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Scientific Concept
- 1. “A good part of the work called ‘theorizing’ is taken up with the clarification of concepts—and rightly so” -- Robert Merton (1958, p.114).
- 2. RESEARCH CONCEPTS = UNITS OF THINKING • Terms and labels used to organize everyday experiences and communicate with others • Require explicit definitions • Determines what we measure and what we analyze
- 3. “Description of concepts and specification of the relationships between or among these concepts.” - Baldwin, Perry, & Moffitt – 2004 WHAT IS THEORY
- 4. “Scientific knowledge is a collection of abstract theoretical statements.” – Reynolds, 1971 SCIENCE
- 5. CONCEPT QUESTIONS • What are the concepts • Different conceptual meanings assigned to a term? • Different operational definitions that have been used? • What are the commonly used names for these operational definitions? • What, considering your intended research purpose, seem to be the most promising operational definitions of the concept?
- 7. 1. IDENTIFY A CONCEPT (SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS) • Abstractness • Observed in many place and times using varying methods • Operationalizability (Empirical Relevance) • Translated into way of observing the concept • Precision (Intersubjectivity) • Clarity of construct
- 8. CONCEPT VS. CONSTRUCT • Concept • Term that represents an idea that you wish to study • Conceptual abstractions of phenomena that cannot be directly observed – MacCorquodale & Meehl, 1948 • Adopted for scientific purpose • We refer to concepts as constructs to recognize their social construction
- 10. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ABOUT THE CONCEPT Variations in labels Obscenity, pornography, erotica Roles, functions
- 11. CONSENSUS WITHIN SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITIES 1. Consensus regarding names of concepts 2. Consensus regarding the attributes of the concept 3. Consensus regarding the function of concept
- 12. 3. REVIEW EMPIRICAL DESCRIPTIONS • Examine the properties of past operational definitions • Variations, connection to conceptual definitions, contexts, units of analysis
- 13. OPERATIONALIZATION Simple concepts: Can be measured with single items E.g., gender, age Complex concepts have many dimensions: Necessitating multiple items Items get combined in indexes or scales E.g., SES, Racism
- 14. 4. DEVELOP AN OPERATIONAL DEFINITION • How do scholars measure this concept? • Can it be measured using multiple methods? • What are valid indicators to measure the construct?
- 15. 5. DATA GATHERING • Does the data support the conceptual and operational definitions?
- 16. Females read more magazines than males do. VARIABLE
- 17. THEORY BUILDING & TESTING
- 19. FINAL PROJECTS
- 20. CONCEPT EXPLICATION EXERCISE • List concepts that relate to your topic of interest • Identify one concept that appear at present most central to final project. • Provide a brief concept explication of one concept that may be relevant or central to your work.
- 21. 1. Interactivity 2. Engagement 3. Loyalty 4. Anxiety 5. Social presence 6. eWOM 7. Apprehension 1. Tolerance 2. Efficacy 3. Public deliberation 4. Aggressive behavior 5. Deception 6. Self-construal 7. Trust 1. CONSTRUCTS
- 22. 1. DEFINITION SCAVENGER HUNT Look up and record the dictionary; philosophical; and scientific definitions of the concept. Focus on the definition. Be precise and organize information on a Word doc • Identify various labels of constructs • Identify dimensions & indicators – how would you operationalize the keywords presented in your conceptual definition
- 23. 2. CONCEPT RELAY • Part of theory is to “communicate” to other scientists. You must be able to communicate what you mean through your label and conceptual definition. • Pass along the label and conceptual definition to another team. Ask the team how they would measure it based on your label and conceptual definition • What method(s) would they apply? And why?
- 24. PAIR DISCUSSIONS • Explicate these concepts: “informational internet use” and “socially conscious consumption” • Define the concept • Discuss the dimensions • Outline key indicators • Offer a theory related to each construct • What will be related to it? • And how will it relate?
- 25. FUTURE ASSIGNMENTS Due: IRB training documentation due – paper copy (next week) Annotated bib (Feb. 5)
Editor's Notes
- We need to train ourselves in handling concepts to achieve clarity in thinking, accuracy in observations, and precision in using words. Concepts are supposed to represent something. They are suspended in a complex web of references, mental image or idea and its real world referents The better the concepts, the better the knowledge…
- Research concepts direct our observations and analysis. What do we mean when we want to study patriotism, participation and prejudice. Building blocks of theories. Media use is a construct. Concept is never true or false. Theories are. A concept is only significant when it occurs in relationship together with others. Concepts only have meaning because scientists assign meaning to it. Emphasize again, constructs are lenses through which data are analyzed. Constructs aid in communication and accumulation of knowledge. Agenda setting, public opinion, mass communication
- Theory reflects the recorded effort of scientists trying to organize (conceptual systems)… predict and explain human behavior. We as social science researchers cannot directly observe all phenomena. To overcome this obstacle, we create concepts to build and test theory. Observations can be seen as confirming or falsifying hypotheses. Many scientists cited a definition that theory is a relationship between constructs? Constructs are somewhat controversial from a qualitative perspective because we create those construct whereas they let theory guide in the development of concepts.
- Science is the cumulation of what we know that is testable. What is considered knowledge Theories reflect what we know, however most theories are not directly observable. Social science deals with the behavior and institutions of human beings Dreams, physical beliefs, religion, etc. to inspire hypotheses….scientific method to test it. The goal of science, many say, to create research that is generalizable to populations, not just samples. That is why the method is so important. Scientific methods is how we systemize observations and become more precise in our observations and under what conditions. There are rules… rules on how to proceed. However, these rules affect knowledge.
- Chaffee
- What are some examples concepts? Self-efficacy? Brand loyalty, source credibility, visual attentiveness, communication competence, service quality, What makes a good scientific concept?
- Proper concepts” are needed to formulate a good theory…..We are interested in scientific concepts, Criteria for good concepts Measurement – specified observational procedures Precisions is clarity of construct so that others can replicate the research. Clarity is achieved by precision in definitions….. including its scope. Clarity enhances researcher ability to explore phenomona.
- Most concepts cluster together under broader concepts. Shirts and ties are examples of clothing. Cats and dogs are mammals. Such “higher order” words are constructs and concepts are lower levels of abstraction. We form and use constructs because they are a powerful means by which we are able to handle greater portions of reality. We use constructs because of their greater efficiency. The key point of contention is that construct are approximated units and they are created by humans. Construct are usually created by theoreticians
- Concepts, indicators, dimensions Multidimensional constructs can be formed using concepts Risk taking: Physical risk; social risk; moral risk Identifying a concept is more than assigning a name… it is a logical analysis of what we intend to investigate and explain
- Precision is important…. Scientific terms should have fixed and precise meanings Disciplined use of words encourages other scholars to employ same terminology
- The concept of consensus is very important part of theory…. We as a scientific work in conjunction with each other toward a goal of knowledge. Chair A chair has four legs A chair is something you sit on … rather than using it for a dinner tabe
- Ambiguities become clear when you operationalize the definition “based on the conceptual definition.” Mentor functions scales
- Means the operations necessary to measure it and evaluate the construct. Descriptives need to add up to 100%. What do I mean by that?
- Usually abstract concepts have multiple indicators especially in survey research. Indicators are the real-world observations. Often factor analysis is used to create measures constructs
- Sex or gender is the substitute for female. Measured version of the concept, however not every concept is a variable. Female and magazine reading. Females read , it cannot be called a hypothesis because only the latter varies. X can have two values such as 0 and 1. Republican-Democrat Before we can investigate the presence or absence of some attribute we must specify how they vary, which is a variable. The most important concepts are multidimensional in nature.
- A hypothesis is a test of a larger proposition. Theory at the operational level are hypotheses. Predicated relationships between operational definitions are called hypotheses. Major purpose of theorizing is to foster hypothesis testing. If replicated, theory becomes fact or reality as Reynolds indicates. Our goal is knowledge. Arrows run up and down because – over time – that how explication works. More often people think downward toward the operational definition. After research is conducted, the scholar may rethink the conceptual meaning in light of new findings. Research is not production of a single study. Violence in primetime drama If a concept is is not intimately related to the empirical analysis
- Relationship Between Theory and Research
- v In many cases, you must consider what your readers already know, or think they know, about your topic. v Are there popular misconceptions that need to be done away with? v Are there aspects of the topic that are seldom considered? v Have particular experiences helped you understand the topic?:
- Draw theoretical conceptual model (if multi-dimensional construct) (((model can also be a construct))))