Unit 5: Conceptualization, constructs as combinations of facets
Facets= dimensions or traits
Concept and constructs
Many concepts are simple.
• How much money is in your bank
• How much energy a windmill produces
Examples of constructs (relationships between facets)
• And: Bachelor -> Dichotomy
• Not: Gender -> typology
• Or: Democracy -> dichotomies or indices (ordinal/scale)
• Missing: Personality
Relation concepts to observations
Concepts / constructs / term: this is the deductive way
• We identify facets of these constructs
• The indicators we find measuring the constructs
• The indicators are used in the measurement procedure (observations)
The inductive way
• Starting with observations
• Arriving at the construct at the end
Everyone uses constructs
- Violence, personality
- Constructs can refer to units and variables
• For example: State
A bachelor
- Bachelor is a variable characterizing people
- Conceptualize: People are or are not bachelors
- Dichotomy
The facets of the variable:
, The relationship between facets and terms (conceptualization using AND)
Term: being a bachelor or not
• Married or not
• Over 18 or not
• Male or not
AND: a set of necessary and sufficient conditions
- If we miss information about one of the facets we cannot tell
- If we have information about the three facets, we can tell
Gender as a dichotomy
Meanings of Sex/gender
Term: Male or female
Variables
• XX or XY chromosome
• Characteristics at birth
• Category in passport
Typology is a way to categorize four examples instead of two
➔ Operationalization is for example: man, woman and ‘other’
Democracy
Underlying facets:
• Rule or law
• Popular elections
OR (only sufficient conditions) dichotomy (family resemblance)
Missing: just a set of somehow related variables
Example: personality
Personality is a set of variables and not combined in any way
Facets= dimensions or traits
Concept and constructs
Many concepts are simple.
• How much money is in your bank
• How much energy a windmill produces
Examples of constructs (relationships between facets)
• And: Bachelor -> Dichotomy
• Not: Gender -> typology
• Or: Democracy -> dichotomies or indices (ordinal/scale)
• Missing: Personality
Relation concepts to observations
Concepts / constructs / term: this is the deductive way
• We identify facets of these constructs
• The indicators we find measuring the constructs
• The indicators are used in the measurement procedure (observations)
The inductive way
• Starting with observations
• Arriving at the construct at the end
Everyone uses constructs
- Violence, personality
- Constructs can refer to units and variables
• For example: State
A bachelor
- Bachelor is a variable characterizing people
- Conceptualize: People are or are not bachelors
- Dichotomy
The facets of the variable:
, The relationship between facets and terms (conceptualization using AND)
Term: being a bachelor or not
• Married or not
• Over 18 or not
• Male or not
AND: a set of necessary and sufficient conditions
- If we miss information about one of the facets we cannot tell
- If we have information about the three facets, we can tell
Gender as a dichotomy
Meanings of Sex/gender
Term: Male or female
Variables
• XX or XY chromosome
• Characteristics at birth
• Category in passport
Typology is a way to categorize four examples instead of two
➔ Operationalization is for example: man, woman and ‘other’
Democracy
Underlying facets:
• Rule or law
• Popular elections
OR (only sufficient conditions) dichotomy (family resemblance)
Missing: just a set of somehow related variables
Example: personality
Personality is a set of variables and not combined in any way
