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Research skills and methods > RSM > Flashcards

RSM Flashcards

1
Q

what is politics?

A

process by which people make decisions, process to distribute resources and generate legitimacy

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2
Q

what is ontology?

A

“the image of social reality upon which a theory is based” (Grix)

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3
Q

what is epistemology (Bryman)?

A

“the possible ways of gaining knowledge of social reality - claims about how what is assumed to exist can be known”

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4
Q

What did Bennett et al find about political science journals?

A

49% used quantitative methods
46% used qualitative methods
23% used formal modelling
(some used multimethods)

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5
Q

what is objectivism?

A

Social phenomena and their meanings have an existence outside of social actors

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6
Q

what is constructivism?

A

social phenomena and their meanings are continually being made and remade by social actors

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7
Q

what is interpretivism?

A

Needs to grasp ‘the subjective meaning of social action’ (Bryman)

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8
Q

What do interpretivists say about subjectivity?

A

Inevitable

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9
Q

What is the double heremeneutic? (Giddens)

A

World is interpreted by the actor, who is then interpreted by the observer

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10
Q

What do foundationalists argue?

A

World is composed of discrete objects that exist independently of it

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11
Q

What do Lakoff and Johnson suggest?

A

The existence of objective, absolute and unconditional truths

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12
Q

What are 3 key features of anti-foundationalists? (Guba and Lincolm)

A

1) realities are local and specific
2) reality isn’t discovered but constructed
3) while it is actors who construct the world, their values are shaped by cultural, social and political processes

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13
Q

What did the scientific approach to politics try to do?

A

Identify causal statements

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14
Q

What are causal statements?

A

Under a version set of conditions, there would be regular and predictable outcomes

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15
Q

What’s the difference between critical realism and positivism?

A

critical realists believe structural relationships between social phenomena cannot be observed, and only the consequences can be seen, whereas positivists believe in coming up with causal statements

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16
Q

What’s the similarity between critical realism and positivism?

A

Share a broad ontological position

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17
Q

What are epistemological distinctions important?

A

Cannot be removed when doing research

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18
Q

What ontology is positivism related to?

A

Foundationalist

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19
Q

What is positivism associated with? (3)

A
  • behaviouralism
  • rational choice theory
  • certain strains of institutionalism
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20
Q

What do positivists say about objectivity?

A

researchers need to aim to be objective

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21
Q

How does Quine criticise positivism? (2)

A

Theory and empirical research aren’t separable, as theory informs what we focus on
No way to describe experience without classifying it, as any knowledge we derive from the 5 senses is mediated by the concepts we use to analyse it

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22
Q

How can we see social ‘science’ as being impossible? (3)

A

1) they don’t exist independently of the activities they shape, 2) don’t exist independently of actors views of what they are doing and 3) the social world varies across time and space in most instances

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23
Q

what is post-positivism? (Sanders) (2)

A
  • Acknowledge the independence of theory and observation and recognise the importance of normative questions
  • Also accepts interpretation and meaning
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24
Q

what ontology is interpetivism related to?

A

anti-foundationalist

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25
Q

what positions are interpetivism related tp?

A

some forms of institutionalism and feminism

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26
Q

what do interpretivists believe about objectivity?

A

impossible to be objective, and so researcher must recognise their own partialities and take these into account when interpreting their respondents

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27
Q

what do interpretivists want to focus on?

A

identifying discourses to see how they interpret social phenomena

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28
Q

how do positivists view intepretivism?

A

merely offers opinions, with no basis to check validity of the findings

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29
Q

why has the interpretivist tradition become more common? (2)

A

Philosophical critiques questioned positivism more

Normative political theory changed from being foundationalist to anti-foundationalist

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30
Q

what ontological position does critical realism take?

A

foundationalism

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31
Q

what epistemological position does critical realism take?

A

anti-foundationalism

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32
Q

what do critical realists believe? (3)

A

World exists independent of us
Social phenomena do have causal powers, so causal statements are possible
However, not all social phenomena can be observed, and what can be observed may provide a false image about what is actually happening

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33
Q

how can critical realism be linked to Marxism?

A

there is a difference between ‘real’ interests and perceived interests – only able to enquire about perceived interests

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34
Q

how do interpetivists criticise critical realists? (2)

A

criticise ontological claims of realism, believe there are no structures independent of social action

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35
Q

how do positivists criticise critical realists? (2)

A

deny the existence of unobservable structures, knowledge claims of realists are untestable

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36
Q

what do modern critical realists try to do? whats an issue with their approach?

A

Attempts to combine scientific and interpretivist traditions – very difficult as they have fundamentally different ontological and epistemological positions

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37
Q

what do modern critical realists believe about social phenomena?

A

Whilst social phenomena exist independent of our interpretation of the, it does affect their outcomes – don’t determine, but constrain and facilitate

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38
Q

why does a researcher’s ontological and epistemologicial position matter? (3)

A
  1. Determine the role of theory in their research
  2. Shape the way the researcher sees the relationship between theory and practice
  3. Affect what the researcher expects in their research (eg generalizability etc)
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39
Q

what is deliberate democracy?

A

define democracy as a communication process, whereby participants exchange reasons for their preferences, rather than solely voting on them

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40
Q

what was deliberate democracy first developed as?

A

a normative project

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41
Q

what is the positivist view on deliberate democracy? (Mutz) (2)

A

What makes a theory good is its falsifiability
Deliberate democracy theory needs to be broken down, and each part given a hypothesis and tested in order to find out which factors produce desirable outcomes

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42
Q

what is the interpretivist view on deliberate democracy? (4)

A
  • Capture the perspectives better, and is sensitive to the contextual and contingent natures of such processes
  • No need to aim for generalizability / causal relationships
  • Focuses more on agency
  • Theory allows interpretivists to make sense of the practice
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43
Q

what is agency (or intentionalism)?

A

capacity of individual humans to act independently and make their own free choices

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44
Q

what is structure?

A

refers to those factors that seem to limit or influence, the opportunities that individuals have

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45
Q

how can the structure/agency debate be seen in regards to the fall of the Berlin wall?

A

structural: economic stagnation, 
forces of international policies
agency: Gorbachev’s policies, 
actions of civil rights/ protest movements groups, 
actions of GDR citizens themselves
(In)actions of GDR leadership

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46
Q

what do political scientists hope to get from the agency/structure debate?

A

not looking for a solution, just to be aware of the forces involved

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47
Q

what is structuralism?

A

Societies can be analysed as a system
, in order to explain individual actions

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48
Q

what does Althusser have to say about social reality?

A

a (very) complex interaction of economic political and ideological forces, which all have relative autonomy from each other, however individuals are slaves to these structures which they don’t even realise

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49
Q

what is rational choice theory?

A

humans are rational beings, who make calculations about the best course of action and choose the best for themselves

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50
Q

what is public choice theory?

A

Politicians and bureaucrats will seek to maximise their own interests

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51
Q

what does pluralism hope to achieve?

A

to emphasise dispersed nature of power and that notion that no single interest can dominate, all about conflict resolution

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52
Q

what is Giddens’ structuration theory?

A

arguing the two aren’t separate entities, mutually dependent and internally related, structure exists through agency and agents also have rules that they have no choice but to abide by, two sides of the same coin

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53
Q

why did Giddens’ come up with the structuration theory?

A

to bridge the divide between structuralists and intentionalists

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54
Q

what are the 5 broad theories of the structure vs agency debate?

A
  1. Structuralism/materialism
  2. Intentionalism/idealism
  3. A dialectic position
  4. An additive position
  5. Post-structuralist position
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55
Q

what is a dialectic position to structure vs agency?

A

opposing views working together to find the truth

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56
Q

what is an additive position to structure vs agency?

A

associated with positivist and empiricist position, both structural and intentional factors influence voting decisions

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57
Q

what is the postmodernist position to structure vs agency?

A

structures don’t exist without agent’s discourse, distinction between structure and agency is not ontological

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58
Q

what did Bell and Hindmoor say about context?

A

see the broader economic, political and institutional context of the time as constraining the government

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59
Q

what did Archer focus on?

A

reflexivity, ‘agents deliberate upon a precise course of action in view of their concerns and in light of the circumstances they confront’

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60
Q

what does Bell focus on?

A

focuses on the capacities individuals must use the resources at their disposal, to utilise their agency

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61
Q

what was Archer’s approach?

A

Morphogenetic approach

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62
Q

what does the Morphogenetic approach entail?

A

three stage cycle: T1, structural conditioning, T2, social interaction and T3, structural elaboration. At T4, the structural changes are either changed or, much less likely, not changed, disagrees that there is any ontological separation between agency and structure

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63
Q

what was Hay’s approach?

A

the strategic relational approach

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64
Q

what does the strategic relational approach entail?

A

both don’t have an existence without each other, not two sides of a coin but two metals in the alloy from which the coin was made, structure has no independent causal power, core of the approach ‘is the interaction between strategic actors and the strategic context within which they find themselves’

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65
Q

what are the features of the constructivist institutionalism approach? (6)

A
  1. Actors are strategic
  2. Ideas matter for providing a guide to the action
  3. Interests are social constructs, not rooted in material interests
  4. The functionality/disfunctionality of institutions/structures is an open question in both empirical and historical terms
  5. Focus on ideational, as well as institutional path dependence
  6. Aim is to identify the extent to which – through processes of normalisation and institutional-embedding – established ideas become codified, serving as cognitive filters through which actors come to interpret environmental signals’ (Hay)
66
Q

why does social change happen, according to constructivist institutionalists?

A

ideas shape the context within which people act, and the context is strategically selective, favouring some strategies over others (shared by both thick and thin constructivists)

67
Q

how can this be applied to globalisation?

A

Best understood as a political consequence rather than an economic cause – by acting as if it exists, they are making it exist - ideational not material process

68
Q

what is Hay’s conception of time?

A
  • Punctuated equilibrium – significant amount of political change occurs in small bursts, followed by long periods of inactivity
  • Liberal democracy is usually able to respond successfully to societal demands…but also is prone to periodic moments of crisis
69
Q

what is Tonkiss’ conception of time?

A

Draws on Foucault, for whom change was accidental and unpredictable, a poststructuralist

70
Q

what is Bates’ conception of time?

A

time is not linear or cyclical in order to overcome the dualism between structure/agency and stability/change

71
Q

what does Adam add to the flexi-time model?

A

open to variation, change is context based and open to interpretation

72
Q

what is punctuated equilibrium?

A

significant amount of political change occurs in small bursts, followed by long periods of inactivity

73
Q

how does change occur according to the punctuated equilibrium approach?

A

Rapid change caused by crisis, usually policy making happens within certain perimeters, however if a successful crisis narrative is created, there will be a paradigm shift

74
Q

what are issues with this approach? (2)

A

Treats stability and change as a dualism, empirical analyses prioritise agency over structure, and ideational over the material

75
Q

what is a institution for traditional institutionalists?

A

treated as the formal rules that shaped behaviour

76
Q

what is institutionalism?

A

describe formal rules that shaped behaviour eg political parties or the law

77
Q

what did institutionalists end up focusing on inadvertently?

A

stability

78
Q

what does Rhodes call institutionalism?

A

the ‘historic heart of the discipline’

79
Q

what do institutionalists have?

A

an instinctive disdain for theory

80
Q

what does institutionalism tend to be? (4)

A

normative, structuralist, holistic and historicist

81
Q

what does normative mean?

A

how to create a ‘good’ government/ should be / ought to be

82
Q

what does structuralist mean?

A

structures determine political behaviour

83
Q

what does holistic mean?

A

describing and comparing whole systems of government

84
Q

what does historicist mean?

A

central influence of history

85
Q

when did the shift occur away from institutionalism?

A

the behavioural revolution during the 50/60s

86
Q

what is behaviouralism?

A

explain individual actors political behaviour objectively

87
Q

what did behaviourists try to do?

A

focus on individuals, deal with the world how it is, not how it should/could be

88
Q

what did behaviourists stress? (4)

A

1) Observable behaviour (individual or societal level)
2) Empirical testing

3) Replication
4) Objectivity

89
Q

what can behaviourism be linked to?

A

positivism

90
Q

why did behaviourism become popular? (quote from Dahl)

A
  • ‘Many American scholars (very) unhappy that the institutionalists spectacularly failed to 
see fascism coming’
91
Q

how should evidence be used for behaviouralists?

A

systematically, assess ALL the evidence or at least a representative sample

92
Q

what is also key to behaviourist research?

A

need to be able to falsify hypothesised theories

93
Q

what did behaviourists think about institutions?

A

just made up of individual actors

94
Q

when did new institutionalism emerge?

A

1980s

95
Q

what made it different from traditional institutionalism? (2)

A

widened the idea of an institutions to ‘collections of interrelated rules and routines that define appropriate actions in terms of relations between roles and situations’ (March and Olsen)
concerned with not just the impact of institutions on individuals, but also the interaction between them

96
Q

why did new institutionalism emerge?

A

Attempt to reassert that organisations of political life do make a difference

97
Q

what is normative institutionalism?

A

Institutions influence actor’s behaviour by shifting their values, norms, interests and beliefs

98
Q

what is rational choice institutionalism?

A

Institutions influence actors behaviour by affecting the structure of a situation so that the individual select strategies for the pursuit of their preferences

99
Q

what is historical institutionalism?

A

Institutional organisation works to privilege some interests while demobilising others, change occurs when power relations shift

100
Q

how did new institutionalists view institutions? (4)

A

as formal and informal
dynamic as well as stabilising
embodying values and power
contextually embedded

101
Q

What is Karl Popper’s idea? What does this mean?

A

‘All swans are white’… but then we find a black swan
- The statement is false
- Or does that mean if a swan is not white then it is not a swan at all?
- Can both of these be correct?

102
Q

How can behaviourists be criticised?

A

‘normative/ interpretivist political science’ seen as pointless

103
Q

how would behaviourists respond to being told ‘normative/ interpretivist political science’ is pointless?

A

these statements add a lot to our understanding of human nature

104
Q

What was Cederman, Gleditsch and Buhang’s study about?

A

to what extent is inequality responsible for generating the sort of grievances that lead to conflict and civil war?

105
Q

why had qualitative research failed to find a parallel between inequality and civil war?

A

focused too much on individual level data, which doesn’t take into account group inequalities and also country-level data which failed to measure the ethnonationalism among different groups within a country

106
Q

what 4 variables did Cederman, Gleditsch and Buhang’s study find which they were 99% certain had an effect?

A

group politically excluded
group politically downgraded
relative group size
number of previous conflicts

107
Q

what 2 variables did Cederman, Gleditsch and Buhang’s study find which they were 95% certain had an effect?

A

ongoing conflict

GDP/capita

108
Q

what 2 variables did Cederman, Gleditsch and Buhang’s study find which had no statistically significant effect?

A

population

level of democracy

109
Q

what is narrative?

A

how you represent reality rather than the reality

110
Q

what did Marsh and Savigny find by comparing 2 UK based journals and 2 US based journals?

A

the US had a tendency towards positivism, whereas the UK is more pluralist, with a strong tradition of normative theory and non-positivist research

111
Q

why did Bennett et al find the US had a minimal qualitative movement?

A

due to most colleges not teaching qualitative methods (only 16%)

112
Q

what are 4 key features of qualitative research?

A
  1. Inductive analysis to discover categories not only testing theoretically derived hypotheses
  2. A holistic perspective that seeks to understand the phenomenon, with a sensitivity to the context where the data has been gathered
  3. Qualitative and adaptive data collection based on detailed, thick description and depth
  4. Empathic neutrality is important as most believe complete objectivity is impossible
113
Q

what is also important to qualitative research?

A

reflexivity

114
Q

what are 5 primary research techniques for qualitative research?

A 
•	Semi structured / in-depth interviews 
•	Focus groups
•	Ethnography
participant observation
experiments
115
Q

who are interviews associated mostly with? (5)

A

institutionalism, post-positivist behaviouralism, constructivism, interpretivism and feminism

116
Q

how do institutionalists use interviews?

A

with elites

117
Q

why are focus groups used?

A

group interaction used to produce data which wouldn’t be found otherwise – size and composition of the group is very important

118
Q

what is ethnography?

A

uses both participant and non-participant observation within ‘natural’ social and political contexts

119
Q

what are 2 secondary research techniques for qualitative research?

A

historiographoes

case studies

120
Q

what can secondary research suffer from?

A

somewhat inevitable as sources are chosen based on accessibility or the researcher’s awareness of their existence

121
Q

what are historiographies used for?

A

to explain real world outcomes (not really predictions)

122
Q

what are the two approaches to analysing words?

A

discourse analysis

content analysis

123
Q

what happens within discourse analysis?

A

Makes a clear attempt to go beyond the data, uncovering how people seek to portray their actions

124
Q

is discourse analysis more qualitative or quantiative?

A

qualitative

125
Q

what is linguistic discourse analysis?

A

Focus on the words themselves, precise meanings to see how an argument is constructed

126
Q

what is critical discourse analysis?

A

unpack the ideological underpinnings of things we take for granted to expose the power relations underneath

127
Q

what happens within content analysis?

A

systematic analysis of the content of political communication

128
Q

is content analysis more qualitative or quantiative?

A

quantiative

129
Q

how is content analysis used in the study of political parties?

A

to identify drifts in the ideological self understanding of parties

130
Q

what is the Manifesto Project Database?

A

Quantitative assessment of party manifestos

131
Q

how many parties are included in the Manifesto Project Database?

A

1000+

132
Q

how many countries are included in the Manifesto Project Database?

A

52

133
Q

when do the manifestos begin from the Manifesto Project Database?

A

1945

134
Q

what are 3 strengths of the Manifesto Project Database?

A

Gives a genuinely comparative tool with which to measure changes in party position on the ideological spectrum (over time/space)
•A sound basis for deeper, more qualitative analysis
•Helps hypothesis and theory generation

135
Q

what are 5 weaknesses of the Manifesto Project Database?

A
  • Coding scheme must have been decided by someone eg what policies make you left/right wing?
  • Inter coder unreliability
  • Can’t change the coding scheme now…
  • Some conclusions downright bizarre
  • Parties that are seen as ‘non coalitionable’ not normally included in the analysis – what happens if they become coalitionable?
136
Q

what is a conversational interview?

A

represents an alternative set of techniques to standardized survey interviewing whereby interviewers are allowed to provide unscripted information to respondents in an effort to clarify question meaning.

137
Q

what are some problems with interviews? (4)

A
  • Are you being told what the interviewee thinks you want to hear?
  • Are you being told what the interviewee wants you to think and not what is really going on?
  • How do you know if the interviewee is not getting his/her facts/interpretations right?
  • Double hermeneutic?
138
Q

why are interviews useful? (3)

A
  • You get information from the horse’s mouth
  • You can interact with interviewee and react to their answers (ie not one-off snapshot responses)
  • You can cross-check much of what you hear with other sources
139
Q

what are 4 issues with focus groups?

A
  • You have less control over the direction a group discussion takes over a one-to-one interview
  • Data can be tough to analyse as the talking is in reaction to the comments of other group members
  • Observers/moderators need to be highly trained
  • Clearly not large enough to be a representative sample of a population (they are not opinion polls)
140
Q

what are some general issues with qualitative data? (3)

A

reliability, generalizability, validity

141
Q

how did Blair use focus groups?

A

to test out policy ideas on carefully selected groups of voters to see how they react

142
Q

how did Jon Cruddas (a former advisor to Blair) criticise his use of focus groups?

A

“Too much policy was based on the preferences and prejudices of barely representative focus groups”

143
Q

what are the 3 key components of an experiment?

A

intervention, random allocation between groups and measuring outcomes

144
Q

what is intervention?

A

Researcher doesn’t just observe, but intervenes to observe the effect of that intervention

145
Q

how are the groups divided in an experiment? what does this control?

A

dividing the group into one group and a control group, the extraneous factors

146
Q

what did Druckman et al find about experiments?

A

they were cited (on average) 47% more than non-experimental research

147
Q

what are laboratory experiments?

A

recruit subjects to a common location, where the experiment occurs

148
Q

why are laboratory experiments used?

A

gives the researcher better control

149
Q

what is an example of a laboratory experiment?

A

Dawes et al – found people were only motivated by money back guarantee’s in chance of failure, not guaranteed money in case of success – he puts this down to motivations of greed, rather than fear of loss

150
Q

what is an advantage of a field experiment?

A

more people able to be involved

151
Q

what is the ‘virtual laboratory’?

A

lab and field experiments blurred together

152
Q

what is good about the ‘virtual laboratory’? (3)

A

In between as more people can access this, but still can be very controlled, makes possible new types of experiments eg as social media sites are often changed, allows researchers to analyse before and after

153
Q

what is a natural experiment?

A

Intervention occurs by chance

154
Q

what is an example of a natural experiment?

A

Erikson and Stoker (2011) – studied the effect of being drafted into the Vietnam war, baring in mind it was based on (random) date of birth, considered whether those who were drafter exhibited different political behaviour than those who weren’t (yes)

155
Q

what is an ethical issue with the experimental method?

A
  • If we think that an intervention might work, how can we justify not giving it to the control group?
  • For example, giving an area free healthcare, may also cause individuals to try and move to that area, hence harming the randomisation element
156
Q

what is an example of a ethically dubious experiment?

A

Guth and Weckhannermann – German Bundestag election in 1994, voters asked how much money would they sell their vote for, most said they wouldn’t, 1/4 said they would for a substantial amount for which they then had to destroy their voting card

157
Q

what new issue do internet experiments pose in relation to Facebook?

A

Facebook ran an experiment where they changed individuals feeds to more positive/negative, no proper consent there although signing up to Facebook has agreeing to experiments in the small print

158
Q

what is an issue with laboratory experiments?

A

maintaining a subject pool is difficult as the experimentalist must know very little about them, recruiting non-students is very difficult and policy makers are often uncomfortable with research drawn from student subjects, as a culturally homogenous group may fail to pick up on key insights

159
Q

what is an issue with internet experiments?

A

difficult to maintain data from the platform itself – Facebook doesn’t give out data, you have to work directly with them

160
Q

what is an issue with field experiments?

A

Feedback mechanisms (networking between people, media coverage) makes it difficult to maintain the purity of the trial

161
Q

what are the two types of ontology?

A

objectivism and constructivism

Research skills and methods (7 decks)

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