Page 18 - The Importance of Common Metrics for Advacing Social Science Theory and Research

The Importance of Common Metrics for Advancing Social Science Theory and Research: A Workshop Summary
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/13034.html

6 THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMON METRICS

making and decision making, with examples drawn from the context of
disability, high school completion and dropout rates, and race and ethnicity.
Chapter 4 focuses on social science constructs in the more basic social
and psychological sciences. Social scientific examples of standardization
range from qualitative classifications, like race/ethnicity and social class;
to numerical scales describing psychological traits, social standing, or eco-
nomic amounts; to normalized measures of the fit of statistical models
and the effects of variables in such models. Three important aspects of
standardization are identified: ontology, representation, and procedures.
Examples are drawn from a number of constructs—including poverty,
intergenerational mobility, and self-regulation—that highlight the obstacles
to development of common metrics in the social sciences.
Chapter 5 summarizes the final discussion session of the 2-day event.
The report includes two appendixes: Appendix A presents the workshop
agenda and a list of participants, and Appendix B presents biographical
sketches of the workshop speakers.

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