INSTRUCTIONS:
Module 6: Operational Definitions
Overview: At this point, it is expected that you are identifying instruments, scales and terms you are planning to use to measure your variables. For variables like age, measurement may seem simple, but the details are important (when are you asking them? Are you asking for an age-range like 10-20 or a raw number?).
For more complicated variables, it is a good idea to find existing measures for your variables in the literature or adapt existing measures to suit your research project. For example, you could measure the variable “Depression” by asking a 1-item question (“Are you depressed? Select Yes or No.”). This is a poor way to measure that rather complicated variable. You might want to use something like Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI) to measure depression. But that’s not the end of it!
You also need to say how you will interpret those results. If you ask a research participant to complete the BDI and they get a score of 32, what does that mean?
You might want to “dichotomize” your variables so that anything below a cutoff score is measured as “Not Depressed” and anything above is measured as “Depressed”.
You might want to create categories of depression, such as “Severely Depressed”, “Moderately Depressed”, “Mildly Depressed”, or “Not At All Depressed”.
Or you might want to just use the raw number score from the BDI. Use your sources as a guide to how to interpret your measures.
Pay attention to how each scale is used in the original study (with particular attention to tables), and you will find out how to interpret your measure. An operational definition consists of 3 parts:
what is measured (the variable)
how it is measured (the measure)
the rules used to assign a value to what is observed and to interpret the value (the interpretation)
Initial Post: For this discussion forum, make your initial post by sharing with your Research Team the following information using the numbering provided:
Research question: State your research question (remind us again what it is as a question)
Variable: The independent variable from your question
Explain what is measured; how it is measured, and any rules assigned to values that help interpret the value.
Responses: Once you have made your initial post, you will be able to see the other Research Team posts. Read over them. Then comment on at least 2 other posts by giving feedback or suggestions to help them clarify or expand their information. You might have ideas from your own experience with screening and assessment tools or from your own research that you can share.
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For example, a response might look like this:
Research question: What is the relationship between the years a child spends in foster care and the child’s level of self-esteem?
Variable: self-esteem
Operational definition for variable: Self-esteem will be measured through obtaining a score on the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale. In the scale, children will answer 10 questions measuring feelings of self-worth and acceptance using a Likert Scale (Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree). Each question has a point value that is tallied for a score. Scores from 0-15 indicate low self-esteem; scores from 16-25 are considered in the average/normal range; and scores of 26-30 indicate high self-esteem.
It is due on April 15. Only 300 words
