Course Materials
CONCEPT EXPLICATION EXERCISE
This exercise provides the opportunity to practice the important process of concept explication. Here's what to do:
- Preliminary identification
of concept:
Identify a concept you find interesting. What is it? What unit of
analysis applies to it (what is 'one' of it)? When translated from
theory to measurement, what might the values of it be?
- Literature search:
Do some exploratory searching of the academic literature that relates
to the concept you've identified (you'll likely be able to do it all
online but you could also visit the library!). How have
others used this concept, both conceptually and operationally? What
other terms have been used for this concept?
- Empirical description:
What
are the results of past operations (measurements) of this concept in
the literature - what range (and if appropriate, means, etc.) of values
have been found? What variables have been found to affect your variable
and be affected by it? Are the findings consistent across studies and
across units of analysis?
- Your conceptual
definition: Write out a tentative formal definition of your concept. Begin at the most abstract level,
and then address lower order dimensions that the general concept subsumes
(e.g., 'TV viewing' is highly abstract, with dimensions that might include news, entertainment, etc.).
- Your operational definition: Write out a formal description of the specific way the general concept and each dimension are to be measured, as they would be in an actual research study you conducted.
Note that this assignment doesn't require you to complete the final step in the explicaiton process, which is gathering data to actually observe your concept in action and then refine your conceptual and operatioinal definitions based on those results.
Now write a short paper (approximately 4 pages long, double-spaced using standard fonts and 1 inch margins) that describes what you found and produced for each of the five steps above. Then conclude with your impressions about the process.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask!