Talk:Operationalization

Merger with Operational definition?

No. Bridgman's philosophy separate from an operational definition which has a broader use. --Thomasmeeks 01:53, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

• No.Tstrobaugh 18:24, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
• Yes. Bridgmans idea is called operational definition (and he coined it) and operationalization is merely the process of turning concepts safely defined using operational definitions. Bridgmans philosophy is not more narrow than his ideas, obviously. iNic 12:19, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
• Yes, merge I cannot say that I know very much about the subject, but I think that the concepts are extremely closely related. Andries 12:22, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
• Yes, merge But I would rename the merged item as "Operationalism" (with redirects for the other terms), and explain that it is a broader topic than that laid out by Bridgman, which it is. I suspect Bridgman himself would approve. He didn't set forth the final exposition of the topic, and wouldn't claim to own the word. Indeed, the idea to which he applied a label long predates his discussion of it. With the concurrence of others, I am willing to combine the articles, and bring out the antecedents. --Jon Roland 16:42, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

I support this. Operationalism is the best title for a merge. But in what sense is the idea broader today? The idea is the same even though the application is broader today. I didn't say he owned the words, I said that he coined the words as he explained this philosophy for the first time ever. And who predated Bridgman according to you? iNic 16:18, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

The idea is older than Bridgman. One can find it implicit in the writings of William James, and back to the utilitarians, and even to Francis Bacon, with a little stretch. The unconfirmed rumor is that the term was in use among Bridgman's circle of acquaintances before he published. However, we don't need to argue precedence here. It is an analytic approach to discussion of the subject that is broader than Bridgman. That should be sufficient to use the term in the broader sense than he used it. --Jon Roland 05:42, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, the broader, looser and simpler idea that we should clearly define what we talk about in scientific matters is older than Bridgman, of course. It's connected to the Age of Enlightenment in physics (and later in other fields of science). But Bridgman's idea is much more subtle than that. The only forerunner to Bridgman is Einstein whose methodology Bridgman turned into a general philosophy. However, Einstien didn't realize he was using a new methodological philosophy; he thought he was simply implementing the philosophy of Ernst Mach. But Mach rejected Eintein's thinking. And even though Mach was not only a heavy influence to Einstein but also to the highly influential logical positivists, the positivists nevertheless rejected Bridgman's operationalism. This shows that Bridgman's philosophy was new and highly controversial at the time. iNic 12:54, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

However, when Bridgman's operationalism later became a buzzword even in other sciences, like psychology and the social sciences, the concept shifted meaning and became simply the label for the general cry for clearly defined concepts in those sciences, i.e., the same kind of battle that Francis Bacon and others fought during the enlightenment when it comes to physics and alchemy. This important distiction has to be stressed in the article(s) I think; that this concept originated with Bridgman but later his "operationalism" has become the label for quite a different struggle outside the natural sciences. iNic 12:54, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

No, I don't agree with the merger on the basis that there can be two different definitions. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.143.66.110 (talk) 20:45, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

No, I don't agree. Operationalization is a process, not necessarily ending with a closed definition, [User:SarahPhilipson] —Preceding unsigned comment added by SarahPhilipson (talk • contribs) 17:44, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

No, I don't agree. The scientific use predates the business concept, the latter of which should have its own page titled Operationalization (business) Fergdoug (talk) 12:54, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

Who's Chris?

Who's the Chris cited at the end of the third paragraph?

Probably the name of the vandal himself. iNic 12:08, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Gender

It's painful for a physicist to realize that what she always thought was one concept is, in fact, two or more distinct concepts

Gratuitous use of the female pronoun is just as annoying as gratuitous use of the male.

How about "It's painful for a physicist to realize that what appears to be a single concept is, in fact, two or more distinct concepts"?

I'd change it myself except that all my edits seem to be undone these days. 84.9.82.184 10:43, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

The pronoun 'one' can be resurrected, with a little modification here: '... what one always thought was a single concept is, in fact, two or more ... .' Geologist (talk) 01:19, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

1950's social sciences

Should be more about the 1950's social-science meaning of "operationalism", which claimed that unless you could lay out a series of steps by which something could be concretely measured, then it simply didn't exist scientifically. Operationalism was related to the concepts of behaviorism and logical positivism which prevailed at that time. Also, the view was sometimes held that it wasn't really adequate just to show that a theory was consistent with observations -- it was also desirable or necessary to show a series of steps by which the theory could be directly derived from the observations (this was part of the meaning of "biuniqueness" in linguistics). AnonMoos (talk) 06:21, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

bogus physics example?

The article says, "Previously, no one had paid any attention to the different operations used because they always produced the same results," referring to Einstein and inertial versus gravitational mass. I don't think this is right. Loránd Eötvös surely understood the distinction before Einstein was born.--75.83.69.196 (talk) 03:34, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

I don't think there should be any physics in the article. It's not a term that is used in science. Google gave me nothing apart from this 1927 book by Percy Bridgman.Bhny (talk) 23:34, 28 May 2013 (UTC)

Also the general relativity example is contradicted by the last sentence where it says he used operationalization in Special relativity and not in General. I'll delete the paragraph unless anyone can fix it. Here's a pretty good reference about it- [[1]] At the heart of special relativity was Einstein's recognition that judging the simultaneity of two events separated in space required a different operation from that required for judging the simultaneity of two events happening at the same place. So Bridgman actually was talking about simultaneity *not* equivalence. Bhny (talk) 00:02, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

citation needed for "In modern methodology of science"

I can't find a reference that "operationalization" is used in 'modern' science. All references are to the humanities apart from an essay written in 1927. We need to define the topic in the first paragraph, not give some historical usage Bhny (talk) 17:07, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

The article says: "The concept of operationalization was first presented by the British physicist N. R. Campbell in his 'Physics: The Elements' (Cambridge, 1920).". I checked the book here: https://archive.org/details/physicstheelemen029733mbp/page/n7, but could not find any mentioning of the word "operationalization" nor find any version of "operational*" (like operationalized, operationalize, etc). The reference thus needs to be deleted or updated. Netzwerkerin (talk) 12:01, 28 December 2019 (UTC)

Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering [[2]] doesn't mention operationalization at all Bhny (talk) 21:26, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

This is used all the time in psychology and a number of other fields. I changed the lede to just say science. Perhaps that resolves these concerns. --Thosjleep (talk) 16:09, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

We could be specific- psychology and what other fields? My point is that it is not generally used in science. It is used in specific fields, so let's list them Bhny (talk) 16:25, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps "In science, especially psychology and other social sciences,..."? --Thosjleep (talk) 23:14, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Except we have no evidence yet that it is used in science except for social sciences. There seems to be a wp:pov push that hard science uses the term, but the above ref, a large text book, didn't even mention it Bhny (talk) 00:06, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

My understanding of social science is that it is a subcategory of science, so if something is used in any social science it is by definition used in science.--Thosjleep (talk) 06:28, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure how to argue against that kind of logic. Do you really mean articles that begin "In social science,..." should be changed to "In science,..." And science is a kind of epistemology and that is a branch of philosophy so maybe all articles should start "In philosophy,..."

I don't think that's what I'm arguing at all. Social science is a more specific category than science. I don't think operationalization (or the use of operational definitions) is a concept restricted to social science since it is a core element of the scientific method (see: Scientific_method#Elements_of_the_scientific_method). Additionally, this article is mostly written about physics (I didn't write it, btw), so saying it's a concept restricted to the social sciences and humanities and then talking about physics is fairly confusing for the reader.--Thosjleep (talk) 11:07, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

Yes physics should be mentioned in the history section (as it is now) but I can't find any use of the term in physics after Bridgman/Einstein. Basically operationalization was originally intended by Bridgman for physics but instead was adopted by the social sciences-[[3]]. Bhny (talk) 14:16, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

Maybe we can lead with "In research design, especially in psychology and other social sciences, ..."? That's probably more precise that science or social science.--Thosjleep (talk) 17:05, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

That's ok with me, though I know nothing of research design other than what I learnt scanning the link Bhny (talk) 00:49, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

There's an editor who's reverting your changes and not discussing it here. I reverted back to your last change Bhny (talk) 02:33, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

X-ray source is used as an indicator of black holes

How is this operationalization? Is there a source that says that operationalization is used to indicate black holes? A quote would be good. Bhny (talk) 00:11, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

I checked all four references. None mention operational or operationalization.

1. The unusually soft X-ray spectrum of LMC X-3 [4]
2. GRS 1915+ 105: A superluminal source in the Galaxy [5]
3. Jets from black hole X-ray binaries [6]
4. High‐mass X‐ray binaries as a star formation rate indicator in distant galaxies. [7]

Bhny (talk) 20:10, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

"Fuzzy" Language

"It is the process of defining a fuzzy concept so as to make the theoretical concept clearly distinguishable or measurable, and to understand it in terms of empirical observations."

1. Is the below sentence equivalent to the above sentence that is taken from the lead section of the article?

   Operationalization is the process of defining a theoretical concept, which can be fuzzy, to make it clearly distinguishable or measurable, and to understand it in terms of empirical observations.

2. fuzzy ≡^? theoretical

Perhaps more clear explanations upfront, for the sake of a smoother incision?

• [[Definition]]::Empirical(adj):"Derived from experiment and observation rather than theory"

• Theoretical definition (also called conceptual definition) is defining a phenomenon conceptually, i.e. in an abstract manner, without an operation that specifies the definition in an applicable/verifiable manner.

• Operational definition is defining a phenomenon operationally, i.e. with the operation that is used to measure/quantify/observe a theoretical phenomenon.

Recreational Stuff (*cough* thought-provoking)

If this page was majorly prepared by philosophers, is there a point in writing fifty billion pages if less than half will make sense? My old man used to say that a philosopher should always have a statistician handy, although I always vote yes for maths, EECS, and astro/aeo.

78.162.27.28 (talk) 04:22, 16 January 2015 (UTC)

Relativity

I think the section that talks of operationalization in general relativity should first mention the operationalization that led to special relativity, particularly as that seems to be the earliest use (1905) of operationalization. Einstein's insight that led to special relativity was that "distance", "time", and "simultaneity" were not defined unambiguously, and that they needed to be defined in terms of measurements that were theoretically possible in any frame of reference. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Philgoetz (talk • contribs) 05:33, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

in metres and in millimeters

I thought the following text was very strange:

"Another example is the radius of a sphere, obtaining different values depending on the way it is measured (say, in metres and in millimeters)."

Operationalization is not about units.

It turns out this was from a change in 2011!

I would just change it back, but I don't now if the previous version is a lot better, talking about the radius of an electron.

Anyone got any ideas?

Yaris678 (talk) 19:50, 12 March 2021‎ (UTC)

Just found this later change (2020), which seems to be influenced by the implication that choice of units is a good example of operationaziation. Yaris678 (talk) 21:47, 4 October 2021 (UTC)