3.5 Scenarios, planned and realized measurements

• Any phenomenon/variable has a trajectory over time
• We have more or less observations of that trajectory
• Generally, the more observations the better
• Scenario: How variable develops over time (P. C. Bauer 2016) (blue line)
• Planned measurements: Timing of planned measurements (blue points)
• Realized measurement: Timing of actual measurements (blue points)

• Q: What is the problem with the following measures (think of time/change)?
  • What is the highest level of education you have successfully completed?
  • Have you been insulted or threatened verbally since (month, year)?
• Q: Can you think of some data where we might almost observe a continuous function across time?
• Insight: Ideally, we know when a variable changes.

References

Bauer, Paul C. 2016. “The Visual Display of Causal Relationships.”