On Wednesday June 22, between 2pm-6pm, there will be the opportunity to discuss current research projects with Prof. Nick Lee in individual feedback sessions – Please contact monika.koller@wu.ac.at until June 6,2016 for the booking of such an individual time slot.

Such is the centrality of measurement to physical science that its importance canhardly be overstated. In the social sciences too, efforts to create more and more precise measurements of key concepts have been the subject of much theoretical and practical work. This work is of great importance, since key directions in theoretical progress, and critical decisions in practice andpolicy affecting millions of lives are taken on the basis of social measurements. Yet, there remains significant controversy over exactly how we should measure even central concepts of social, psychological, and organizational/management theory. While much of this controversy has fixated recently on a debate between formative and reflective latent variable models,this is but one area in question. What is rarely addressed are the more fundamental notions of meaning and reality that surely must be central to any social measurement theory. More specifically, just what do the concepts in our theories represent? Are they real? If they are not, how can we measure them? In this course, Professor Lee will cover the crucial link between metaphysics andempirical measurement that is central to developing a coherent theory of social measurement. From there, he will draw implications for current measurement practice in social science, and show how an understanding of the reality of concepts is the central foundation stone for effective measurement, rather than differences over empirical variable models.

The course will be taught in the form of a series of lectures, with active discussion time within them. There are 12 scheduled hours of lecturing over the two days, and students will be expectedto spend also at least 8 hours in preparation using provided readings (to be subsequently provided) and preparation of a final short essay.

Students are required to hand in asingle essay of no more than 3000 words (not including figures, references, title page, contents, abstract, appendices). The topic of the essay is: Choose a well-known construct from your own discipline, describe its conceptualization and operationalization in existing literature and discuss how appropriate or not you believe this to be in lightof issues discussed in the course. Provide details of an improved conceptualization and operationalization, and explain the rationale behind this.