Defining and Measuring Variables

An overview of measurement
Measurement is the assignment of numbers or
other symbols to characteristics or attributes of
objects recording to a prespecified set of rules,
Two aspects of measurement are particularly
important in planning a research study or reading a
research report:
often there is not a one-to-one relationship between the
variable measured and the measurement obtained
(knowledge, performance and exam grade)
there are usually several different options for measuring
any particular variable (types of exams and questions on
exams)
Direct measurement (height, weight) vs indirect
measurement (motivation, knowledge, memory, marital
satisfaction)
Measurement
How would you measure…
political party affiliation?
age?
grade point average?
satisfaction with college?
religious affiliation?
 Constructs and operational definitions
 Theories summarize our observations, explain mechanisms
underlying a particular behavior and make predictions about
the behavior.
 many research variables, particularly variables of interest to
behavioral scientists, are hypothetical attributes or
mechanisms explaining and predicting some behavior in a
theory are called constructs

external
stimulus  construct  behavior
factor

reward  motivation  performance

Construct and operational definitions
Concepts as Constructs
Concepts are constructs derived by mutual agreement from
mental images.
Conceptions summarize collections of seemingly related
observations and experiences.
 Constructs and operational definitions
 constructs can not be directly observed or measured
 however, researchers can measure external, observable events as
an indirect method of measuring the construct itself
 operational definition or operationalization
 is a procedure for measuring and defining a construct, indirect method of
measuring something that can not be measured directly
 an operational definition specifies a measurement procedure for measuring
an external, observable behavior and uses the resulting measurements as a
definition and a measurement of the hypothetical construct
 e.g. IQ test is an operational definition for the construct intelligence
 You don’t always have to come up with your own operational
definition of the construct, you can use some conventional
measurement procedure from previous studies
Operationalization
Operationalizing is done by looking at behavioral
dimensions, facets, or properties denoted by the
concepts.
Then, these are transferred into observable and
measurable elements
 Dimension – A specifiable aspect of a concept.
 An operational definition specifies precisely how a concept
will be measured – that is, the operations we will perform.
Exercise
Operationalize the Customer Loyalty