An example of a mental construct is the idea of class, or the distinguishing of two groups based on their income, culture, power, or some other defining characteristic(s).
An operational definition specifies concrete, replicable procedures that reliably produce a differentiated, measurable outcome.
[3]: 5 Microsociology is based on interpretative analysis rather than statistical or empirical observation,[4]: 18–21 and shares close association with the philosophy of phenomenology.
[5] Though macrosociology does concern itself with individuals, families, and other constituent aspects of a society, it does so in relation to larger social system of which such elements are a part.
Although the earliest form of abstraction in sociology was discussed by sociologist Talcott Parsons in the 1950s, his work in The Social System (1951) failed to identify an exact definition.
[7] In the following years, the topic was discussed by Robert K. Merton, C. Wright Mills, Paul Lazarsfeld, along with other theorist, who criticized parson work on abstraction in a variety of ways.
During its peak of discussion in the 1950s, the debate over the concept became so intricate, it risked being disembedded and artificial type of analysis along the lines of Parsons.