How to Measure Diversity When You Must
How to Measure Diversity When You Must
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DOI：
10.1037/a0027129
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发表时间：
2012-06-01
影响因子：
7
通讯作者：
Budescu, Mia
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Budescu, David V.;Budescu, Mia
种族/族裔多样性已成为社会科学中日益重要的变量。来自多个学科的研究一致表明，种族多样性对个人和组织的巨大影响。研究人员使用各种测量方法，他们的选择可能会影响得出的结论，并限制有效比较和概括研究结果的能力。本文综述了3种常用的多样性度量方法：简单的多数少数方法和2种多类别变量，广义方差和较少使用的熵统计。我们讨论每种方法的属性，并拒绝多数少数的方法。我们提供了5个例子，使用广义方差和熵统计，并说明其通用性和灵活性。我们敦促研究人员采用这些多类别的措施，并利用我们的讨论，以确定哪种多样性的措施是最合适的，鉴于一个人的数据集和研究问题的性质。
Racial/ethnic diversity has become an increasingly important variable in the social sciences. Research from multiple disciplines consistently demonstrates the tremendous impact of ethnic diversity on individuals and organizations. Investigators use a variety of measures, and their choices can affect the conclusions that can be drawn and limit the ability to compare and generalize results across studies effectively. The current article reviews 3 popular approaches to the measurement of diversity: the simplistic majority minority approach and 2 multiple categories variants, the generalized variance and the lesser used entropy statistic. We discuss the properties of each approach and reject the majority minority approach. We provide 5 examples using the generalized variance and entropy statistics and illustrate their versatility and flexibility. We urge investigators to adopt these multicategory measures and to use our discussion to determine which measure of diversity is most appropriate given the nature of one's data set and research question.