How to avoid failure in measuring a concept that has never been measured before : a story of failure / Sangdong Tak.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tak, Sangdong, author.

Series:

SAGE Research Methods. Cases.

SAGE Research Methods. Cases

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social sciences--Research.

Social sciences.

Research--Methodology.

Research.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

London : SAGE Publications Ltd, 2019.

Summary:

This case study describes a failed story in measuring a concept of concern for community. It was hypothesized as a causal relationship that involvement in cooperatives would promote the generation of concern for a community and that this psychological attribute would enable cooperative members to be engaged in community matters through giving, volunteering, and/or voting. The method adopted was surveying the member-owners of a taxi cooperative. Since the hypothesized relationship was causal, measuring the mediating variable, "concern for community," was the most important task in the project. However, no contemporary scholars used the concept, and I had to develop it myself. First, I identified some studies using a concept of concern for others, and presumed that concern for others and concern for community would be similar. Then, I developed concern for others by including a phrase "in the community" in the questions used to measure concern for others. After surveying the cooperative members and analyzing the data, I found that the result did not support the hypothesis. Rather than simply concluding that the theoretical hypothesis did not apply to the cooperative members, I claim that the concept measurement was a failure, violating the validity of the concept. Three possible reasons for considering the project a failure are explained, and a pilot study is recommended to prevent such failure that costs enormous amount of time and effort.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on XML content.

ISBN:

1-5264-6661-9

9781526466617

OCLC:

1084506166