MMC 9002 (500)
Researching Communication I
Fall 2007 Lombard
CLASS 4. Concept Explication and Literature Review
What is explication?
• It is the process by which abstract concepts are systematically linked to observed
variations in those concepts in the “real” world with appropriate methods.
This is accomplished by developing two definitions
• Conceptual definitions: Specify the meaning of the concepts to be studied; verbal
descriptions of the essential properties the researcher intends to be included within
the concept’s meaning
 Operational definitions: Procedures by which the concept is to be observed,
measured or manipulated
– Many of each of these types of definitions are possible for a given concept
Process of explication involves two sets of procedures:
• Meaning analysis: Use logical procedures to define concepts with clearly connected
conceptual and operational definitions
–This takes place when designing research
• Empirical analysis: The reverse process whereby you evaluate the concept based on
empirical evidence
–Takes place after (at least some) research has been carried out
What is a research concept?
• Abstractions communicated by words or signs that refer to common properties among
phenomena
• Each concept has a real world referent
–e.g., “journalist” - an object
–e.g., “aggressive behavior” - a type of behavior
–e.g., “positively related” - a relationship
• Research concepts are terms we use to break down research questions and what we
need to measure and analyze
Types of concepts
• Singular: A unique object – e.g., “George W. Bush”
• Class: A collection of singular concepts – e.g., “U.S. presidents”
• Relational: A concept that shows connections – e.g., “greater than”
• Constant: A concept that only takes on one value – e.g., “female”
• Variable: A concept that can have different levels – e.g., “biological sex”
Research concepts vs. everyday concepts:
 Abstractness – more than just a description, research concepts allow for comparison,
differences
 Clarity of meaning – rough meaning is fine for everyday, but research concepts must
be better understood – e.g., “pornography,” “TV violence”
 Precision – is it able to be communicated to others clearly for replication?
 Operationalizability – research concepts can be measured or observed
–There’s a tension between abstractness and operationalizabilty
Example: “Television is harmful to the political process.”
 What are the concepts?
– “TV” – a variable; abstract, but no clarity of meaning
– “Effectiveness of political process” – a variable, but what is the unit of analysis
and class? Citizens, politicians, lobbyists, laws? What country?
– “Harm” – a relational concept denoting a negative association
Steps of meaning analysis
• Preliminary identification of concept
–What is it, what is unit of analysis, what kind of variable?
• Literature search
–How have others used this concept, conceptually, operationally?
–Other terms for this concept? (e.g., “need for cognition”: “curiosity,” “thoughtfulness”)
Example of meaning analysis
Example of meaning analysis
Concept
Political participation
Dimension
High cost
Low cost
Indicator
Solicitation Door to door
for petition canvassing
Watch
TV news
Voting
Family
discussions
Operation
In the last
6 months,
have your
organized
a petition drive?
Conceptualization: Identify the precise and specific meanings of the concept (at the
abstract level)
Operationalization: Turn the concept into variables and attributes (at the concrete level)
–How much variation is there in the concept?
–How fine of distinctions between values?
–Attributes must be exhaustive and mutually exclusive
– Can have single or multiple indicators (multiple usually better)
Which operationalization (procedure to concretely measure the abstract concept) to
use?
• Depends on your question, type of research
• See what other researchers have done and whether it fits the concept
• See what has worked in previous research
Example of meaning analysis:
• Develop a conceptual definition for your research project
– Start at the most abstract level, and then define what lower order dimensions this
general concept subsumes
• “TV viewing” = this is at a high level, more abstract, less precise
• “news,” “entertainment,” etc., are (possible) dimensions of this concept
• Now define the concept operationally
– What indicators to look for? How do you know one when you encounter one?
– Each dimension could have more than one indicator (e.g., TV news: morning,
noon, local, national, etc.)
– Each dimension of a concept should be observable
– What are the results of past operations: Range of values, what affects it, or does it
affect?
– For what units of analysis?
Explication – Steven Chaffee’s steps:
1. Preliminary identification of concept. What is it, unit of analysis, what kind of
variable?
2. Literature search: How have others used this concept, both conceptually and
operationally? What other terms have been used for this concept? (e.g., “need
for cognition,” “curious,” “thoughtful”)
3. Empirical description: What are the results of past operations (measurements):
Range of values, what affects it, or does it affect? For what units of analysis?
4. Develop a conceptual definition for your research: First work at the most abstract
level, and then ask what lower order dimensions the general concept subsumes?
(e.g., TV viewing = highly abstract, with news, entertainment, etc, dimensions of
this). All indicators within a dimension will most likely be internally consistent (i.e.,
reliable).
5. Define operationally: Identify what indicators to look for. Each dimension of a
concept should be observable. Each dimension could have more than one
indicator (e.g., TV news: morning, noon, local, national, etc.). Not always easy to
find indicators for concepts
6. Data gathering: Observe your concepts; refine definitions based on results.
Things to remember:
 All these steps are necessary
• A concept without an operation is not observable,
• An operation without a concept is not very informative.
• Common mistake: confusing the operation (measure) for the concept itself
– IQ is what the IQ test measures, rather than the IQ test is one way of
operationalizing the concept of intelligence.
 Don’t rely on dictionary definitions as conceptual definitions
 The explication process is iterative
Explication and theory
• All this explication stuff is essential to theory development
• Theory is a collection of statements asserting a relationship between two or more
concepts as they vary among a class of objects
• So, you must explicate each of the concepts in your theoretical statement
Theoretical statement example
• “Exposure to violent TV content makes more likely the expression of antisocial
aggressive behavior among adolescent children.”
• Key variables to explicate:
–Violent TV content (cause - independent variable)
–Antisocial aggressive behavior (effect - dependent variable)
• Adolescent children are the units of analysis, class of objects
A view of explication
ConceptualConcept 1
I.V.
Level
Proposition
Meaning
Analysis
Operational
Level
Operation
I.V.-1
Concept 2
D.V.
Meaning
Analysis
Operation
I.V.-2
Operation
D.V.-1
Operation
D.V.-2
Hypotheses 1
Hypothesis 2
5
What is a hypothesis?
• A statement asserting relationship(s) between two or more operationalizations of
concepts
– “The more A-Team watched, the more name calling.”
– “The more WWF watched, the more name calling.”
THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Conducting the search
 Identify all possible search terms
–e.g., children, kids, teens, youth, adolescents
–e.g., media, television, TV, newspapers, radio, magazines, film, movies, internet,
ipod, mp3, etc.
 Find all appropriate databases
 Use Boolean operators (OR, AND, NOT, etc.) to broaden/narrow search
 Keep notes on search terms
 Do same search in multiple databases
 Use bibliographies from articles/books to enhance search
 Use card file or software like Endnote to organize articles/books found so you don’t
keep “re-discovering” the same piece
Some key databases
• Lexis/Nexis
• Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)
• PsycInfo
• Sociological Abstracts
• America: History and Life
• ACM
• Ethnic & Gender Newswatch
• Arts and Humanities Index
• Eric
• ComAbstracts
• ComIndex
• MLA
• PAIS
• Art Index
• Academic Search Premier
• ABI/Inform (part of ProQuest)
What to look for?
• How concepts have been defined?
–Does it fit your research?
• How measured?
–Methods used?
–Units of analysis?
–When, where, who were studied?
REPORTING AND READING RESEARCH
Parts of a Research Paper
• Introduction
–What is the research question?
–Why?
–Layout direction for paper
• Literature review
–Organize around key concepts/variables
–Synthesize what has been found
–Move from abstract to concrete
–Ends with clear statement of hypotheses
• Methods
–Overview
–Design
o Overall structure to the study
–Participants/sampling
o Who/what was studied, how selected
–Measurements
o Operationalizations, linked to concepts
–Procedures
o What happened to participants, what was done
• Results
–Organized around hypotheses
–Where stats are reported
• Discussion
–What’s it all mean
–Limitations
–Future directions for research