Week 3 (Theory, Concepts, Variables and validity)

Question 1

What is conceptualisation?

Answer 1

Making vague concepts or ideas concrete by defining and demarcating them.

Question 2

What are concepts?

Answer 2

The building blocks of a theory and categories for ideas and observations.

Question 3

What is a indicator?

Answer 3

The unity of measurement which measures a concept. A direct indicator refers to a measurement of a concept with only two possible answers, indirect indicators do not.

Question 4

What is operationalisation?

Answer 4

Turning concepts in to variables by making them more measurable.

Question 5

Reasons for operationalisation

Answer 5

• determining fine differences between cases
• measuring accurately and consistently
• calculating the precise relation between variables

Question 6

Name the 5 different types of variables and what they mean.

Answer 6

• nominal
  Categories that can not be measured (ex religion)
• dichotomous
  Their are only two categories (ex gender)
• ordinal
  Questions that can be rank ordered (ex education)
• interval
  Ranked within equal distances between categories (ex temperature)
• ratio
  Ratio scales but we a point 0 (ex age)

Question 7

Quality criteria of research

Answer 7

Replicability (openness, transparency)
Validity (four different types)
Reliability (stability/consistency of measurement)

Question 8

Explain the four types of validity

Answer 8

Measurement validity: do you measure what you want to measure?

Internal validity: is the causal relation between the variables true?

External validity: are the generalizations to the larger group correct?

Ecological validity: are the results valid outside the research environment?

Question 9

A good theory should be…

Answer 9

• Give an adequate answer to a given problem
• must be concise and clear
• must contain concepts that are clearly defined
• must be testable within a certain method
• must not contain any ethical value judgement
• mused be based on a theory or literature.