31 Jan Initial operational definitions of

DOC670 Applied Statistics for Research

Module 2 Case

DESIGNING THE STUDY AND ASSESSMENT OF THE RESEARCH CONTEXT

Assignment Overview

In this Case, you will be reading materials relating to definition of constructs, operational definition, and measurement. Then, you will be asked to create a list of such constructs and measures for your own study, taking into consideration the issues you have been reviewing and the decisions that you previously made regarding research designs. You will also be asked to identify control and/or environmental factors that you won’t be able to include directly in your study, but which might affect your results.

As the course progresses, you will be making a series of decisions in which you will increasingly specify the structure of your project. These decisions build on each other in critical ways. However, you are not locked into previous decisions if you subsequently decide you need to change direction. You have an opportunity to go back and revise and/or extend the previous section completed in the previous module. If you do revise the earlier section, please include it and indicate what changes you have made to it. Case grades given for the first four modules will be advisory rather than final. Your ultimate grade will be based on the completed methodology at the end of the course.

Case Assignment

Prepare a 5- to 7-page paper in accordance with the following Assignment Expectations, describing the measurement issues for your project in accordance with the following outline:

List of main concepts in your study; why you believe that each of them is important.

Any explicit or implicit model that you may believe connects these concepts and that you propose to explore, if any. See above on creating and illustrating models.

Initial operational definitions of your study concepts, arranged in the form of this grid (please replace our illustration with your information):

Concepts

Constructs

Variables/
Indicators

Measures

Source

Study or control

Level of analysis

Love

Love of children

Time spent with child

Minutes of direct contact per week

Observation

Study

Individual

Quality of interaction

Assessments immediately after interaction; qualitative ordinal scale 1-5 low-high

Questionnaire to participants

Study

Individual

Gender

Self-expressed gender

Gender category

Self-identification

Participant query

Control

Individual

Profitability

ROI

ROI

Calculated rate

Organizational records

Study

Organizational

List any concerns you may have about measurement or the general availability of the data you nee