Chapter 1 - Types of claims pt.1

Question 1

what is descriptive question?

Answer 1

need answer that contain the definitional info about the search term, explain some special phenomenon or describe some particular events. It explain when, where, why, or how something occurred. They use data and statistics to describe an event or phenomenon.

Question 2

What examples of descriptive question?

Answer 2

· What percentage of college students have felt depressed in the last year?
· How often do students report their feelings of depression?
· How likely is it for mice with dominant traits to have offspring with recessive traits?
How many generations of genes influences a future generation?

Question 3

what is descriptive claim?

Answer 3

are about the world. It start with info from the world, n from that info we form beliefs n ideas. In order to make claims, it attempt to state what is the case or report on how the world is.

Question 4

what examples of descriptive claim?

Answer 4

· The mug of coffee in front of me is now at room temp.
Kevin is under 6 feet tall.

Question 5

what is causal question?

Answer 5

cause n effect questions designed to determine whether one or more variables causes or affects one or more outcome variables. “why?” element used in casual questions. It ask what would happen to outcome Y, had exposure A been different from what is observed. “could x cause y?” answered by a yes or no answers.

Question 6

what is casual claim?

Answer 6

the effect that on thing has (or had) another thing, or about the cause of something. it includes why an event/ condition/ choice happens or doesn’t happen. the condition/effect/process of an event. it involve causes, influences, increases, decreases.

Question 7

what is Perspective question?

Answer 7

it is the question that ask what we should do about a particular development challenge.

Question 8

What examples of perspective questions?

Answer 8

· What intervention would be most appropriate in this context for increasing grade level 3 child literacy rates?
· Must we increase border security in order to prevent terrorism?
What ought to be done about the unemployment in North America?

Question 9

what is perspective (normative) claims?

Answer 9

are about what should or should not be done. includes what is “right” or about smth being “too much” or “not enough”

Question 10

Summary!

Answer 10

1. Descriptive: no explicit statement about one thing influencing another. correlation between two things (against) casual.
2. Causal: explicit statement about one thing exerting influence on another.
3. Prescriptive: requires placing some value on outcomes. requires value judgment.
4. Empirical: can be justified with observations/evidence.

Question 11

What is a value judgment?

Answer 11

we need to put a value on jobs. “A causes B” doesn’t tell us we should do A. it depends on what we put on B.

Question 12

what is causation?

Answer 12

prescription requires casual knowledge. though not all causes manipulable. understanding by asking “why?”.

Question 13

what are the types of causation?

Answer 13

1. Effects of policies and institutions on society.
2. causes of policy and political choices (why do government act the way they do?).
3. causes of inputs into political choices (why do some actors have more power than others).

Question 14

Example:
Welfare for the poor; should the BC government spend more on welfare programs for the poor? (Perspective question)

Answer 14

Descriptive claim:
- a single person on welfare with multiple barriers to working received $282 per month from the province.

Causal claim:
- there is substantial evidence that the availability of welfare benefits leads recipients to work less.
- OR receiving welfare does not cause attitudes of “dependency”.

Perspective/normative:
-questions can never be answered with only empirical (descriptive/causal) findings.
-prescription requires empirical knowledge + value judgment.