Social Research Methods

Fall 2007

Lab Assignment : Conceptualization and Operationalization

Objectives: Completing this assignment will teach you to:

§ To understand and practice forming hypothesis, conceptualization, and operationalization

§ To understand why a range of variation is needed in the operationalization process

§ To understand why attributes should be exhaustive and mutually exclusive

§ To better understand measurement decisions and their effect on study outcomes

1. Write down how you would conceptualize and operationalize “race.” Then read the Census Bureau’s report on race at: http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-1.pdf

a) Answer the following questions after reading the report:

b) What changes did the Bureau make to the conceptualization and operationalization of race in the 2000 census?

c) Why did the Bureau make these changes?

d) Could the difference in operationalization produce different conclusions about race?

e) Does the Bureau’s conceptualization and operationalization of race coincide with your definition? If so, how? If not, what is different?

2. Next go to the Interracial Voice Website at http://www.webcom.com/intvoice/

Select an article that focuses on race and racial identity and:

a) In 2-3 sentences, summarize the article.

b) Compare the author’s comments with the conceptualization and operationalization of race used by the Census.

3. Come up a hypothesis about the relationship between race and one of the attitudinal items from the GSS. Write your hypothesis and the null hypothesis.

a) Pay attention to how the GSS conceptualizes and operationalizes race. Does it allow you to test your hypothesis, or does the data constrain what you can test? Would you need to collapse any categories to test your hypothesis (i.e. white /non-white)? (we will learn how to do this later)

b) Using the GSS’s operationalization of race, construct a crosstab (request a Chi Squared test), paste it to the syntax, export the table and syntax to Word and cut and paste them into this assignment

c) Interpret your findings. (For example/ The data show that there is a significant relationship between __ and ___ in that ___ are more ___ than ___) Is your hypothesis supported (or were you not able to test it)?

d) What are some of the limitations of how the GSS operationalizes race and how could this affect the findings?

This assignment should be typed and emailed to me at weiljh@winthrop.edu. Be sure to put your name on your paper. Completing this assignment benefits your participation grade.