Operationalization is the act of defining scientific terms by their procedures or experimental operations. Babbie discusses operationalism by using four-research question but in this article, I will only talk of two.
Question 1: Are women more compassionate than men?
The first application in this research is selecting a certain number of men and women and expose them in hypothetical situations of someone being in trouble and asking each one how they would respond. This is a good way of collecting information and it will show different ways of how men and women react to situations when in trouble. It enables the subjects in question to give direct and unbiased feedback. The second application involves placing a child on a sidewalk, where the child will pretend to be lost , the aim of this experiment is to see how many men and women will stop and offer assistance to the child and how many will walk away. When this experiment is over, the statistics of the number of men and women who paid the child attention will indicate who are more compassionate. The third application involves asking men and women which organizations they belong to in order to find out who are associated with compassionate organizations (Babbie, 2013). This method will not be appropriate since belonging to a certain organization does not bring about compassion; one might be a compassionate person doing good deeds voluntarily without necessarily belonging to a compassionate organization.
Question 2: Do people consider New York or California the better place to live?
In this case, the first approach is checking statistical records and examining the number of migrations that take place in each state. The one that seems to have a larger number of people migrating into than out of shows it is the better place. This is a good method of deducing information due to the use of facts and calculations. The second experiment involves using of polling companies to ask citizens which country they prefer living in. this is the easiest way to get information since it involves asking people what their preferences are (Babbie, 2013). The third method is comparing suicide rates in the two states. This is also a way of finding out the living conditions and standards of a city. The more depressing and stressful a place is the more number of suicide cases arise.