Sociology-301: Indexes, Scales, and Typologies
Rotten Tomatoes
- Movie review aggregator -A movie is rated "fresh" if the critic recommends you to watch -Example of an index because of its one point type of system
What is a scale?
-A type of measurement that takes into account the differing intensities of activities or indicators -Reflect the "ideal pattern" of how they would describe themselves
What is an index?
-An index would be one point per "activity" that you do -Example: Political activism -Wrote a letter to a public official (1 point) -Signed a political petition (1 point) -Gave money to a political cause (1 point) -Gave money to a political candidate (1 point) -Wrote a political letter to the editor (1 point) -Persuaded someone to change her or his voting plans (1 point)
Dissimilarity Index
-Compares groups -Has a measure between 0-1 -If there is high segregation, the score is 1 -If there is low segregation, the score is 0 -The higher the number, the higher percentage in segregation
Top and Bottom Segregated Areas
-High Segregation: The Rust belt- informal region of the United States that experienced industrial decline starting around 1980 -More population seem to have more segregation -Less population seem to have less segregation -Lack of information?: No way of knowing the meaning in being one of these places (individual thoughts)
Metacritic
-Movie review aggregator -Evaluates more on how individuals rate the quality based on multiple points -Example that reflects more of a scale because it takes multiple things into consideration
What is a typology
-Similar, in spirit, to indexes and scales -Way of building ordinal measure with classifications
What is the problem with indexes?
-They only count one point per activity, however, each activity has a heavier or more meaningful weight then the other -Example: Most people believe that voting is more important than writing a letter -No underlying way to tell which category or activity to prioritize
Latino Segregation in the 2000 U.S.
-Those that were more segregated: Black-foreign born Latinos -Those that were least segregated: White-U.S. born Latinos -Why is there a big difference between Black-Foreign Born and White- U.S. Born Latinos? Because White-U.S. Born Latinos are white-passing -Information, such as the chart on slide 17, provide researchers with a starting point- creating a hypothesis on numbers
