100% satisfaction guarantee Immediately available after payment Both online and in PDF No strings attached
logo-home
Summary Methods, Measurement & Statistics $6.96   Add to cart

Summary

Summary Methods, Measurement & Statistics

 10 views  0 purchase
  • Course
  • Institution
  • Book

Pre-master Summary of all lectures supplemented with the material from the book. Various examples also included for clarification Summary of all lectures supplemented with the material from the book. Also included several examples for clarification

Preview 4 out of 47  pages

  • No
  • 2 3 5 8 9 4 + selected pages chapter 15
  • November 10, 2023
  • 47
  • 2023/2024
  • Summary
avatar-seller
METHODS & MEASUREMENTS
Topics covered in the methods/measurement part of the course:
1. Cornerstones of social research
2. Concepts, variables & their relationship
3. Unit of analysis and nested data – logical fallacies
4. Principles of sampling
5. Survey research and survey instruments
6. Measurement: operationalizing, validity and reliability
7. Measurement: factor analysis
LECTURE 1
1. CORNERSTONES OF SOCIAL RESEARCH
Quantitative research questions:
 Descriptive questions: “What is the average number of days of sick leave per year
due to burn-out?”
o Doel is om gegevens samen te vatten
 Explanatory questions: “To what extent does the average number of days of sick
leave due to burn-out across sectors of employment
o Doel is om aan te geven waarom iets gebeurt or dingen zich voordoen.
 Establishing generalizations that apply to everyone; aim to make generalizations.
 Focus on nomothetic ‘causal’ relationships (predicting the outcome variable)
Qualitative research questions:
 Questions about lived personal experience, understanding and meaning of stories:
“How did employees who suffered from burn-out last year link this to personal
experiences at work before and after their burn-out?”
 You need to ask the question to individuals to give an answer on the question
 You’re interested in each individual
 It is about explaining
 Focus on ideographic relationships (rather than on nomothetic ‘causal’
relationships)

Examples:
Quantitative Qualitative

Do positive experiences with refugees increase a How do people with different experiences in their
person's tolerance towards a new refugee centre in the contact with refugees understand how it affects their
neighborhood? feelings towards the opening of a new refugee centre in
the neighborhood?

To what extent do childhood experiences regarding the What is the experience of outing as LGBTQ in a situation
quality of the relationship of parents impact on gender in which one is the first to out within the family as
identification amongst LGBTQ community? compared to when a relative already outed as LGBTQ
before one did?

Does autocratic leadership of the direct supervisor What does autocratic leadership of a direct supervisor
decrease the work performance and motivation of mean to employees in terms of their motivation and
employees? performance at work?

,THEORY(-IES) <- PROPOSITIONS -> HYPOTHESES
Proposition: general statement regarding a regularity in the behavior or opinion of
subjects.
 The general statement is not specific enough to do the research  the WHY
question = theories
 This is the center to move to empirical research; going to hypothesis or back to
theories
 It’s not clear how you will do the research
Example: “When an individual manages a particular task well, then (s)he will perform that
task better in the presence of others than when nobody else is present.”
(= social facilitation effect SFE)

If the question is why is this the case?  theory
 Theory: provides an explanation for a proposition or set of propositions ≠
speculation!
Example: alternative theories for the SFE proposition: biological VS psychological
‘explanation’
o Biological: the presence of others activates physiological triggers
o Psychological: people perform better when they believe they are being
watched/evaluated.
= nature versus nurture debate in many social and behavioral sciences

If the question is how can we research that?  applying it in a concrete situation 
hypotheses
 Hypotheses: example athletics will perform better;
o The more spectators there are;
o the more journalists there are that will comment on their performances;
o when there is direct coverage of the event by the media (television,…).
 From an empirical point of view you want to collect data to verify or research the
proposition.
o You need data to say something about the hypotheses
o You can use existing data, make some correlations about a hypotheses


SCIENCE AS A PROCESS: INDUCTION – DEDUCTION

theories deduction


empirical
hypotheses
generalisations


induction observations

Observations  analyses  empirical generalizations  these confirm theories or not
 Induction: starts from observations to hypotheses – we will focus on this
 Deduction: starts with theories to generalizations – in the workfield we will focus
on this

,2. CONCEPTS, VARIABLES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP
Concepts (or constructs): general/abstract description of a social phenomenon.
 You have some ideas about it but have to specify it to measure it  transform into
variable
o E.g. ethnocentrism
Variable: empirical manifestation of a concept
 E.g. a scale that measures ethnocentrism
Hypotheses: an expected relationship between 2 or more variables that can be
researched
 E.g. women are on average less ethnocentric than men
TYPES OF HYPOTHESES
Bivariate hypotheses: expected relationship between 2 variables (=total effect)
Diagram:
X Y
Legend:
X = independent variable (‘cause’)
Y = dependent variables (‘outcome’)
= direction of effect (from independent on dependent)
Example:
“The higher the emotional intelligence of a person, the higher the amount of money
a person gives to good causes.”
à Wording reflects metric measurement (scale)
“The higher the emotional intelligence of a person the higher the likelihood of
becoming depressed.”
à Dependent = categorical (non-metric); independent = metric

The kind of variables influences the measurements for the research and the kind of
hypothesis it is:
 Distinction between metric VS non-metric refers to ‘measurement level’ of a
variable
 Formulation of hypothesis should be consistent with this distinction

Multivariate hypothesis: expected relationship between a dependent variable (Y) and
multiple independent variables (X)
Types of multivariate hypothesis:
a. Relative importance of b. Mediation (interpretation of an
effects effect
X1 ++ X1

Y + Y

X2 + X2 +


c. Moderation (conditional effect) d. Spurious effect (explanation of
X1 an effect)
+ X1
+ Y + Y
+
X2 X2
++ = a stronger relationship, so more important

, + = less stronger
- = negative relationship; decreases the outcome for Y

The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.

Quick and easy check-out

Quick and easy check-out

You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.

Focus on what matters

Focus on what matters

Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!

Frequently asked questions

What do I get when I buy this document?

You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.

Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?

Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.

Who am I buying these notes from?

Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller nele_van_beek. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.

Will I be stuck with a subscription?

No, you only buy these notes for $6.96. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.

Can Stuvia be trusted?

4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)

72042 documents were sold in the last 30 days

Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now

Start selling
$6.96
  • (0)
  Add to cart