Discuss the concept of measurement in Social research.
When social scientists measure generalities, they
occasionally use the language of variables and attributes ( also called
values). A variable refers to a miracle that can vary. It can be allowed of as
a grouping of several characteristics. Discuss the concept of measurement in Social research. For illustration, hair color could be a
variable because it has varying characteristics. Attributes are the
characteristics that make up a variable. For illustration, the variable hair
color would contain attributes like golden, brown, black, red, argentine,etc.
A variable’s
attributes determine its position of dimension. There are four possible
situations of dimension nominal, ordinal, interval, and rate. Discuss the concept of measurement in Social research. The first two
situations of dimension are categorical, meaning their attributes are orders
rather than figures. The ultimate two situations of dimension are nonstop,
meaning their attributes are figures, not orders.
Hair color is an
illustration of a nominal position of dimension. Nominal measures are
categorical, and those orders can not be mathematically ranked. There's no
ranking order between hair colors. They're simply different. That's what
constitutes a nominal position of dimension. Gender and race are also measured
at the nominal position.
When using nominal
position of dimension in exploration, it's veritably important to assign the
attributes of implicit answers veritably precisely. The attributes need to be
total and mutually exclusive. Let’s think about the attributes contained in the
variable hair color. Black, brown, golden, and red are common colors. But, if
we listed only these attributes, people with argentine hair would n’t fit
anywhere. That means our attributes weren't total. Discuss the concept of measurement in Social research. Exhaustiveness means that
all possible attributes are listed. We may have to list a lot of colors before
we can meet the criteria of exhaustiveness. Easily, there's a point at which
trying to achieve exhaustiveness can get to be toomuch.However, it isn't your
responsibility to list that as an option, If a person insists that their hair
color is light burnt sienna. Rather, that person could nicely be described as
brown-haired. Maybe listing a order for other color would serve to make our
list of colors total.
What about a person who has multiple hair colors at the same
time, similar as red and black? They would fall into multiple attributes. This
violates the rule of collective exclusivity, in which a person can not fall
into two different attributes. Discuss the concept of measurement in Social research. Rather of listing all of the possible
combinations of colors, maybe you might include a list of attributes like all black,
all brown, all golden, all red,multi-color, other to include people with
further than one hair color, but keep everyone in only one order.
The discussion of
hair color elides an important point with dimension — reification. You should
remember reification from our former discussion in this chapter. For numerous
times, the attributes for gender were manly and womanish. Now, our
understanding of gender has evolved to encompass further attributes including
transgender,non-binary, or genderqueer. Discuss the concept of measurement in Social research. We should n’t confuse our labeling of
attributes or measuring of a variable with the objective verity “ out there.”
Another illustration could be children of parents from different races were
frequently classified as one race or another in the history, indeed if they
linked with both societies inversely. The option forbi-racial ormulti-racial on
a check not only more directly reflects the ethnical diversity in the real
world but validates and acknowledges people who identify in that manner.
Unlike nominal- position measures, attributes at the ordinal
position can be rank ordered. For illustration, someone’s degree of
satisfaction in their romantic relationship can be ordered by rank. That is,
you could say you aren't at each satisfied, a little satisfied, relatively
satisfied, or largely satisfied. Discuss the concept of measurement in Social research. Note that indeed though these have a rank
order to them (not at all satisfied is clearly worse than largely satisfied),
we can not calculate a fine distance between those attributes. We can simply
say that one trait of an ordinal- position variable is more or less than
another trait.
This can get a little
confusing when using Likertscales.However, you're familiar with Likert scales,
If you have ever taken a client satisfaction check or completed a course
evaluation for academy. “ On a scale of 1-5, with one being the smallest and
being the loftiest, how likely are you to recommend our company to other
people?” Sound familiar? Discuss the concept of measurement in Social research. Likert scales use figures but only as a longhand to
indicate what trait ( largely likely, kindly likely,etc.) the person feels
describes them stylish. You would n’t say you're more likely to recommend the
company. But you could say you aren't veritably likely to recommend the
company.