WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.730 --> 00:00:04.590 Hello, and welcome to the video lecture 2 00:00:04.590 --> 00:00:06.723 on conceptualization. 3 00:00:09.210 --> 00:00:13.950 I'm going to show you a model on how to measure something 4 00:00:13.950 --> 00:00:16.830 that does not have a clear way of measure, 5 00:00:16.830 --> 00:00:20.940 that doesn't have an accepted way to measure, 6 00:00:20.940 --> 00:00:23.790 that has no units, 7 00:00:23.790 --> 00:00:26.040 but that you want 8 00:00:26.040 --> 00:00:29.710 to be able to understand 9 00:00:31.290 --> 00:00:34.380 whether it's present or absent, 10 00:00:34.380 --> 00:00:36.450 whether it's strong or weak, 11 00:00:36.450 --> 00:00:38.313 a high or low, things like that. 12 00:00:43.560 --> 00:00:45.570 So we're gonna talk about measurement 13 00:00:45.570 --> 00:00:48.660 and this model of conceptualization 14 00:00:48.660 --> 00:00:50.190 and the four steps, 15 00:00:50.190 --> 00:00:53.820 which are dimensions, indicators, variables, and attributes, 16 00:00:53.820 --> 00:00:55.820 and I'm gonna walk you through all this. 17 00:00:57.930 --> 00:01:01.500 So some things can be easily measured. 18 00:01:01.500 --> 00:01:04.683 Many times they have units. 19 00:01:06.300 --> 00:01:08.190 Certain behaviors, 20 00:01:08.190 --> 00:01:12.573 you can see does someone buy some good or service or not? 21 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:16.320 Numerical values. 22 00:01:16.320 --> 00:01:18.450 A lot of economic variables 23 00:01:18.450 --> 00:01:21.840 have easy ways to measure in dollars, 24 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:25.440 sales, or profits, or costs. 25 00:01:25.440 --> 00:01:29.430 There's ways to measure someone's height or weight, 26 00:01:29.430 --> 00:01:30.570 someone's age. 27 00:01:30.570 --> 00:01:32.970 Those all have sort of straightforward 28 00:01:32.970 --> 00:01:35.820 and accepted ways to measure, 29 00:01:35.820 --> 00:01:37.413 but many things don't. 30 00:01:39.390 --> 00:01:40.950 And for these things, 31 00:01:40.950 --> 00:01:45.950 we need to sort of design a way of measuring it. 32 00:01:48.510 --> 00:01:50.820 Something like awareness, 33 00:01:50.820 --> 00:01:53.370 belief, or attitudes towards something, 34 00:01:53.370 --> 00:01:55.500 which is things that we measure 35 00:01:55.500 --> 00:01:58.650 very often in social science. 36 00:01:58.650 --> 00:02:01.950 And there is no attitude-ometer, 37 00:02:01.950 --> 00:02:05.550 there is no wand that you could hold over someone 38 00:02:05.550 --> 00:02:07.650 and know what their attitudes are, 39 00:02:07.650 --> 00:02:09.363 so you sort of have to build it. 40 00:02:13.320 --> 00:02:15.120 So we start with a conception, 41 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:17.280 that thing that we wanna measure, 42 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:21.120 some sort of mental image or mental concept. 43 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:24.180 So I made a list here, 44 00:02:24.180 --> 00:02:28.353 whether something is fair, or ethical, or effective, 45 00:02:29.220 --> 00:02:33.000 whether someone support or agrees with 46 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:36.360 that there's no well known way of measuring it, 47 00:02:36.360 --> 00:02:38.673 so again, we have to construct it. 48 00:02:42.030 --> 00:02:45.630 So this process is called conceptualization, 49 00:02:45.630 --> 00:02:47.790 and it's the way to take this 50 00:02:47.790 --> 00:02:51.870 sort of fuzzy ill-defined concept 51 00:02:51.870 --> 00:02:55.650 into a clear, specific way of measuring 52 00:02:55.650 --> 00:02:58.530 how people vary on this. 53 00:02:58.530 --> 00:03:00.453 How much does someone's agreement, 54 00:03:03.079 --> 00:03:05.430 or someone's awareness, 55 00:03:05.430 --> 00:03:08.970 or the favorability or unfavorability 56 00:03:08.970 --> 00:03:13.743 of someone's attitude vary among individuals? 57 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:22.050 So two examples might be what makes a business sustainable? 58 00:03:22.050 --> 00:03:25.380 If a business calls itself that, how do you know? 59 00:03:25.380 --> 00:03:28.500 Is it just because it calls itself that 60 00:03:28.500 --> 00:03:33.273 or is a way to dig deeper and sort of put some nuance there? 61 00:03:34.380 --> 00:03:35.640 You could think too 62 00:03:35.640 --> 00:03:40.640 that UVM has prepared me for life after college. 63 00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:42.720 So what does that mean? 64 00:03:42.720 --> 00:03:46.800 Does it mean that you can immediately have a good job? 65 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:50.850 Is it your ability to think critically? 66 00:03:50.850 --> 00:03:55.850 Did we instill a love of lifelong learning? 67 00:03:55.890 --> 00:03:57.330 All of those things 68 00:03:57.330 --> 00:04:01.860 might be ways that you would want to understand 69 00:04:01.860 --> 00:04:05.973 how well UVM has prepared you. 70 00:04:09.090 --> 00:04:12.453 So again, this is the way, 71 00:04:13.380 --> 00:04:16.500 conceptualization is this process 72 00:04:16.500 --> 00:04:20.673 that we define what research terms mean. 73 00:04:21.840 --> 00:04:24.450 They're sort of working agreements that you make 74 00:04:24.450 --> 00:04:28.783 with your readers or your co-researchers. 75 00:04:30.180 --> 00:04:35.180 And it's the path from a concept to measurement, 76 00:04:35.310 --> 00:04:38.100 and it's a sort of clear way 77 00:04:38.100 --> 00:04:41.250 that you are defining, 78 00:04:41.250 --> 00:04:44.250 creating and defining on how to measure something. 79 00:04:44.250 --> 00:04:47.370 Again, how to measure variation 80 00:04:47.370 --> 00:04:52.370 among humans, or businesses, 81 00:04:52.740 --> 00:04:54.813 or locations, or things like that. 82 00:04:57.030 --> 00:04:59.250 So I'm gonna walk you through this model 83 00:04:59.250 --> 00:05:01.920 where we start at the top of the funnel 84 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:03.640 and work our way down 85 00:05:04.650 --> 00:05:08.220 with sort of key steps in between. 86 00:05:08.220 --> 00:05:11.940 So we start with a concept, this fuzzy image, 87 00:05:11.940 --> 00:05:16.050 sustainability, or value, 88 00:05:16.050 --> 00:05:20.190 or the effectiveness, 89 00:05:20.190 --> 00:05:22.443 the value of my class, say. 90 00:05:26.070 --> 00:05:27.960 So the first thing that we do 91 00:05:27.960 --> 00:05:30.390 is we try to break it into its parts 92 00:05:30.390 --> 00:05:33.270 and we call those dimensions. 93 00:05:33.270 --> 00:05:35.400 So a very well-known model 94 00:05:35.400 --> 00:05:40.020 is when when you're looking about at sustainable agriculture 95 00:05:40.020 --> 00:05:42.270 or a sustainable business, 96 00:05:42.270 --> 00:05:44.580 you can break it into three parts 97 00:05:44.580 --> 00:05:47.550 of the economic, the environmental, 98 00:05:47.550 --> 00:05:51.000 and the social dimensions of it. 99 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:56.000 So those that are strong in all three of those, 100 00:05:56.091 --> 00:06:00.420 you might say that they are more sustainable 101 00:06:00.420 --> 00:06:02.580 than are those that are not strong 102 00:06:02.580 --> 00:06:06.150 in any or or in all three. 103 00:06:06.150 --> 00:06:09.030 And then our next step is to think about 104 00:06:09.030 --> 00:06:13.413 what are the indicators for each of these dimensions? 105 00:06:16.110 --> 00:06:18.305 Sometimes we could just jump 106 00:06:18.305 --> 00:06:21.930 right to indicators 107 00:06:21.930 --> 00:06:25.020 or jump right into dimensions, 108 00:06:25.020 --> 00:06:29.493 but for now we're going to use all four parts of this model. 109 00:06:32.190 --> 00:06:35.340 So you think about what are the indicators 110 00:06:35.340 --> 00:06:38.070 of environmental sustainability? 111 00:06:38.070 --> 00:06:41.970 So you might wanna think of soil biodiversity, 112 00:06:41.970 --> 00:06:43.590 a low carbon footprint, 113 00:06:43.590 --> 00:06:44.423 a low amount 114 00:06:44.423 --> 00:06:45.747 of pollution, 115 00:06:50.610 --> 00:06:51.790 and think about that 116 00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:56.010 when you think about the social indicators, 117 00:06:56.010 --> 00:06:57.810 they might be farm worker safety, 118 00:06:57.810 --> 00:07:00.990 they may be diversity of the farmers 119 00:07:00.990 --> 00:07:03.990 or the diversity of those who eat there. 120 00:07:03.990 --> 00:07:06.690 And for the economic, 121 00:07:06.690 --> 00:07:09.270 things like the viability of the farm 122 00:07:09.270 --> 00:07:10.950 and the degree to it, 123 00:07:10.950 --> 00:07:14.550 it supports the local economy. 124 00:07:14.550 --> 00:07:18.660 So there are many that you could choose, 125 00:07:18.660 --> 00:07:21.330 there's never one exact right way, 126 00:07:21.330 --> 00:07:23.700 we wouldn't all do it the same way. 127 00:07:23.700 --> 00:07:26.970 But the key is you do it in such a way 128 00:07:26.970 --> 00:07:30.780 that your reader or your co-researchers 129 00:07:30.780 --> 00:07:33.900 will see it and say, "Yes, that makes sense that, 130 00:07:33.900 --> 00:07:35.430 that's a reasonable approach 131 00:07:35.430 --> 00:07:38.337 and I understand what you did and why." 132 00:07:40.710 --> 00:07:42.340 Now, variables 133 00:07:43.320 --> 00:07:47.970 are ways of measuring 134 00:07:47.970 --> 00:07:51.060 whether this indicator 135 00:07:51.060 --> 00:07:55.410 is sort of present or absent, 136 00:07:55.410 --> 00:07:57.360 or high or low, 137 00:07:57.360 --> 00:07:59.250 and you need to think about 138 00:07:59.250 --> 00:08:04.050 what would be good variables for each indicator. 139 00:08:04.050 --> 00:08:05.190 Another way of thinking, 140 00:08:05.190 --> 00:08:09.390 so you can think about that your variables vary, 141 00:08:09.390 --> 00:08:10.440 ways that they can be, 142 00:08:10.440 --> 00:08:14.850 again, be present or absent, 143 00:08:14.850 --> 00:08:16.650 high, medium, low, 144 00:08:16.650 --> 00:08:17.520 things like that. 145 00:08:17.520 --> 00:08:22.520 But the ability to measure each of these indicators. 146 00:08:22.620 --> 00:08:27.360 And you can think about it as the questions on a survey. 147 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:31.800 How would you ask these questions on a survey? 148 00:08:31.800 --> 00:08:35.793 And the sort of the questions are the variables. 149 00:08:38.070 --> 00:08:39.453 So again, 150 00:08:40.290 --> 00:08:44.460 to look at the economic dimension 151 00:08:44.460 --> 00:08:48.570 and look at some of these two indicators 152 00:08:48.570 --> 00:08:52.230 that some of the variables that you might look at 153 00:08:52.230 --> 00:08:57.230 for farm viability are profit and loss, 154 00:08:57.240 --> 00:08:58.770 net worth, debt ratio, 155 00:08:58.770 --> 00:09:02.580 a lot of sort of financial variables. 156 00:09:02.580 --> 00:09:07.470 For the indicator of support for the local economy 157 00:09:07.470 --> 00:09:09.810 might be the number of employees, 158 00:09:09.810 --> 00:09:12.780 their wages, and the percent of inputs 159 00:09:12.780 --> 00:09:14.610 like seeds, and for fertilizers, 160 00:09:14.610 --> 00:09:17.673 and other things that they purchase locally. 161 00:09:19.320 --> 00:09:22.860 And do you see that by understanding 162 00:09:22.860 --> 00:09:27.090 say their number of employees, 163 00:09:27.090 --> 00:09:30.150 their wages, and percent of inputs, 164 00:09:30.150 --> 00:09:33.150 that tells you something about how a farm 165 00:09:33.150 --> 00:09:37.560 supports the local economy, 166 00:09:37.560 --> 00:09:39.780 which tells you something about 167 00:09:39.780 --> 00:09:44.550 their economic sustainability, 168 00:09:44.550 --> 00:09:45.990 which tells you something about 169 00:09:45.990 --> 00:09:49.623 their overall sustainability. 170 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:54.480 Finally, attributes 171 00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:56.567 are like the answers 172 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:02.220 to those survey questions. 173 00:10:02.220 --> 00:10:05.580 It's the individual's measure, 174 00:10:05.580 --> 00:10:08.430 say the farm's measure 175 00:10:08.430 --> 00:10:12.300 of their number of employees. 176 00:10:12.300 --> 00:10:15.300 So if an employee, 177 00:10:15.300 --> 00:10:17.250 if a firm has five employees, 178 00:10:17.250 --> 00:10:22.170 then that their attribute is five. 179 00:10:22.170 --> 00:10:27.170 So it's like sort of like the individual responses 180 00:10:27.300 --> 00:10:31.290 to the survey are the attributes for that person 181 00:10:31.290 --> 00:10:34.443 or that farm that you are measuring. 182 00:10:37.770 --> 00:10:39.570 So to think about it again, 183 00:10:39.570 --> 00:10:41.250 you start with the dimensions. 184 00:10:41.250 --> 00:10:44.430 We'll put your sort of the parts or aspects, 185 00:10:44.430 --> 00:10:48.600 you go for each dimension one or more indicators 186 00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:53.493 which measure sort of high/low, or there or not. 187 00:10:54.990 --> 00:10:57.963 Variables help you understand these, 188 00:10:59.100 --> 00:11:00.240 what the indicators are, 189 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:03.090 that they're like the questions on a survey 190 00:11:03.090 --> 00:11:06.030 and the attributes are 191 00:11:06.030 --> 00:11:09.000 the individual's answers to a survey. 192 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:10.710 And if you know something, 193 00:11:10.710 --> 00:11:14.520 when you have a set of attributes 194 00:11:14.520 --> 00:11:19.410 that tells you sort of where they score on these variables 195 00:11:19.410 --> 00:11:22.600 and which then tells you about something 196 00:11:24.570 --> 00:11:25.950 about each indicator, 197 00:11:25.950 --> 00:11:29.640 which again tells you something about each dimension, 198 00:11:29.640 --> 00:11:31.410 which then tells you something 199 00:11:31.410 --> 00:11:34.920 about the overall fuzzy concept. 200 00:11:34.920 --> 00:11:38.250 So by understanding the attributes, 201 00:11:38.250 --> 00:11:40.680 you've created a measure 202 00:11:40.680 --> 00:11:43.950 to better understand the variability 203 00:11:43.950 --> 00:11:47.073 of your various respondents. 204 00:11:49.680 --> 00:11:53.340 So another example that's drawn from an article I wrote 205 00:11:53.340 --> 00:11:56.970 now many years ago, 206 00:11:56.970 --> 00:12:01.970 and we wondered why do farmers engage in farm to school? 207 00:12:02.220 --> 00:12:04.590 Why do they sell to schools? 208 00:12:04.590 --> 00:12:06.390 That we found that there's both social 209 00:12:06.390 --> 00:12:09.150 and economic motivations. 210 00:12:09.150 --> 00:12:12.810 And one of the indicators of social 211 00:12:12.810 --> 00:12:17.810 was whether they sort of think food 212 00:12:17.820 --> 00:12:21.540 can help the students know better 213 00:12:21.540 --> 00:12:22.770 where food is from, 214 00:12:22.770 --> 00:12:25.830 and who grows it, and things like this. 215 00:12:25.830 --> 00:12:30.780 One of the variables is does this farm host 216 00:12:30.780 --> 00:12:32.940 field trips for the student 217 00:12:32.940 --> 00:12:35.250 and some individual does, 218 00:12:35.250 --> 00:12:37.743 so that would be her attribute. 219 00:12:43.350 --> 00:12:48.300 Before we talked about quality education experience, 220 00:12:48.300 --> 00:12:50.040 so how would you measure, 221 00:12:50.040 --> 00:12:53.070 say, the quality of my class 222 00:12:53.070 --> 00:12:57.690 or the quality of your overall 223 00:12:57.690 --> 00:13:00.123 UVM education? 224 00:13:01.740 --> 00:13:03.630 And here are some parts. 225 00:13:03.630 --> 00:13:07.893 So I just thought of here are some dimensions, 226 00:13:08.730 --> 00:13:10.620 your critical skills, 227 00:13:10.620 --> 00:13:12.810 your critical thinking, and your network, 228 00:13:12.810 --> 00:13:14.670 sort of all of those 229 00:13:14.670 --> 00:13:19.260 help to define the overall experience. 230 00:13:19.260 --> 00:13:21.510 And we could think about the network 231 00:13:21.510 --> 00:13:25.500 as sort of a number and the diversity of contacts 232 00:13:25.500 --> 00:13:29.580 and that that would be a way that we could measure 233 00:13:29.580 --> 00:13:33.483 that part of the networking dimension. 234 00:13:35.970 --> 00:13:37.803 So here is a recap. 235 00:13:45.330 --> 00:13:48.600 And I hope that you now understand this model 236 00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:53.280 of measuring things as a sort of social phenomena 237 00:13:53.280 --> 00:13:55.290 that we could use this 238 00:13:55.290 --> 00:14:00.290 to measure anything that exists. 239 00:14:04.620 --> 00:14:06.120 And I hope that you have a good day. 240 00:14:06.120 --> 00:14:07.270 Thank you for watching.