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POLI 210 > Definitions > Flashcards

Definitions Flashcards

1
Q

Governance

A

Ability of a government to provide basic necessities and goods.

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2
Q

Variables

A

Factors that can vary or change

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3
Q

Independent variable

A

Factor that can influence or cause the dependent variable.

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4
Q

Dependent Variable

A

Phenomenon to be explianed, which is the object if the study.

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5
Q

Hypothesis

A

Theoretical hunch/guess about how a given explanatory factor explains or causes a given outcome. Needs to be tested agaisnt relevant evidence.

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6
Q

What is the difference between theory and hypothesis?

A

A theory has some evidence already supporting it.

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7
Q

Explanatory theory

A
  • Generalization seeking to explain and perhaps predict relationships between variables.
  • Aims to have some predictive power relating to the relaiton between the independent and the dependent variable.
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8
Q

Positivism

A

Belief that knowledge can only be based on what can be objectively observed and experienced

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9
Q

Interpretivism

A

Belief that knowledge can only be subjective

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10
Q

Causal mechanism

A

Seeks to describe/understand/prove how exactly this relationship works

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11
Q

Latent concept

A
  • Opposed to directly observable concepts
  • Intangible, thus not directly measurable
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12
Q

Proxy

A
  • concept used to measure a latent concept
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13
Q

outcome of interest

A

dependent variable

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14
Q

Causal mechanism

A

Independent variable

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15
Q

Statistical inference

A
  • Act of generalizing from a sample to a population with calculated degree of certainty.
  • Want to learn about population parameters by using statistics calculated in the sample
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16
Q

Politics

A

Distribution of resources and power and the mechanisms of how this distribution occurs.

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17
Q

Political Science

A

Scientific study of politics

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18
Q

Normative political research

A

Political philosophy/theory. According to Popova, this is concerned with the “ought to be” rather than the “is”

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19
Q

Empirical/positivit political research

A

Studies how politics are actually structured and how they actually function

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20
Q

Interpretivist Political Research

A

Interested in how things are, but skeptical that political phenomena are governed by general rules and laws.

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21
Q

What are the stages of empirical analysis?

A

1) Conceptual description
2) Classification and measurement
3) Hypothesis formulation and theory-generation
4) Data collection
5) Hypothesis testing
6) Prediction and theory-building/testing

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22
Q

What are the characteristics of a good research question?

A
  • clear and focused
  • concise, but nuanced
  • feasible
  • leaves room for debate
  • contributes significantly to understanding
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23
Q

Theory

A

potential explanation that answers a research question. Set of logically related proposisionts explaining political phenomena.

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24
Q

What are the goals of a theory?

A
  • explain what happened
  • predict future outcomes
  • explain differences between cases
  • explain change over time
  • explain the relationship between concepts
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25
Q

What are the different methods of theory-building?

A
  • Induction (bottom-up)
  • Deduction (top-down)
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26
Q

What are the steps of the bottom-up method?

A

1) observation
2) Pattern
3) Tentative Hypothesis
4) Theory

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27
Q

What are the steps of the top-down approach to theory building?

A

1) Theory
2) Hypothesis
3) Observation
4) Confirmation

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28
Q

Hypothesis

A
  • states the relationship between two concepts or variables, as well as the direction of the relaitonship and a comparison.
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29
Q

What are the characteristics of a good hypothesis?

A
  • Must be falsifiable
  • Must suggest a causal mechanism
  • Must have the right balance of generality
  • Must be specific and not ambiguous
  • Needs to contain more than one variable (aims at stating a relationship between variables)
  • must specify how the variables are related
30
Q

What are the characteristics of a good concept?

A
  • familiarity
  • parsimony
  • coherence
  • differentiation
  • theoretical utility
31
Q

Ecological fallacy

A

Drawing inferences about individuals from evidence gathered about groups, societies, nations

32
Q

Nominal scale

A
  • Classifying a variable into two or more categories
  • sorting our observations into the appropriate category
  • Categories must be non interchangeable and non hierarchical
33
Q

Ordinal scale

A
  • categories stand in a hierarchical relationship to one another, the numerals serve to indicate the order of the categories.
  • possible to state that one observation has more of one property than another
  • unsure what the same x-point difference bertween two isntances on the scale means and how much difference it actually entails
34
Q

What is the difference between an ordinal scale and an interval scale?

A

in an interval scale, the interval between each category has a meaning (the numerals all have a same quantitative meaning)

35
Q

What is an interval scale?

A
  • fixed and known intervals between each category, meaning that the numerals have quantitative meaning
  • a difference of x points always means the same thing
36
Q

What is a ratio variable?

A

same thing as an interval level of measurement, save that this has a non-arbitrary zero point.

37
Q

What are the three core ethical responsibilities of data collection?

A

1) Respect for persons
2) Concern for welfare
3) Justice

38
Q

What are some methods that can be used to “fix” the peer review process?

A
  • Replication (make all the code/data publicly available)
  • Pre-registration
  • Registered Report
39
Q

What is the name of the instance that ensures full respect of the ethical research norms?

A
  • Institutional review board or research ethics board
40
Q

What are the main topics of interest in Institutional Review Board applications?

A
  • Research Overview
  • Participants
  • Procedure and methodology
  • Privacy and Data Storage
41
Q

What are the three main worries when we are drawing a sample?

A
  • portability
  • transferability
  • external validity
42
Q

What is portability?

A

entails that the findings can be a means to understand a broader context, meaning that the information can be re-applicable

43
Q

What is transferability?

A

findings need to be transferrable to other cases

44
Q

Which type of research is most concerned with transferability?

A

qualitative research

45
Q

What type of research is most concerned with external validity?

A

quantitative research

46
Q

What is external validity?

A

results can be generalized

47
Q

What are the 3 main components of designing a representative sample?

A

1) Frame
2) Technique/methodology
3) Size

48
Q

What is the frme of a sample?

A

the source of the sample

49
Q

What are the possible techniques for drawing samples?

A
  • Probability sampling
  • Non-probability sampling
50
Q

What is probability sampling?

A

Sample is selected by random chance

51
Q

What type of sample allows for the use of inferential statistics to draw conclusions about a population?

A

Probability sampling

52
Q

What is non-probability sampling?

A
  • sample is drawn acording to a criteria or purpose, we therefore cannot use inferential statistics to draw conclusions about a sample
53
Q

What are the three possible methods of probability sampling?

A

1) Systematic selection
2) Stratified sampling
3) Cluster sampling

54
Q

What are the steps of systematic selection?

A

1)Randomize a list of the population
2)Select a random number (“k”) as a starting point
3)Select every kth unit until you sample 1 out of every k in population

55
Q

What are the steps of stratified sampling?

A

1)Divide population into subgroups
2)Must be collectively exhaustive (together, they describe/concern all units of the population) and mutually exclusive (each member of the population is only in one subgroup)
3)Can be disproportionate if small groups need to be examined specifically

56
Q

What are the steps of cluster sampling?

A

1)Population must be divided into heterogenous subgroups
2)Randomly select a chosen number of clusters (“n”)
3)Within each cluster, randomly select respondents

57
Q

What are the different possible methods of non-probability sampling?

A
  • convenience
  • purpose
  • snowball
  • quota
58
Q

What is purpose sampling?

A

seeking out people of interest intentionally

59
Q

What is snowball sampling?

A

Identifying a few cases, then pursuing leads from those cases

60
Q

What is quota sampling?

A

Purposive sampling of specific groups?

61
Q

What are the two types of statistics that can be used in political science research?

A
  • Descriptive statistics
  • Inferential statistics
62
Q

What are the uses of descriptive statistics?

A
  • Illustration of hypotheses
  • demonstrates a bird-eye view of a unit of analysis
63
Q

What are the uses of Inferential statistics?

A
  • Allows for the demonstration of causal relationships
  • Allows to control for confounding variables
64
Q

Why is it impossible to prove a hypothesis statistically?

A

Because it is impossible to know with absolute certainty if a sample is statistically significant or not

65
Q

What is the process toward usign inferential statistics?

A

1) formulate research question
2) specify alternative and null hypotheses
3) identify variables
4) select research methodology
5) collect data
6) make inferences about population based on sample

66
Q

What is a type I error?

A

false positive (rejecting the null when it was actually true)

67
Q

What is a type II error?

A

False negative (failing to reject the null when it is false)

68
Q

How do we assess the statistical significance of a value?

A

1)Determine our confidence level: also known as the alpha (alpha= 100-[confidence level])
2)Find the P-value (likelihood that our observation is by chance)
3)Compare p and . If p is smaller than , the result is statistically significant

69
Q

How do we calculate our alpha value?

A

100-[confidence level]

70
Q

What is the p-value?

A

probability of observing a result by randomness, or that our observation is purely due to sampling error.

71
Q
A

POLI 210 (1 decks)

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