Dissertation results section - report variables or operationalizations? [closed]
Closed by System on Oct 2, 2018 at 20:36
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Following APA style - Do I report my results in the dissertation using the variables I'm researching or their operationalizations?
For example, which is style is correct:
- The correlation between verbal ability and mathematical ability was significant.
- The correlation between the reading comprehension test and the MAQ test was significant.
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1 answer
Either way could work, but given this specific choice with no further information, I (a former university professor, a PhD, currently a full time research scientist) would report the version with the tests, what you call operationalizations.
The correlation could presumably be dependent upon something specific about your method of measurement (the test questions, in your example), or the protocol, meaning the experimental setup, the way you screened your subjects, WHERE you chose your subjects, what the questions on the test were, etc.
For example, if you failed to screen for native speakers, a native French speaker in an American sixth grade classroom, speaking English for less than year, will likely perform rather poorly on a reading comprehension test.
Those things can matter. Claiming that scores on your particular reading comprehension test are indicative of "reading ability" is a generalization you should avoid.
There are caveats: If you have shown elsewhere in the dissertation (in the section describing your measures) that your test, candidate screening and so on is something copied from another researcher and is the scientific community standard for assessing "reading ability". Then using the generalized term "reading ability" may be appropriate.
Another caveat is if you are using somebody else's published data, and their terminology. If Smith called it "reading ability" in his paper, I would mention that future references to "reading ability" refer to results of applying Smith's measure and protocol.
The final caveat, to make the "variables" version work, is to do all this when you describe your test and the protocol you used to administer it. Then you can title that subsection "Reading Ability Assessment", describe the test and protocol, and say "henceforth we refer to these results as 'Reading Ability'."
The point is to be clear and transparent; and for a dissertation you don't care about the length or page count. (Unlike a journal article where you might have a page limit.)
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