Unit V
Concepts,
Constructs and
Variables
CONCEPTS
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Are categories or generalizations from particular instances.
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Example: you are holding a book, it has such characteristics as
pages, binding and a cover. Observe other objects that look like
this. These objects are called “books” or other names given to
things that share common characteristics are called CONCEPTS
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◉
What concepts are suggested by the following instances?
1.
honey, brandy, water, syrup, milk, oil
ANSWER : LIQUID
2. sunny, strong wind skies, cloudy skies, rain
ANSWER: WEATHER
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CONCEPTS
-there are concepts, which, on the other hand, are impossible to
observe directly.
-they are higher-order concepts, which are considered complex,
because they have been constructed from simpler ones.
-many concepts in research are like these. They are called
“CONSTRUCT”
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CONSTRUCT
-Constructs
are measured with multiple variables. Constructs exist at a
higher level of abstraction than concepts.
Example : concept-LOVE
construct: love between parent and child, between siblings, between
friends, love of GOD, and love of country
Constructs are considered latent variable because they cannot be
directly observable or measured.
-Constructs are rendered more measureable and become referred to as
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“VARIABLE”
Variables
-are concepts that assume more than one value
-according to Burns and Grove (1995) variables
are qualities, properties or characteristics of
persons, things, or situations that change or vary.
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Kinds of Research Variables
1. measured – an operational definition describes how a variable will be measured.
For example:
Variable
Definition (Measured by)
1. Achievement
1. (a) standardized achievement test scores
(b) Teacher-made achievement test scores
(c) Grades
2. Intelligence
2. IQ test
3. Attitude
3. Scores on an attitude scale
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Kinds of Research Variables
2. experimental – spells out the details (operations) of the researcher’s
manipulations of a variable
For example:
Variable
Definition (Measured by)
1. Reinforcement
1. Describes how subjects of the research are to be
reinforced (rewarded) and not reinforced
(unrewarded) for specified behaviors. Some are
praised, some ignored
2. Frustration
2. Prevention from reaching a goal, for example,
putting children in a playroom with a number of highly
attractive but unobtainable toys. The toys are put
behind a wire-net partition; the children can see them
but cannot touch them.
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Types of Data According to Measurement Scale Used
1. Nominal Data
Nominal data are simply names or properties having two or more
categories, and there is no intrinsic ordering to the categories, and
data have no natural ranking or ordering. For example, gender (male
and female) and marital status (married/unmarried) have two
categories, but these categories have no natural order or ranking.
- May be assigned numerical codes in order to identify the members within a given class.
Example: GENDER =
1-MALE
2-FEMALE
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Types of Data According to Measurement Scale Used
2.Ordinal
data: An ordinal data is similar to a nominal data. The difference
between the two is that there is a clear ordering in the data, ordinal data,
unlike nominal data, have some order. For example, ordinal scales are seen
in questions that call for ratings of quality (very good, good, fair, poor, very
poor), agreement (strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree),
economic status (low, medium, and high), etc. All the ranking data
including Likert scales, Bristol stool scale, and all the other scales which are
ranked between 0 and 10 are also called ordinal data.
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Types of Data According to Measurement Scale Used
3. Interval Data
-The interval level of measurement not only classifies and orders the measurements,
but it also specifies that the distances between each interval on the scale are
equivalent along the scale from low interval to high interval.
-For example, an interval level of measurement could be the measurement of
anxiety in a student between the score of 10 and 11, this interval is the same as that
of a student who scores between 40 and 41. A popular example of this level of
measurement is temperature in centigrade, where, for example, the distance
between 940C and 960C is the same as the distance between 1000C and 1020C.
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Types of Data According to Measurement Scale Used
4. Ratio Data
- ordered as the highest type of measurement scale, ratio scale possesses
an actual or true zero point.
- Common ratio scales are measures of length, width, height, area, volume
and other similar measures.
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Thank you!
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