Turning social phenomena into data: measurement instruments for the social sciences (Part 2)

What social phenomena are the most difficult to grasp and describe quantitatively? There can be no general answer to that question. Researchers interested in individual differences may say that getting to the bottom of individual personalities, or how they differ, is really challenging. Other researchers working on social groups may say that aggregate scores do not adequately present the reality of the dynamics in groups. Researchers dealing with contextual phenomena at local, regional, or global levels may lament the fact that access to high quality data is difficult and the “right” level for aggregating data to describe the phenomena of interest cannot be disentangled. Understanding how to quantify characteristics through questionnaires used in different cultures and languages is incredibly interesting, because here the comparability of scores can be seriously hampered. Getting to the bottom of individual personalities, or adequately presenting the reality of the dynamics in groups can prove very challenging (From pixabay.com, CC0 Creative Commons) What does excite you most of your research activity and field? Asking questions and getting answers that can be considered valid to describe a situation or a population more generally – more than just the group of people observed in a single lab study, at one particular research site, in a particular city or country. At the same time, populations are heterogeneous, and the differences within populations play a crucial role ...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Health Open Access Publishing psychology Science:Social social sciences Source Type: blogs