Exercises
EXERCISE 2
What level of measurement describes each of the following variables?
EXERCISE 3
Instruction:
For the categories / values of each variable mentioned in Table 2, determine the variable name, and then mention its level of measurement. The first line is given as example.
Table 2. Variables and levels of measurement according to categories / values of some selected variables
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Categories/ values of the variable |
The name of the variable |
Measurement level of the variable |
|
English, Spanish, French, Russian, Romanian language |
The foreign language studied by students in the first year of college |
Nominal |
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Childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age |
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0, 1, 2, ….., 10 children, etc. |
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Rural, urban |
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Positive, neutral, negative attitude |
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Very good, good, satisfactorily, bad, very bad health |
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28 m2, 40 m2, 57 m2, 70 m2, etc. |
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Perceives the risk, doesn’t perceive any risk |
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Doctor, professor, qualified worker, entrepreneur, farmer, soldier, etc. |
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Exercise 4
Instruction:
Conceptualize and operationalize the term “volunteering” in order to measure it through a nominal, ordinal and ratio variable. For each example, specify the name of the variable and its categories / values, like in the example for the term “counseling”.
An exemple
Nominal variable:
- Name of variable: type of counseling (a beneficiary of a social service received last year)
- Categories / classes of variable: psychological; socio-psychosocial; juridical; other type, specify
Ordinal variable:
- Name of variable: self-perception about the usefulness of the psycho-social counseling (a beneficiary received last year)
- Categories / classes of variable: very useful, useful, neither useful nor not useful, not useful, not useful at all
Ratio variable:
- Name of variable: number of hours of counseling (a beneficiary received in the last 6 months)
- Values of variable: each beneficiary specify a number (for example: 0, 6, 10, etc.)
Exercise 5
Instruction:
Suppose you intend to measure college satisfaction. To study this concept, you need to engage in the process of conceptualization and operationalization. Imagine five items you should formulate in order to capture this topic as best as possible. Organize these five items into a mini-questionnaire to be answered by all students who finished their first year of study who agree to participate in the survey.
Exercise 6
Instruction:
For the examples in Table 4, indicate which operationalization of variables is correct (by writing OK), and which is not correct, and for the second situation, mention what is the problem and fix it. Propose another way of conceptualisation:
Table 4. Conceptualization and operationalization – right or wrong?
|
Variable |
Categories/ values |
Correct/ wrong – why and fix |
Another way of operationalization |
|
Income |
Below 1000 Euro 1000 to 3000 Euro Over 3000 Euro |
Correct, as the categories are mutually exclusive |
0-1000 Euro 1001-3000 Euro 3001-5000 Euro 5001 Euro and over |
|
Education |
less than high school high school college graduate degree |
Correct, the categories are constructed upward and covers the whole educational pathway |
The respondent is asked to indicate the number of school years completed. |
|
Type of abuse |
Physical Sexual |
Wrong, the categories do not cover all forms of abuse – we should add at least two other forms of abuse: emotional and economic. |
If we focus in our study only on the physical abuse children witness in their family of origin, then we can operationalise the variable, as: physical abuse, other type of abuse, and no abuse. If we consider the type of abuse as independent variable and school performance as the dependent variable, then we can investigate the differences in school achievement among the three categories of children. |
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Number of cigarettes smoked in a day |
0-10 10-19 20-25 |
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Level of satisfaction with the travel network in a city |
Not very satisfied Satisfied Very satisfied Neither unsatisfied, nor satisfied Not satisfied at all |
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Preferred colour for the new school outside wall |
Grey White Green Yellow Other, indicate … |
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Exercise 7
Instruction:
In the examples below, there are some errors. Identify the errors, explain and correct them:
Categories / values of the variable: Village, small town, big town, capital
Categories / values of the variable: Satisfied with the restrictions imposed by the state during the pandemic; not satisfied with these restrictions; I don’t know; I don’t want to answer.
Categories / values of the variable: 10, 15, 20, etc.
Categories / values of the variable: Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly
Categories / values of the variable: Emotional disorders, schizophrenia, organic syndrome, personality disorders, other psychoses
Categories / values of the variable: PhD student, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor