Operationalisation

Related terms

Dissemination

The stage at which findings are written up, peer reviewed, published and communicated to academic, policy and practitioner audiences so the study...

Hypothesis

A proposed explanation for observed evidence. In reconstruction, competing hypotheses are evaluated against the physical facts and background knowledge. A good hypothesis...

Interpretivism

The view that human action has to be understood through the meaning actors themselves attach to it, which requires closeness to lived...

Pilot Study

A small-scale trial run of the data collection instrument and procedure, carried out before the full study, to catch unclear questions, timing...

Positivism

The view that social phenomena, including crime, can be studied through observation, measurement and causal explanation in the manner of the natural...

Reliability

The extent to which a measurement procedure produces the same result when repeated under the same conditions or by a different researcher.

Research Design

The overall plan for answering the research question, such as a cross-sectional survey, a longitudinal cohort study, or a case study, chosen...

Research Problem

A specific, answerable question that narrows a broad area of interest into something a study can actually investigate with available data and...

Thick Description

A detailed account of behaviour that includes its social and cultural context, so a reader understands the meaning of an act and...

Validity

The degree to which evidence and theory support the interpretation of test scores for a specific purpose; modern standards treat it as...

Explained in these topics

• Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods in Criminology
• Main Steps in the Criminological Research ProcessThe process of converting an abstract concept into a measurable variable, such as turning "fear of crime" into scores on a fixed survey scale.