Lecture 2 - Research Questions and Social Science Theory Flashcards
What is the first step in the research process?
Research Question
What do RQs do
- Make it clear what you want to systematically investigate, and what not to focus on.
- Establish basis for decisions throughout the research process.
- Think about the social and scientific relevance of your research.
What is terroism? How many terroist attacks in the UK? Has the number of attacks in the UK increased over time? Are there more attacks in the UK or US?
Descriptive questions
What causes terrorism? Does unemployment cause participation in terroism?
Explanatiory questions
Properties of a good research question?
Researchable
Not yet definitively answered
Social relevance, consequential for political social or economic life.
Scientific relevance, contribute to literature
Literature review
- Establish RQ hasnt been answered
- Set the stage for own study
- Analytical purpose
Literature survey
- What questions do people ask
- What have existing studies found
- What are the strengths of existing studies. What are weaknesses?
What is theory?
- Attempt to make sense of a complex world
- Generalizable
- Informed by empirical evidence
- A theoretical answer or at least a hunch to your research question.
Concepts
- Research questions and theories involve concepts
- Need to be clearly defined
- They are a answer to ‘what is’ questions.
Conceptual vs operational definiton
The conceptual definition should define the aspects of a concept that are critical.
The operational definition should identify empirical referents allowing us to capture as best as we can the aspects of a concept that are theoretically important.
Definition - One concept brings about change in another
Casual relationship
Definition - the outcome under study that one seeks to explain
Dependant variable
Definition - the variable that is thought to affect the outcome under study
Independant variable
Definition - intervening variables that transmit the effect (variables along the causal chain)
Mediating Variable
Definition - The chain of events or conditions linking X to Y, how the causal effect is produced
Causal mechanism
Meso
political parties, interest associations, ethnic groups, rebel groups, etc.
Colemans bathtub
Often meso or macro phenomena have micro level foundations
Concepts and theories can related to different units and levels
Micro - Individuals/voters
Meso - Political parties/ethnic groups
Macro - countries/regions
