Operationalization Of Variables (An Advanced Research Method's Topic)
An Abstract In the process of defining a term, we also need to think about how we’re going to measure the concept. Operationalization refers to the process of figuring out how to measure the concepts that interest us. When we operationalize something, we figure out how we are going to measure it. Many of the most common concepts are not tangible. We cannot really point to them directly. Instead, we have to find a way to measure them, often indirectly. Consider again the concept of religiosity. This is not something we can directly observe. We can’t look in someone’s brain and see how much time they spend thinking about God. We can’t tell for sure how much considerations of the supernatural govern the decisions they make in life. Instead, we can only make indirect measurements of religiosity. For example, we can infer that someone is religious when they report attending religious services every week. In addition, we might infer that someone i...