Conceptual and Operational Definitions
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My research problem/question is as follows. "Does the amount of time a child spends in church with family create a stronger bond between family members later in life." I need to find conceptual and operational definitions.
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Solution Summary
In reference to the research question: Does the amount of time a child spends in church with family create a stronger bond between family members later in life?, this solution explores potential conceptual and operational definitions.
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Hi,
Interesting study! I am wondering if you decided on the variables that you are going to use to measure social bonds with the family members, such as number of visits per week, number of telephone calls per week, number of outings together per week or month, etc.)? This will determine how the term of social/family bond will be operationalized.
What research informed your study? Often, it is wise to use variables already used in other studies for reliability and validity. However, as long as you conceptualize and operationalize your concepts it is acceptable, but is sometimes questioned in terms of whether they are reliable and valid measures of the concepts. For example, perhaps an adult child phones his parent out of quilt or obligation as opposed to having a strong bond. So, it is important to find measures that are valid measures of social bond.
Let's take a closer look of one way to conceptualize and operationalize the concepts as an example.
RESPONSE:
(1) Social Bond theory could be used for conceptualizing family bond (or perhaps Attachment Theory???)
Social Bond is the degree to which an individual is integrated into 'the social'. Do they have binding ties to the family, to the school, to the workplace, to the community? While Durkheim first focused on the importance of the social bond it has gained wide ...
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