What is a concept Concepts are Building blocks

What is a concept? • Concepts are: • Building blocks of theory • Labels that we give to elements of the social world • Categories for the organization of ideas and observations (Bulmer, 1984) • Concepts are useful for: • Providing an explanation of a certain aspect of the social world • Standing for things we want to explain • Giving a basis for measuring variation Page 163 Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4 th edition

Why measure? • To delineate fine differences between people, organizations, or any other unit of analysis • To provide a consistent device for gauging distinctions • To produce precise estimates of the degree of the relationship between concepts Page 164 Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4 th edition

Indicators of concepts • Produced by the operational definition of a concept • Less directly quantifiable than measures • Common sense understandings of the form a concept might take • Multiple-indicator measures • concept may have different dimensions Pages 164, 165 Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4 th edition

Why use more than one indicator? • Single indicators may incorrectly classify many individuals • Single indicators may capture only a portion of the underlying concept or be too general • Multiple indicators can make finer distinctions between individuals • Multiple indicators can capture different dimensions of a concept Pages 166, 167 Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4 th edition

What does reliability mean? • Stability • is the measure stable over time? • e. g. test–retest method • Internal reliability • are the indicators consistent? • e. g. split-half method • Inter-observer consistency • is the measure consistent between observers? Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4 th edition Key concept 7. 3 Page 169

What does validity mean? Does the indicator measure the concept? It does if it has: • Face validity (right for the concept? ) • Concurrent validity (supported by a relevant criterion today? ) • Predictive validity (likely to be supported by a relevant criterion tomorrow? ) • Construct validity (are useful hypotheses produced? ) • Convergent validity (supported by results from other methods? Page 171, 172 Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4 th edition

Causality • Explanation • why things are the way they are • Direction of causal influence • relationship between dependent & independent variables • Confidence • in the researcher's causal inferences Pages 175, 176 Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4 th edition

Generalization • Can findings be generalized beyond the confines of the particular context? • Can findings be generalized from sample to population? • How representative are samples? Page 176 Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4 th edition

Replication • Minimizing contamination from researcher biases or values • Explicit description of procedures • Control of conditions of study • Ability to replicate in differing contexts Page 177 Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4 th edition

The process of quantitative research Figure 7. 1, page 161 Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4 th edition

Criticisms of quantitative research • Failure to distinguish between objects in the natural world and social phenomena • Artificial and spurious sense of precision and accuracy • Lack of ecological validity • reliance on instruments and measurements • Static view of social life Pages 178, 179 Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4 th edition

• Published accounts of quantitative research rarely report evidence of reliability and validity (Podsakoff & Dalton, 1987) • Researchers are primarily interested in the substantive content and findings of their research • Running tests of reliability and validity may seem an unappealing alternative! • But researchers remain committed to the principles of good practice Pages 180, 181 Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4 th edition