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thumb|right|300px|An example of operationally defining personal space In research design, especially in psychology, social sciences, life sciences and physics, operationalization (or operationalisation) is a process of defining the measurement of a phenomenon which is not directly measurable, though its existence is inferred from other phenomena. Operationalization thus defines a fuzzy concept so as to make it clearly distinguishable, measurable, and understandable by empirical observation. In a broader sense, it defines the extension of a concept—describing what is and is not an instance of t