Conceptual and operational definitions in research
A conceptual definition tells you what the concept means, what your constructs are by explaining how they are related to other constructs, while an operational definition only tells you how to measure it. A conceptual definition tells you what the concept means, while operational definitions only tell you how to measure it. If you have only an operational definition, you may know how to measure it, but you won't know what you are measuring. This means that your measurements won't be worth much, considering that you don't know what the concept is, so you don't know what you measured. A concept defined only operationally may make a nice little ceremony as you carry out the steps described by the operational definition, but it doesn't mean anything and it is not related to other concepts. In your conceptual definitions you explain what your constructs are by showing how they relate to other constructs. This explanation and all of the constructs it refers to are abstr...