Quiz 1 POLI 399 Quantitative Research Methods Flashcards
How do you know something is true?
- Expertise
- Evidence
- Believe it
- Perception
Hallmarks of the Scientific Method
- Empiricism
- Inter-subjectivity
- Explanation
- Determinism
Empiricism
- Every knowledge claim is verified by systematic observation
- Assume an objective reality
- Assumes our senses give us the most accurate information about the world. How we observe and experience reality.
- Assertion is not enough, need observable evidence
- Critiques: no objective reality exists, viewpoints are too subjective
- Empiricism guards against bias, defined as bias: prejudiced against a particular idea/explanation or prejudiced for.
Inter-Subjectivity
- Agreement between the individual and the scientific method (agreement on how the work is done and what counts as evidence and validation)
- Science as a way of knowing, inter-subjectivity guards against bias (2) through shared standards for determining empirical standard:
- Transmissibility: steps followed in research that are clear and detailed enough that someone can repeat your research.
- Replicability: someone who does repeat your work gets the same results. Allows others to test for bias in your work MUST BE REPLICABLE.
Explanation
- the GOAL of the scientific method is explanation
- Explain political phenomenon using something else which is achieved through variation.
- Explain why some phenomena are related to others
- Explanations across time, most useful, must generalize beyond time and place.
- explanation = general pattern = determinism
Determinism
- Need to assume that patterns exist which is justified by how much inter-subjective work exists
- Regularities in politics and political nature, need to assume this pattern and find it.
Scientific Knowledge v.s Common Sense
- Scientific knowledge aims to see patterns and predict
- Common sense asks questions and wants to know why
- Difference is that scientific knowledge is conscious and deliberate
- Common sense: observe accurately, jump to conclusions, overlook contradictory evidence, explain away contradictions
- Scientific Knowledge: systematically w/criteria and relevance established in advance, avoid over generalizations replication steps before conclusion, vigorously test alternatives, make more observations
Nature of Scientific Claims
1) Never true or proven no matter how many time they have been tested. can make a knowledge claim but always an element of uncertainty.
2) Must be testable or potentially falsifiable.
3) Disconfirming evidence must always be possible
Traditional Critiques of the Scientific Method
Push to become more scientific in the 50’s and 60’s in the States.
1) Human reaction problem
2) Influence of values
3) Complexity of political phenomena
4) Indeterminism (Free Will)
5) Human uniqueness
Hawthorne Effect
- Tendency to perform or perceive differently when one knows they’re being observed.
- Problem w/empiricism can’t observe objective reality. It undermines a key assumption of the scientific method.
- Response to this critique: reactivity is a problem but it is not an insurmountable methodological barrier. You can alter your design.
Influence of Values
- Can never be value free because political scientists are value laden and the individuals studying value-laden behavior
- Problem is with inter-subjectivity and subsequently bias
- Response to this critique: recognize and make explicit your own value commitments (Gunnar Myrdal). Inter-subjectivity and testing plausible alternative interpretations and agreement across the political spectrum is powerful.
Complexity of Political Phenomena
- Politics is too complicated and therefore cannot be explained in a generalizable way. Problem with determinism
- Response to critique: complicated things are studied all the time and this too is not an insurmountable challenge. Polisci has empirical laws that make it less complicated. Incomplete explanations are still useful.
Indeterminism
- Free Will
- Causation is impossible because humans are free to behave as they wish
- Problems with determinism
- Response to critique: humans are confined by the context that they are in and bound by the law. There are a limited number of options available so a pattern will emerge. Completely random behavior is highly unlikely
Human Uniqueness
- Every person is unique and behaves differently. No two people are alike.
- Problems with determinism
- Response to critique: The idea that nothing is shared is not necessarily true.
Statistical Development and Policy
- Gvt interested in evidence based policy developments but it has its limits. Public does not accept empirical evidence when it does not confirm accepted wisdom. If it is confirmationary of public consciousness it is readily accepted.
- Stages: 1. Identification of trends requiring a policy response. Use social intelligence * the most important pat of statistical agency. 2. Assessing Causation. Need this to develop an appropriate response. Policy hampered by lack of understanding of causes
3. Development of appropriate response. Domain of policy analysts
Intersectional Approach
- Relationship between categories is an open empirical question. Dynamic interaction.
- Unitary categories bind people into political groups based on a uniform set of experiences. Pre-existing assumption of shared political goals.
- Critique of group unity. One cannot privilege a single aspect of their identity.
- Policy solutions addressing multiple identity categories..
- Multiplicative Categories
Categories of Difference (Types)
Unitary: presumed emphasis on a single category as most explanatory
Multiple: recognizes the role of several categories independent of each other.
Intersectional: challenges relationship between categories from determined to the subject of empirical investigation. interactive, mutually constitutive relationships among categories.
Fuzzy Set Logic
- Move beyond nominal measures of socially constructed categories.
- Acknowledges psychological literature on identity development, relies ton mutliple questions to determine category membership and handles causal complexity.
Feminist Critique of the Scientific Method
- 3 levels of critique, begins because women are invisible in the work (partly due to legal inclusions).
- Researchers not encountering problems faced by women and people of colour.
- Critique of methodological norms: Philosophical, Moral Practical.
3 Feminist Critiques of Methodological Norms
Philosophical: the way that value has been represented. Historically, the presence of value and therefore bias was not explicitly states. This critique has been made so forcefully that the ‘science is value free’ statement has been refected
Moral: research ethics. don’t objectify research subjects. subjects should be treated as people first. foundational work has been instituted in response to this critique. Smethod saved: working on this one.
Practical (most forceful now): if you are not including women or people of colour in your generalizations your conclusions will be misrepresentative and distorted. Smethod saved: Some Y some N
Alternatives to the Scientific Method
Experiential-Inductionist Approach
- Seeks to avoid objectification
- Minimizes the power relationship between researcher and object
- Rejects quantification and structured methods
- Different and interesting results, theories grounded in observations and the object
- Can you trust research participants? Are they truly self aware? Harder to discern what produces the experience. Still trying to relate to the research question so researcher imparts meaning.
- Policy makers aren’t as moved by experiential knowledge.
Concepts
Universal v.s Particular
- Abstractions that do not actually exist but must have clear definitions. Labels for classification of phenomena. universal descriptive word that refers directly or indirectly to soemthing that is observable
- 2 Key Functions in scientific method:
1. foundational units of theories. act as building blocks. variation in concepts lead to theories.
2. data containers. crucial tool for data collection. directs researchers to what to observe. - Universal descriptive word: refers to a class of phenomena. *want this one because want to generalize
- Particular descriptive word: particular instance
Generalization
- Replace particular words with broader ones to describe phenomena based on common characteristics.
- Conceptualizing each case as a member of a class of events about which meaningful generalizations can be made
*Types of Definitions for Concepts
Real
Nominal
Operational
*Real Concepts
- Truth. essential nature or attributes
- Not used in empirical research
*Nominal Concepts
- Do not use true or false statements.
- Start with this type of definition in every research project
- Names the concept and the properties of the phenomena the concept represents.
- Precedes operational definitions
- Basic standard use to judge operational definitions
*Operational Concepts
- Observations or indicators that will be used to represent the concept empirically.
- More specific
- Stems directly from nominal definitions
- If the nominal and operational definitions match then there is congruence and validity is present. Measuring what researcher said they were going to measure.
Knowledge is gained through empirical research and must ultimately be based on?
Observation
*Useful Nominal Definitions
- Clarity: no implicit aspects in definition. define everything explicitly and state assumptions. will fail on inter-subjectivity if implicitly is present, is not transmissible so can’t guard against bias.
- Precision: high accuracy, high precision. categorize observations and indicates what should be excluded.
- Non-Circular: cannot use the same ideas to define something. tautology: needless repetition of words that are not adding anything to the functional definition.
- Positive: cannot define a concept by the attributes it lacks. no negative statements although negative language can be used for clarification or emphasis.
Concepts provide the basis for..
- Classification: starting point, sorting. defining categories must be exhaustive and mutually exclusive. every observation can only have one category.
* 2. Comparison: whether we have more/less of something. represent more/less of the concept the researcher is interested in. - Quantification: measuring how much more/less. statistics come in at this point. anything you can count
Criteria for Evaluating Concepts
- Empirical importance: must be linkable to observable phenomena. linked either 1. directly observable counterpart (not common), 2. indirectly observable: formed through operational definition but there can be conceptual slippage which results in loss of validity. less congruence between nominal and operational definitions. 3. via relationships. explain variation between concepts
- Theory. If concepts cannot be related to other concepts then they cannot be put in to a theory