de Vaus: Developing Indicators For Concepts

Workshop 10

Eeva Seppä



l   Concepts need good indicators to be usefull for the purposes of research

l   Difficulty: to make good and reliable indicators for concepts



   Imaginery study and hypothesis: religiousness is a response to deprivation (de Vaus, 2002, 47)

Concepts and their indicators:

l   deprivation = income

l   religiousness = church attandence

Results: only 15% of people with low incomes attend church regularly, while 50% of those with higher
income do so.



Problems of this research would be:

l   concepts 'deprivation' and 'religiousness' are not clarified, what is their meaning?

l   are the indicators adequate, does income really measure deprivation, or church attandence
religiousness?

                          Three steps to make creating  indicators easier:



l   Clarifying the concepts

l   Developing initial indicators

l   Evaluating the indicators



                                      Clarifying the concepts

l   Concepts are abstract summaries of a whole set of behaviours, attitudes and characteristics
which we see as having something in common

l   Concepts are terms which people create for the purpose of  communication and efficiency

                           Three steps which help in clarifying process:

l     Obtain a range of definitions of the concept

    - classify definitions into a number of categories

l     Decide on a definition

    - choose a definition and justify the decision

l     Delineate the dimensions of the concept

   - distinguish between dimensions of concept,

     decide to use only one, or create indicators for each            

     dimension

                                       Developing indicators

l   Firstly researcher has to "descend the ladder of abstraction"

   - before concepts can be measured                                   

    reseacher has to move down from                                                  
          theories to more everyday issues, 'translate'

     concepts into more easily understandable language

l   This begins already while clarifying concepts



           Clarifying concepts: descending the ladder of abstraction (de Vaus, 2002, 53)



   When researcher gets to the point where he has to start to develop indicators he has two problems
to deal with:

l   How many indicators to use?

l   How to develop the indicators?

                                    How many indicators to use?

l     develop indicators to a range of definitions and see what difference this makes to the results
and interpretation

l     consider if all the dimension of the concept are relevant to the research

l     ensure that all the key concepts are thoughoutly measured

l     make enough questions to measure complex concepts, and this way capture the scope of of them

l     do pilot testing to indicators to eliminate unnecessary questions



                                     How to develop indicators?

    Three main approaches to develop initial indicators:

l     use measures developed in previous researches, and if necessary update them

l     use less structured approach (observation or unstructured interview) in surveying special
groups to understand things through their eyes

l     use 'informants' from the group to be surveyd, such people can provide useful clues about
meaningful questions



    In the end reseacher has to:

l    decide which indicators to use and how to word them

l    be as informed as possible about the group he studies

l    to know clearly what he wants to measure

l    compare and evaluate his own indicators