Communication study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Communication study - Essay Example This chapter attempts to explore the use of indexes and scales as a measure of variable in social science research. It also discusses the various typologies employed in both qualitative and quantitative research (Babbie, 2012). Indices in this case are used to measure an individual item in relation to their importance in the concept being established. Babbie (2012) notes that indexes are normally used to measure a given social issues affecting people in the society. A scale, on the other hand, is used as a tool for ascertaining the intensity of emotions or attitude of an individual. Babbie (2012) reveals that the scales employed by the social scientists in research are normally constructed in the ordinal data level. Likert, semantic differential and Bogardus Social Distance Scales, are the typically examples of scales normally used by social scientists in their studies according to Babbie (2012). Babbie (2012) also considers the effectiveness of scales and indexes as a measure of variables in this chapter. In this regard, it comes out that scales are perceived to work better than indexes. This is because scales take into consideration the feelings being measured, as well as the intensity of the question asked, according to Babbie (2012). There are normally several data collection methods used by social scientists. Sampling is one of the most popular methods used for data collection. Sampling refers to the data collection method in which a given small sample is taken as a representative of an entire population according to Babbie (2012). In this chapter, Babbie (2012) explores sampling as a data collection technique used by social scientists. It also attempts to examine the various sampling techniques used by researchers, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of sampling as a data collection technique. Babbie (2012) reveals that sampling technique has been