This document discusses key concepts in operationalizing and measuring variables in social science research. It covers how concepts are abstract mental representations that must be defined and measured concretely through operationalization. Operationalization involves developing observable indicators and dimensions of concepts. Measurement then assigns numerical or categorical values to those indicators. The document emphasizes creating exhaustive and mutually exclusive measurement categories and discusses different levels of measurement. It also outlines criteria for ensuring quality in measurement, including reliability, validity, and using composite measures and indexes.

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Chapter 5:
Concepts,
Operationalization
and Measurement
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

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Learning Objectives
• Understand the role of concepts as summary devices for
bringing together observations and experiences that
have something in common
• Explain how concepts are mental images that do not
exist in the real world
• Describe how operationalization specifies concrete
empirical procedures for measuring variables
• Recognize that operationalization begins with study
design but continues through the duration of research
• Explain why measurement categories must be mutually
exclusive and exhaustive

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Learning Objectives, cont.
• Distinguish different levels of measurement and the
properties of different levels
• Understand precision, reliability, and validity as
dimensions of measurement quality
• Summarize how creating specific, reliable measures
may not reflect the complexity of the concepts we seek
to study
• Understand how multiple measures of a concept can
improve reliability and validity
• Describe composite measures and explain their
advantages

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Introduction
• Because measurement is difficult and
imprecise, researchers try to describe the
measurement process explicitly
• We want to move from vague ideas of what
we want to study to actually being able to
recognize and measure it in the real world
• Otherwise, we will be unable to communicate
the relevance of our idea and findings to an
audience

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Conceptions and Concepts
• Clarifying abstract mental images is an essential
first step in measurement
• “Crime”
• Conception: Mental image we have about
something
• Concepts: Words, phrases, or symbols in
language that are used to represent these
mental images in communication
• e.g., gender, punishment, chivalry, delinquency, poverty,
intelligence, racism, sexism, assault, deviance, income

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Three Classes
• Direct observables: Those things or qualities we
can observe directly (color, shape)
• Indirect observables: Require relatively more
subtle, complex, or indirect observations for
things that cannot be observed directly (reports,
court transcripts, criminal history records)
• Constructs: Theoretical creations; cannot be
observed directly or indirectly; similar to Concepts

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Conceptualization
• Specifying precisely what we mean when we
use particular terms
• Results in a set of indicators of what we have
in mind
• Indicates a presence or absence of the
concept we are studying
• Violent crime = offender uses force (or
threatens to use force) against a victim

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Indicators and Dimensions
• Dimension: Specifiable aspect of a concept
• “Crime Seriousness”: Can be subdivided into
dimensions
• e.g., Dimension – Victim harm
• Indicators – Physical injury, economic loss, psychological
consequences
• Specification leads to deeper understanding

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Discussion Question 1
Why does the phrase “crime seriousness”
require further conceptualization?

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Confusion Over Definitions and Reality
• Concepts are abstract and only mental creations
• The terms we use to describe them do not have
real and concrete meanings
• What is poverty? delinquency? strain?
• Reification: Process of regarding as real
things that are not

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Creating Conceptual Order
• Conceptual definition (what is SES?)
• Working definition specifically assigned to a term,
provides focus to our observations
• Gives us a specific working definition so that readers
will understand the concept
• Operational definition (how will we
measure SES?)
• Spells out precisely how the concept will be
measured

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Discussion Question 2
What are some social science concepts that
you believe might be hard to operationalize?

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Operationalization Choices
• Operationalization: The process of
developing operational definitions
• Moves us closer to measurement
• Requires us to determine what might work
as a data-collection method

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Measurement as “Scoring”
• Measurement: Assigning numbers or
labels to units of analysis in order to
represent the conceptual properties
• Make observations, and assign scores to
them
• Difficult in CJ research because basic
concepts are not perfectly definable

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Exhaustive and Exclusive Measurement
• Every variable should have two important
qualities:
• Exhaustive: You should be able to classify every
observation in terms of one of the attributes
composing the variable
• Mutually exclusive: You must be able to classify every
observation in terms of one and only one attribute
• Example: Employment status

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Discussion Question 3
Can you identify a variable used in crime
studies that is both exhaustive and mutually
exclusive?

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Levels of Measurement
• Nominal: Offer names or labels for
characteristics (race, gender, state of residence)
• Ordinal: Attributes can be logically rank-ordered
(education, opinions, occupational status)
• Interval: Meaningful distance between attributes
(temperature, IQ)
• Ratio: Has a true zero point (age, # of priors,
sentence length, income)

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Implications of Levels of Measurement
• Certain analytic techniques have Levels of
Measurement requirements
• Ratio level can also be treated as
Nominal, Ordinal, or Interval
• You cannot convert a lower Level of
Measurement to a higher one
• Therefore, seek the highest Level of
Measurement possible

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Criteria for Measurement Quality
• The key standards for measurement
quality are reliability and validity
• Measurements can be made with varying
degrees of precision
• Common sense dictates that the more
precise, the better
• However, you do not necessarily need
complete precision

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Reliability
• Whether a particular measurement
technique, repeatedly applied to the same
object, would yield the same result each
time
• Problem: Even if the same result is
retrieved, it may be incorrect every time
• Reliability does not insure accuracy
• Observer’s subjectivity might come into play

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Dealing with Reliability Issues
• Test-retest method: Make the same
measurement more than once—should
expect same response both times
• Interrater reliability: Compare
measurements from different raters; verify
initial measurements
• Split-half method: Make more than one
measure of any concept; see if each
measures the concept differently

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Validity
• The extent to which an empirical measure
adequately reflects the meaning of the
concept under consideration
• Are you really measuring what you say
you are measuring?
• Demonstrating validity is more difficult
than demonstrating reliability

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Dealing with Validity Issues
• Face validity: On its face, does it seem valid?
Does it jibe with our common agreements and
mental images?
• Criterion-related validity: Compares a measure to
some external criterion
• Construct validity: Whether your variable relates to
another in the logically expected direction
• Content validity: Does the measure cover the
range of meanings included in the concept?
• Multiple Measures: Alternative measures

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Composite Measures
• Allows us to combine individual measures to
produce more valid and reliable indicators
• Reasons for using Composite Measures:
• The researcher is often unable to develop single indicators
of complex concepts
• We may wish to use a rather refined ordinal measure of a
variable, arranging cases in several ordinal categories from
very low to very high on a variable such as degree of
parental supervision
• Indexes and scales are efficient devices for data analysis

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Typologies
• “Taxonomy”
• Produced by the intersection of two or more
variables to create a set of categories or types
• e.g., Typology of Delinquent/Criminal Acts (Time
1 and 2)
• None, Minor (theft of items worth less than $5, vandalism, fare
evasion), Moderate (theft over $5, gang fighting, carrying
weapons), Serious (car theft, breaking and entering, forced
sex, selling drugs)
• Nondelinquent, Starter, Desistor, Stable, Deescalator,
Escalator

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Index of Disorder
• What is disorder? (Skogan, 1990)
• Distinguish between physical presence and social
perception
• Physical disorder: Abandoned buildings, garbage
and litter, graffiti, junk in vacant lots
• Social disorder: Groups of loiterers, drug use and
sales, vandalism, gang activity, public drinking,
street harassment
• Index created by averaging scores for each
measure

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Benefits of Indexes
• A composite index is a more valid measure
than a single question
• Computing and averaging across all items in
a category create more variation than we
could obtain in any single item
• Two indexes are more parsimonious than
nine individual variables
• Data analysis and interpretation can be more
efficient