compute the average
other does, do this: For each person you rating of each of the three groups.
study, calculate the percentage of his or her
b. Begin visiting the introductory courses
organizational memberships that reflect
given in each group of disciplines and mea-
compassion. See if men or women have a
sure the attendance rate of each class.
higher average percentage.
c. In December, select a group of faculty in
2. Are sociology students or accounting students each of the three divisions and ask them
better informed about world affairs? to keep a record of the numbers of holiday
a. Prepare a short quiz on world affairs and greeting cards and presents they receive
arrange to administer it to the students from admiring students. See who wins.
in a sociology class and in an accounting
The point of these examples is not necessarily
class at a comparable level. If you want to
to suggest respectable research projects but
compare sociology and accounting majors,
to illustrate the many ways variables can be
be sure to ask students what they are
operationalized.
majoring in.
The Research in Real Life feature, “Measuring
b. Get the instructor of a course in world College Satisfaction,” briefly overviews the preced-
affairs to give you the average grades of ing steps in terms of a concept mentioned at the
sociology and accounting students in the outset of this chapter.
course.
c. Take a petition to sociology and accounting Operationalization Goes
classes that urges that “the United Nations
headquarters be moved to New York City.”
On and On
Keep a count of how many in each class Although I’ve discussed conceptualization and
sign the petition and how many inform operationalization as activities that precede data
you that the UN headquarters is already collection and analysis—for example, you must
located in New York City. design questionnaire items before you send out
a questionnaire—these two processes continue
3. Do people consider New York or California the
throughout any research project, even if the data
better place to live?
have been collected in a structured mass survey.
a. Consulting the Statistical Abstract of the United As we’ve seen, in less-structured methods such as
States or a similar publication, check the field research, the identification and specification of
migration rates into and out of each state. relevant concepts is inseparable from the ongoing
See if you can find the numbers moving di- process of observation.
rectly from New York to California and vice Imagine, for example, that you’re doing a
versa. qualitative, observational study of members of a
b. The national polling companies—Gallup, new religious cult, and, in part, you want to iden-
Harris, Roper, and so forth—often ask people tify those members who are more religious and
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Criteria of Measurement Quality ■ 187
Research in Real Life

Measuring College Satisfaction How would you measure each of these dimensions? One method
Early in this chapter, we considered “college satisfaction” as an example would be to ask a sample of students, “How would you rate your level of
of a concept people often talk about casually. To study such a concept, satisfaction with each of the following?” and giving them a list of items
however, we need to engage in the processes of conceptualization and similar to those listed here and providing a set of categories for them to
operationalization. I’ll sketch out the process briefly, then you might try use (such as very satisfied, satisfied, dissatisfied, very dissatisfied).
your hand at expanding on my comments. But suppose you didn’t have the time and/or money to conduct
What are some of the dimensions of college satisfaction? Here are a survey and were interested in comparing overall levels of satisfaction
a few to get you started, but feel free to add your own: at several schools. What data about schools (the unit of analysis) might
give you the answer you were interested in? Retention rates might be
Academic quality: faculty, courses, majors one general indicator. Can you think of others?
Physical facilities: classrooms, dorms, cafeteria, grounds Notice that you can measure college quality both positively and
Athletics and extracurricular activities negatively. Modern classrooms with WiFi access would count positively,
Costs and availability of financial aid whereas the number of crimes on campus would count negatively. But
Sociability of students, faculty, staff the latter could be used as a measure of college quality: with low crime
Security, crime on campus rates counting as high quality.
those who are less religious. You may begin with and organize your notes for analysis, you may
a focus on certain kinds of ritual behavior, only to again see unanticipated patterns and redirect your
eventually discover that the members of the group analysis.
place a higher premium on religious experience or Regardless of whether you are using quali-
steadfast beliefs. tative or quantitative methods, you should al-
The open-endedness of conceptualization and ways be open to reexamining your concepts and
operationalization is perhaps more obvious in qual- definitions. The ultimate purpose of social research
itative than in quantitative research, since changes is to clarify the nature of social life. The validity
can be made at any point during data collection and utility of what you learn in this regard doesn’t
and analysis. In quantitative methods such as sur- depend on when you first figured out how to look
vey research or experiments, you will be required at things any more than it matters whether you got
to commit yourself to particular measurement the idea from a learned textbook, a dream, or your
structures. Once a questionnaire has been printed brother-in-law.
and administered, for example, altering it would be
impractical if not impossible, even when the un-
folding of the research might suggest changes. Even
in the case of a survey questionnaire, however, you
Criteria of Measurement Quality
may have some flexibility in how you measure This chapter has come some distance. It began with
variables during the analysis phase, as we’ll see in the bald assertion that social scientists can measure
the following chapter. anything that exists. Then we discovered that most
As I mentioned, however, the qualitative of the things we might want to measure and study
researcher has a greater flexibility in this regard. don’t really exist. Next we learned that it’s possible
Things you notice during in-depth interviews, for to measure them anyway. Now we’ll discuss some
example, may suggest a different set of questions of the yardsticks against which we judge our rela-
than you initially planned, allowing you to pursue tive success or failure in measuring things—even
unanticipated avenues. Then later, as you review things that don’t exist.
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Precision and Accuracy Reliability

To begin, measurements can be made with varying In the abstract, reliability is a matter of whether
degrees of precision. As we saw in the discussion of a particular technique, applied repeatedly to the
operationalization, precision concerns the fineness same object, yields the same result each time. Let’s
of distinctions made between the attributes that say you want to know how much I weigh. (No, I
compose a variable. The description of a woman as don’t know why.) As one technique, say you ask
“43 years old” is more precise than “in her forties.” two different people to estimate my weight. If the
Saying a street-corner gang was formed “in the first person estimates 150 pounds and the other
summer of 1996” is more precise than saying “dur- estimates 300, we have to conclude the technique
ing the 1990s.” of having people estimate my weight isn’t very
As a general rule, precise measurements are su- reliable.
perior to imprecise ones, as common sense dictates. Suppose, as an alternative, that you use a bath-
There are no conditions under which imprecise room scale as your measurement technique. I step
measurements are intrinsically superior to precise on the scale twice, and you note the same result
ones. Even so, exact precision is not always neces- each time. The scale has presumably reported the
sary or desirable. If knowing that a woman is in same weight for me both times, indicating that
her forties satisfies your research requirements, the scale provides a more reliable technique for
then any additional effort invested in learning her measuring a person’s weight than asking people to
precise age is wasted. The operationalization of estimate it does.
concepts, then, must be guided partly by an under- Reliability, however, does not ensure accuracy
standing of the degree of precision required. If your any more than precision does. Suppose I’ve set
needs are not clear, be more precise rather than less. my bathroom scale to shave five pounds off my
Don’t confuse precision or specificity with ac- weight just to make me feel better. Although you
curacy, however. Describing someone as “born in would (reliably) report the same weight for me
New England” is less specific than “born in Stowe, each time, you would always be wrong. This new
Vermont”—but suppose the person in question was element, called bias, is discussed in Chapter 9. For
actually born in Boston. The less-specific descrip- now, just be warned that reliability does not en-
tion, in this instance, is more accurate, a better sure accuracy.
reflection of the real world. Let’s suppose we’re interested in studying mo-
Precision and accuracy are obviously impor- rale among factory workers in two different kinds
tant qualities in research measurement, and they of factories. In one set of factories, workers have
probably need no further explanation. When social specialized jobs, reflecting an extreme division of
scientists construct and evaluate measurements, labor. Each worker contributes a tiny part to the
however, they pay special attention to two techni- overall process performed on a long assembly line.
cal considerations: reliability and validity. In the other set of factories, each worker performs
many tasks, and small teams of workers complete
the whole process.
How should we measure morale? Following
reliability That quality of measurement method one strategy, we could observe the workers in each
that suggests that the same data would have been factory, noticing such things as whether they joke
collected each time in repeated observations of the
same phenomenon. In the context of a survey, we
with one another, whether they smile and laugh
would expect that the question “Did you attend a lot, and so forth. We could ask them how they
religious services last week?” would have higher re- like their work and even ask them whether they
liability than the question “About how many times think they would prefer their current arrangement
have you attended religious services in your life?” or the other one being studied. By comparing what
This is not to be confused with validity.
we observed in the different factories, we might
94_ch06.indd 188 11/18/11 5:24 PM

reach a conclusion about which assembly process coders will code the same editorial differently. Or
produces the higher morale. Notice that I’ve just we might want to classify a few hundred specific
described a qualitative measurement procedure. occupations in terms of some standard coding
Now let’s look at some reliability problems scheme, say a set of categories created by the De-
inherent in this method. First, how you and I are partment of Labor or by the Census Bureau. You
feeling when we do the observing will likely color and I would not place all those occupations in the
what we see. We may misinterpret what we see. same categories.
We may see workers kidding each other but think Each of these examples illustrates problems of
they’re having an argument. We may catch them reliability. Similar problems arise whenever we ask
on an off day. If we were to observe the same people to give us information about themselves.
group of workers several days in a row, we might Sometimes we ask questions that people don’t
arrive at different evaluations on each day. Further, know the answers to: “How many times have you
even if several observers evaluated the same be- been to religious services?” Sometimes we ask
havior, they might arrive at different conclusions people about things they consider totally irrelevant:
about the workers’ morale. “Are you satisfied with China’s current relationship
Here’s another strategy for assessing morale, with Albania?” In such cases, people will answer
a quantitative approach. Suppose we check the differently at different times because they’re making
company records to see how many grievances up answers as they go. Sometimes we explore issues
have been filed with the union during some fixed so complicated that a person who had a clear opin-
period. Presumably this would be an indicator of ion in the matter might arrive at a different interpre-
morale: the more grievances, the lower the morale. tation of the question when asked a second time.
This measurement strategy would appear to be So how do you create reliable measures? If
more reliable: Counting up the grievances over and your research design calls for asking people for
over, we should keep arriving at the same number. information, you can be careful to ask only about
If you find yourself thinking that the number things the respondents are likely to know the an-
of grievances doesn’t necessarily measure morale, swer to. Ask about things relevant to them, and be
you’re worrying about validity, not reliability. We’ll clear in what you’re asking. Of course, these tech-
discuss validity in a moment. The point for now niques don’t solve every possible reliability prob-
is that the last method is more like my bathroom lem. Fortunately, social researchers have developed
scale—it gives consistent results. several techniques for cross-checking the reliability
In social research, reliability problems crop up of the measures they devise.
in many forms. Reliability is a concern every time
a single observer is the source of data, because we
have no certain guard against the impact of that Test-Retest Method
observer’s subjectivity. We can’t tell for sure how Sometimes it’s appropriate to make the same mea-
much of what’s reported originated in the situation surement more than once, a technique called the
observed and how much in the observer. test-retest method. If you don’t expect the sought-
Subjectivity is not only a problem with single after information to change, then you should ex-
observers, however. Survey researchers have pect the same response both times. If answers vary,
known for a long time that different interviewers, the measurement method may, to the extent of
because of their own attitudes and demeanors, that variation, be unreliable. Here’s an illustration.
get different answers from respondents. Or, if we In their research on Health Hazard Appraisal
were to conduct a study of newspapers’ editorial (HHA), a part of preventive medicine, Jeffrey
positions on some public issue, we might create a Sacks, W. Mark Krushat, and Jeffrey Newman
team of coders to take on the job of reading hun- (1980) wanted to determine the risks associated
dreds of editorials and classifying them in terms of with various background and lifestyle factors,
their position on the issue. Unfortunately, different making it possible for physicians to counsel their
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patients appropriately. By knowing patients’ life social class. This procedure lays the groundwork
situations, physicians could advise them on their for another check on reliability. Let’s say you’ve
potential for survival and on how to improve it. created a questionnaire that contains ten items
This purpose, of course, depended heavily on the you believe measure prejudice against women.
accuracy of the information gathered about each Using the split-half technique, you would ran-
subject in the study. domly assign those ten items to two sets of five.
To test the reliability of their information, Sacks Each set should provide a good measure of preju-
and his colleagues had all 207 subjects complete dice against women, and the two sets should clas-
a baseline questionnaire that asked about their sify respondents the same way. If the two sets of
characteristics and behavior. Three months later, a items classify people differently, you most likely
follow-up questionnaire asked the same subjects have a problem of reliability in your measure of
for the same information, and the results of the the variable.
two surveys were compared. Overall, only 15 per-
cent of the subjects reported the same information Using Established Measures
in both studies.
Another way to help ensure reliability in getting in-
Sacks and his colleagues report the following:
formation from people is to use measures that have
Almost 10 percent of subjects reported a differ- proved their reliability in previous research. If you
ent height at follow-up examination. Parental want to measure anomia, for example, you might
age was changed by over one in three subjects. want to follow Srole’s lead.
One parent reportedly aged 20 chronologic The heavy use of measures, though, does not
years in three months. One in five ex-smokers guarantee their reliability. For example, the Scho-
and ex-drinkers have apparent difficulty in lastic Assessment Tests (SATs) and the Minnesota
reliably recalling their previous consumption Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) have
pattern. been accepted as established standards in their
(1980: 730) respective domains for decades. In recent years,
Some subjects erased all trace of previously though, they’ve needed fundamental overhaul-
reported heart murmur, diabetes, emphysema, ing to reflect changes in society, eliminating out-
arrest record, and thoughts of suicide. One subject’s dated topics and gender bias in wording.
mother, deceased in the first questionnaire, was
apparently alive and well in time for the second. Reliability of Research Workers
One subject had one ovary missing in the first As we’ve seen, it’s also possible for measurement
study but present in the second. In another case, unreliability to be generated by research workers:
an ovary present in the first study was missing in interviewers and coders, for example. There are
the second study—and had been for ten years! several ways to check on reliability in such cases.
One subject was reportedly 55 years old in the first To guard against interviewer unreliability in sur-
study and 50 years old three months later. (You veys, for example, a supervisor will call a subsam-
have to wonder whether the physician-counselors ple of the respondents on the telephone and verify
could ever have nearly the impact on their patients selected pieces of information.
that their patients’ memories did.) Thus, test-retest Replication works in other situations also. If
revealed that this data-collection method was not you’re worried that newspaper editorials or oc-
especially reliable. cupations may not be classified reliably, you could
have each independently coded by several coders.
Split-Half Method Those cases that are classified inconsistently can
As a general rule, it’s always good to make more then be evaluated more carefully and resolved.
than one measurement of any subtle or complex Finally, clarity, specificity, training, and prac-
social concept, such as prejudice, alienation, or tice can prevent a great deal of unreliability and
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grief. If you and I spent some time reaching a clear out how many books the workers took out of the
agreement on how to evaluate editorial positions library during their off-duty hours, you’d undoubt-
on an issue—discussing various positions and read- edly raise a more serious objection: That measure
ing through several together—we could probably wouldn’t have much face validity.
do a good job of classifying them in the same way Second, I’ve already pointed to many of the
independently. more formally established agreements that define
The reliability of measurements is a funda- some concepts. The Census Bureau, for example,
mental issue in social research, and we’ll return has created operational definitions of such concepts
to it more than once in the chapters ahead. For as family, household, and employment status that
now, however, let’s recall that even total reliability seem to have a workable validity in most studies
doesn’t ensure that our measures actually measure using these concepts.
what we think they measure. Now let’s plunge into Three additional types of validity also specify
the question of validity. particular ways of testing the validity of measures.
The first, criterion-related validity, sometimes
called predictive validity, is based on some external
Validity criterion. For example, the validity of College
In conventional usage, validity refers to the extent Board exams is shown in their ability to predict
to which an empirical measure adequately reflects students’ success in college. The validity of a writ-
the real meaning of the concept under consider- ten driver’s test is determined, in this sense, by the
ation. A measure of social class should measure relationship between the scores people get on the
social class, not political orientations. A measure test and their subsequent driving records. In these
of political orientations should measure political examples, college success and driving ability are the
orientations, not sexual permissiveness. Validity criteria.
means that we are actually measuring what we say To test your understanding of criterion-related
we are measuring. validity, see whether you can think of behaviors
Whoops! I’ve already committed us to the
view that concepts don’t have real meanings. How
can we ever say whether a particular measure
validity A term describing a measure that accu-
adequately reflects the concept’s meaning, then? rately reflects the concept it is intended to measure.
Ultimately, of course, we can’t. At the same time, For example, your IQ would seem a more valid
as we’ve already seen, all of social life, including measure of your intelligence than the number of
social research, operates on agreements about the hours you spend in the library would. Though the
terms we use and the concepts they represent. ultimate validity of a measure can never be proved,
we may agree to its relative validity on the basis
There are several criteria of success in making mea- of face validity, criterion-related validity, construct
surements that are appropriate to these agreed-on validity, content validity, internal validation, and
meanings of concepts. external validation (see Chapter 7). This must not be
First, there’s something called face validity. confused with reliability.
Particular empirical measures may or may not jibe face validity That quality of an indicator that
with our common agreements and our individual makes it seem a reasonable measure of some vari-
able. That the frequency of attendance at religious
mental images concerning a particular concept. For
services is some indication of a person’s religiosity
example, you and I might quarrel about whether seems to make sense without a lot of explanation. It
counting the number of grievances filed with the has face validity.
union will adequately measure morale. Still, we’d criterion-related validity The degree to which a
surely agree that the number of grievances has measure relates to some external criterion. For ex-
something to do with morale. That is, the measure is ample, the validity of College Board tests is shown in
valid “on its face,” whether or not it’s adequate. If I their ability to predict the college success of students.
Also called predictive validity.
were to suggest that we measure morale by finding
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that might be used to validate each of the following Tests of construct validity, then, can offer a
attitudes: weight of evidence that your measure either does
or doesn’t tap the quality you want it to measure,
Is very religious without providing definitive proof. Although I
Supports equality of men and women have suggested that tests of construct validity are
Supports far-right militia groups less compelling than those of criterion validity,
Is concerned about the environment there is room for disagreement about which kind
of test a particular comparison variable (driving
Some possible validators would be, respectively, record, marital fidelity) represents in a given situ-
attends religious services, votes for women can- ation. It’s less important to distinguish the two
didates, belongs to the NRA, and belongs to the types of validity tests than to understand the logic
Sierra Club. of validation that they have in common: If we’ve
Sometimes it’s difficult to find behavioral succeeded in measuring some variable, then our
criteria that can be taken to validate measures as measures should relate in some logical way to
directly as in such examples. In those instances, other measures.
however, we can often approximate such criteria Finally, content validity refers to how much
by applying a different test. We can consider how a measure covers the range of meanings included
the variable in question ought, theoretically, to within a concept. For example, a test of math-
relate to other variables. Construct validity is ematical ability cannot be limited to addition but
based on the logical relationships among variables. also needs to cover subtraction, multiplication, divi-
Suppose, for example, that you want to study sion, and so forth. Or, if we’re measuring prejudice,
the sources and consequences of marital satisfac- do our measurements reflect all types of preju-
tion. As part of your research, you develop a mea- dice, including prejudice against racial and ethnic
sure of marital satisfaction, and you want to assess groups, religious minorities, women, the elderly,
its validity. and so on?
In addition to developing your measure, you’ll Figure 6-2 presents a graphic portrayal of the
have developed certain theoretical expectations difference between validity and reliability. If you
about the way the variable marital satisfaction re- think of measurement as analogous to repeatedly
lates to other variables. For example, you might shooting at the bull’s-eye on a target, you’ll see
reasonably conclude that satisfied husbands and that reliability looks like a “tight pattern,” regard-
wives will be less likely than dissatisfied ones to less of where the shots hit, because reliability is a
cheat on their spouses. If your measure relates function of consistency. Validity, on the other hand,
to marital fidelity in the expected fashion, that is a function of shots being arranged around the
constitutes evidence of your measure’s construct bull’s-eye. The failure of reliability in the figure is
validity. If satisfied marriage partners are as likely randomly distributed around the target; the failure
to cheat on their spouses as the dissatisfied ones of validity is systematically off the mark. Notice
are, however, that would challenge the validity of that neither an unreliable nor an invalid measure is
your measure. likely to be very useful.
Who Decides What’s Valid?

construct validity The degree to which a measure Our discussion of validity began with a reminder
relates to other variables as expected within a sys- that we depend on agreements to determine what’s
tem of theoretical relationships. real, and we’ve just seen some of the ways social
content validity The degree to which a mea- scientists can agree among themselves that they
sure covers the range of meanings included within have made valid measurements. There is yet an-
a concept.
other way of looking at validity.
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FIGURE 62
An Analogy to Validity and Reliability. A good measurement technique should be both valid (measuring what it is intended to measure) and reliable
(yielding a given measurement dependably).
Social researchers sometimes criticize them- There are a number of ways to escape this—
selves and one another for implicitly assuming turning culture into folklore and collect-
they are somewhat superior to those they study. ing it, turning it into traits and counting it,
For example, researchers often seek to uncover turning it into institutions and classifying it,
motivations that the social actors themselves are turning it into structures and toying with
unaware of. You think you bought that new Turbo it. But they are escapes. The fact is that to com-
Tiger because of its high performance and good mit oneself to a semiotic concept of culture
looks, but we know you’re really trying to achieve a and an interpretive approach to the study of it
higher social status. is to commit oneself to a view of ethnographic
This implicit sense of superiority would fit assertion as, to borrow W. B. Gallie’s by now
comfortably with a totally positivistic approach famous phrase, “essentially contestable.”
(the biologist feels superior to the frog on the lab Anthropology, or at least interpretive anthro-
table), but it clashes with the more humanistic pology, is a science whose progress is marked
and typically qualitative approach taken by many less by a perfection of consensus than by a
social scientists. We’ll explore this issue more refinement of debate. What gets better is the
deeply in Chapter 11. In seeking to understand precision with which we vex each other.
the way ordinary people make sense of their (1973: 29)
worlds, ethnomethodologists have urged all social
Ultimately, social researchers should look both
scientists to pay more respect to the natural social
to their colleagues and to their subjects as sources
processes of conceptualization and shared mean-
of agreement on the most useful meanings and
ing. At the very least, behavior that may seem
measurements of the concepts they study. Some-
irrational from the scientist’s paradigm may make
logical sense when viewed through the actor’s
Cengage Lear ning
times one source will be more useful, sometimes
the other. But neither one should be dismissed.
Babbie: The Practice of
paradigm.
Clifford Geertz (1973) applies the term thick Social Research, 13/e
description in reference to the goal of understanding, Tension between Reliability 1-133-04979-6 Fig. 5-2
as deeply as possible, the meanings that elements
of a culture have for those who live within that and Validity
culture. He recognizes that the outside observer Clearly, we want our measures to be both reliable
will never grasp those meanings fully, however, and valid. However, a tension often arises between
and warns, “Cultural analysis is intrinsically incom- the criteria of reliability and validity, forcing a
plete.” He then elaborates: trade-off between the two.
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Recall the example of measuring morale in dif-

ferent factories. The strategy of immersing yourself
The Ethics of Measurement
in the day-to-day routine of the assembly line, ob- Measurement decisions can sometimes be judged
serving what goes on, and talking to the workers by ethical standards. We have seen that most of
would seem to provide a more valid measure of mo- the concepts of interest to social researchers are
rale than counting grievances would. It just seems open to varied meanings. Suppose, for example,
obvious that we’d get a clearer sense of whether the that you are interested in sampling public opinion
morale was high or low using this first method. on the abortion issue in the United States. Notice
As I pointed out earlier, however, the count- the difference it would make if you conceptual-
ing strategy would be more reliable. This situation ized one side of the debate as “pro-choice” or as
reflects a more general strain in research mea- “pro-abortion.” If your personal bias made you
surement. Most of the really interesting concepts want to minimize support for having an abortion,
we want to study have many subtle nuances, so you might be tempted to frame the concept and
specifying precisely what we mean by them is hard. the measurements based on it in terms of people
Researchers sometimes speak of such concepts as being “pro-abortion,” thereby eliminating all those
having a “richness of meaning.” Although scores of who were not especially fond of abortion per se but
books and articles have been written on the topic felt a woman should have the right to make that
of anomie/anomia, for example, they still haven’t choice for herself. To pursue this strategy, however,
exhausted its meaning. would violate accepted research ethics.
Very often, then, specifying reliable operational Consider the choices available to you in con-
definitions and measurements seems to rob con- ceptualizing attitudes toward the U.S. invasion of
cepts of their richness of meaning. Positive morale Iraq in 2003. Imagine the different levels of support
is much more than a lack of grievances filed with you would “discover” if you framed the position as
the union; anomia is much more than what is an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation, as
measured by the five items created by Leo Srole. a retaliation for the September 11, 2001, attack on
Yet, the more variation and richness we allow for a the World Trade Towers (many Americans still be-
concept, the more opportunity there is for disagree- lieve Saddam Hussein masterminded that attack),
ment on how it applies to a particular situation, as a defensive act against a perceived threat, as part
thus reducing reliability. of a global war on terrorism, or in any of the other
To some extent, this dilemma explains the per- ways this event has been portrayed. There is no
sistence of two quite different approaches to social one, correct way to conceptualize this issue, but
research: quantitative, nomothetic, structured tech- it would be unethical to seek to slant the results
niques such as surveys and experiments on the one through a biased definition of the issue.
hand, and qualitative, idiographic methods such as
field research and historical studies on the other.
In the simplest generalization, the former methods
tend to be more reliable, the latter more valid. MAIN POINTS
By being forewarned, you’ll be effectively
Introduction
forearmed against this persistent and inevitable
dilemma. If there is no clear agreement on how • The interrelated processes of conceptualization,
operationalization, and measurement allow re-
to measure a concept, measure it several different searchers to move from a general idea about what
ways. If the concept has several dimensions, mea- they want to study to effective and well-defined
sure them all. Above all, know that the concept does measurements in the real world.
not have any meaning other than what you and I Measuring Anything That Exists
give it. The only justification for giving any concept
• Conceptions are mental images we use as sum-
a particular meaning is utility. Measure concepts in mary devices for bringing together observations
ways that help us understand the world around us. and experiences that seem to have something
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Proposing Social Research: Measurement ■ 195
in common. We use terms or labels to reference • Whereas reliability means getting consistent re-
these conceptions. sults from the same measure, validity refers to
• Concepts are constructs; they represent the agreed- getting results that accurately reflect the concept
on meanings we assign to terms. Our concepts being measured.
don’t exist in the real world, so they can’t be mea- • Researchers can test or improve the reliability
sured directly, but we can measure the things that of measures through the test-retest method, the
our concepts summarize. split-half method, the use of established measures,
Conceptualization and the examination of work performed by
research workers.
• Conceptualization is the process of specifying ob-
servations and measurements that give concepts • The yardsticks for assessing a measure’s validity
definite meaning for the purposes of a research include face validity, criterion-related validity,
study. construct validity, and content validity.
• Conceptualization includes specifying the indica- • Creating specific, reliable measures often seems
tors of a concept and describing its dimensions. to diminish the richness of meaning our general
Operational definitions specify how variables concepts have. This problem is inevitable. The best
relevant to a concept will be measured. solution is to use several different measures, tap-
ping the different aspects of a concept.
Definitions in Descriptive
and Explanatory Studies The Ethics of Measurement
• Precise definitions are even more important in de- • Conceptualization and measurement must never
scriptive than in explanatory studies. The degree be guided by bias or preferences for particular re-
of precision needed varies with the type and pur- search outcomes.
pose of a study.
Operationalization Choices KEY TERMS
• Operationalization is an extension of conceptual-
ization that specifies the exact procedures that will The following terms are defined in context in the
be used to measure the attributes of variables. chapter and at the bottom of the page where the term
• Operationalization involves a series of interrelated is introduced, as well as in the comprehensive glossary
choices: specifying the range of variation that is at the back of the book.
appropriate for the purposes of a study, determin-
ing how precisely to measure variables, account- conceptualization interval measure
ing for relevant dimensions of variables, clearly construct validity nominal measure
defining the attributes of variables and their rela-
content validity ordinal measure
tionships, and deciding on an appropriate level of
measurement. criterion-related validity ratio measure
dimension reliability
• Researchers must choose from four levels of mea-
surement, which capture increasing amounts of face validity specification
information: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. indicator validity
The most appropriate level depends on the pur-
pose of the measurement.
• A given variable can sometimes be measured P R O P O S I N G S O C I A L R E S E A R C H: M E A S U R E M E N T
at different levels. When in doubt, researchers
should use the highest level of measurement ap- This chapter has taken us deeper into the matter of
propriate to that variable so they can capture the measurement. In previous exercises, you’ve identified
greatest amount of information. the concepts and variables you want to address in your
research project. Now you’ll need to get more specific
• Operationalization begins in the design phase of
in terms of conceptualization and operationalization.
a study and continues through all phases of the
You should conclude this portion of the proposal with
research project, including the analysis of data.
a description of how, precisely, you will make distinc-
Criteria of Measurement Quality tions regarding your variables. If you want to compare
• Criteria of the quality of measures include preci- liberals and conservatives, for example, how exactly
sion, accuracy, reliability, and validity. will you identify subjects’ political orientations?
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The ease or difficulty of this exercise may vary 4. In a good dictionary, look up truth and true, then
with the type of data collection you’re planning. It will copy out the definitions. Note the key terms used
probably be easier to accomplish in the case of quan- in those definitions (such as reality), look up the
titative studies, such as surveys, where you can report definitions of those terms, and copy out these
the questionnaire items you’ll use for measurements. definitions as well. Continue this process until
In qualitative research, however, you’ll have more op- no new terms appear. Comment on what you’ve
portunities to modify the ways variables are measured learned from this exercise. Did you discover
as the study unfolds, taking advantage of insights “truth”?
gained “in the trenches.” Even so, you’ll still need to
begin with some clear ideas about how you’ll begin
your measurements. SPSS EXERCISES
Criteria such as precision, accuracy, validity, and
reliability matter greatly in all kinds of social research See the booklet that accompanies your text for ex-
projects. ercises using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences). There are exercises offered for each chapter,
and you’ll also find a detailed primer on using SPSS.
REVIEW QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. Pick a social science concept such as liberalism

or alienation, then specify that concept so that
it could be studied in a research project. Be sure Online Study Resources
to specify the indicators you’ll use as well as the
Access the resources your instructor has assigned. For
dimensions you wish to include in and exclude
this book, you can access:
from your conceptualization.
2. What level of measurement—nominal, ordinal,
interval, or ratio—describes each of the following
variables?
CourseMate for The
a. Race (white, African American, Asian, and so
Practice of Social Research
on) Login to CengageBrain.com to access chapter-specific
b. Order of finish in a race (first, second, third, learning tools including Learning Objectives, Practice
and so on) Quizzes, Videos, Internet Exercises, Flash Cards, Glossaries,
Web Links, and more from your Sociology CourseMate.
c. Number of children in families
d. Populations of nations
e. Attitudes toward nuclear energy (strongly
approve, approve, disapprove, strongly
disapprove)
If your professor has assigned Aplia homework:
f. Region of birth (Northeast, Midwest, and so on)
1. Sign into your account.
g. Political orientation (very liberal, somewhat lib-
eral, somewhat conservative, very conservative) 2. After you complete each page of questions, click
“Grade It Now” to see detailed explanations of
3. To conceptualize the variable prejudice, use your every answer.
favorite web browser to search for this term. After
reviewing several of the websites resulting from 3. Click “Try Another Version” for an opportunity to
your search, make a list of some different forms improve your score.
of prejudice that might be studied in an omnibus Visit www.cengagebrain.com to access your account
project dealing with that topic. and purchase materials.
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CHAPTER 6

From Concept to Measurement

An Example of Conceptualization: Reliability

Definitions in Descriptive Who Decides What’s Valid?

Aplia for The Practice of Social Research

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Introduction use the term measurement instead, meaning careful,

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Research in Real Life

(University of Chicago Press, 2004).

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Direct observables Physical characteristics (sex, height, skin color) of a person

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Indicators and Dimensions indicator An observation that we choose to con-

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Measurement Step Example: Social Class

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Tips and Tools

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ratio measure A level of measurement describing

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Nominal Measure Example: Sex

1-133-04979-6 Fig. 5-1

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Research in Real Life

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Precision and Accuracy Reliability

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Who Decides What’s Valid?

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Recall the example of measuring morale in dif-

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1. Pick a social science concept such as liberalism

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