Text: Ch.1

Question 1

critical thinking

2 key aspects of critical thought

Answer 1

involves weighing and evaluating the merits of evidence marshalled in support of an argument

2= way in which we percieve and interpret evidence

Question 2

Scientific approach to politics

Answer 2

the application of the scientific method to the study of political phenomenon

• an aim to use critical thought as a guide to our perceptions of the political world
  ex: female underrepresentation in legislative assemblies

Question 3

Scientific Analysis

Answer 3

analysis that uses the scientific method, in whichever discipline the study is taking place

Question 4

Two dominant forms of political analysis

Answer 4

1.Normative:value-laden
.the realm of political theory and philosophy, is prescriptive in nature and addresses how society and political life should be
-discussion of ideals, value judgements, and preferences
-feelings(important but difficult to measure)
-“truth” of normative statements depends on who said it
-good, bad, right, wrong, should, must, and ought

2.Empirical: the reliance on observation of the real world to test theories and gain knowledge
.is decriptive in nature; the goal is to describe and to explain the political world as it is rather than as it should be
.fact based rather then moral based
.observation is the key method

Question 5

intersubjectivity

Answer 5

empirical facts must be independently observed and agreed upon by many people

• must be replicable
• increases objectivity

Question 6

_____ are not completly objective, but perceptions of _____(same word) are influenced or mediated by the social and political context of the observer

Answer 6

fact

-difficult to fully seperate fact and values or the empiracle and normative aspects of the study of politics

Question 7

______ research is used to question the conclusions of ______ analysis, and _____(same) analysis often employs ______(same as 1st) facts in its arguments

Answer 7

empirical

normative, normative

empirical

-empirical information of often used in normative debates

Question 8

science

Answer 8

set of rules that help us understand the world around us

• describes how we know not what we know
• method of aquiring knowledge rather than knowledge itself
• something is science not because of the subject that is being studied but because of the way it is being studied

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD consits of formultating a hypothesis about a causal relationship between variables and emiraccally testing the hypothesis

• tries to eliminate or minimize the effect of the observer on the observed
• tries to find and explain variance in a sample

Question 9

Natural Vs. Social Science

Answer 9

physics, chem, bio

political science, sociology,econ

1. In social science, the setting within which the science is conducted is not controlled by the researcher
   - difficult to isolate variables in feild research
   - less effecient a controlling extraneous factors than a labratory in natural sciences
2. social sciences are chracterized by considerable disagreement over the definition and mesurment of key terms like democracy, effective representation, and social class(unlike Natural science terms like mass or speed)
3. In social science, outcomes are never completley determined as instead of laws being determined like in natural science, social science has to deal with the presence of human agency-free choice.
   - explains the use of probabilistic statements such as “ young people are less likely than middle aged to participate in politics”

Question 10

confound

independent variables

treatments

Answer 10

the prescence of some unobserved difference between groups that is correlated both with the outcome and the independent variable of interest, thereby making causal inference impossible

the measure used as the proposed causal influence in a relationship between two measures

the intervention of interest;also known as stimulus

Question 11

Probabilistic statment

Answer 11

a statment type which leaves the door open for the possibility that it is not a concrete law

• used in social sciences to accound for ‘human factor’
  ex: “ young people are less likely than middle aged to participate in politics”

opposite of deterministic statements used in Natural sciences like:
ex:” young people participate less in politics than middle aged”

Question 12

epistemology

Answer 12

the study of knowledge or how we know what we know

Question 13

Strengths of Scientific Method(4)

Answer 13

1. It attempts to minimize the effect of the observer on the observed
2. It directs our attention to the dynamics of cause and effect
3. It can be used both to explain and predict
4. It seeks lawlike generalization that can be applied to the political world across time and space

Question 14

1. hypothesis
2. theory
3. positivism
4. determinism
5. interpretivism

Answer 14

1.a statement oof a proposed caussal relationship between to concepts

2. statements that attempt to explain causal relationship between two variables
   - lawlike generalizations formulated through scientific approach
3. a philosophical position that states that the scientific approach is the best way to gain knowledge
   - it is believed that almost everything can be objectively measured(empiricism) and that every event has an explanation or a cause(determinism)

4.the view that a certain outcome is inevitable

5. also refereed to as anti-positivism, the view that reality does not exist independent of individuals and that all knowledge is socially constructed;argues that there is no such thing as objective realiity that can be understood by all observers and measured through techniques such as survey research;methodologically associated with more qualitative approaches
   - belie that it is not possible, and not even desirable, to seperate the observer from his or her observaions
   - not reasonable to expect that observers would percieve events in an identical manner

Question 15

Postmodernism

Answer 15

a philiosophical position that states that it is impossible to identify objective knowledge because all knowledge is embedded within the power,class,gender, and racial structure of society
-the assertion that the effects of the observer on the observed can be minimized is hotly contested by the proponents of postmodernism

Question 16

6 Postulates of empirical research

Answer 16

1. Nature is orderly
   - belief in some specific cause-and-effect relationships allows for cross-cultural/cross-belief systems understanding of the way things work
   - ex: a homerun is caused by the force of a bat hitting a ball
   - causal ordering of social and political reality, even if our understanding is llimited at this time
2. We can know nature
   - belief in nature being orderly is deviod of empirical implications if the order cannot be revealed to us
   - yet the idea that at some point we will be able to reveal its order with the scientific method
   - knowledge of nature is availble to us all equally, knowone has a better ability then another to detect it
   - the method itself reveals the knowledge not the observer
3. Knowledge is superior to ignorance
   - our awareness of the world around us can be:
   a) . ignorant about the reality or about underlying causes
   b) . or we can understand them correctly and have knowledge of them
   - science prefers to always have knowledge over ignorance
4. Natural Phenomenon have natural causes
   - nothing is supernatural, anyone has the opportunity to see the connections between natural phenomenon and their natural causes
   - may be seen as denial of god
5. Nothing is self evident
   - nothing is beyond scientific investigation, nothing is priori(without experience) or by intuition
6. Knowledge is derived from the acquisition of experience
   - knowledge is gained by the continued use of the scientific method
   - repeated observation,careful testing, and replication
   - whether sciencific advances occur through cumulative incremental change, through paradigm shifts, or at random, there is general agreement that the critical factor is the accumulated experience that accomponies use of the scientific method

Question 17

residual

Answer 17

is everything outside the explanatory factors in a model
-spiritual factors are included along with other influences that cannot be identified,isolated, or measured as causal influences

Question 18

Thomas Kuhn and the structure of scientific revolutions

Answer 18

.believed that while science progressed incrementally at all times, that it took large paradigm shifts like the sun-centered solar system to be revolutionary in though

Question 19

political philosophy:______

political science:_______

Answer 19

normative
-right or wrong, what is the good life?

empirical
-discovering why things are the way they are, why do people vote the way they do?

Question 20

Steps in the Scientific Theory Testing Method(9)

Answer 20

1. Identify the Problem
   - the ‘problem’ or the outcoe, is called the dependent event and is measured by the dependent variable
   - must be variation
   - must be indentifiable and definable in order to link to past nd future research
2. Hypothesize the cause of the problem
   - explain variation of dependent variable
   - hypothesized causes are called independent concepts and are measured by independent variables
3. Provide clear definitions of the concepts
   - concepts are abstractions used to describe the characteristics of a group or an individual case according to a given criterion or quality
   - ex: defining political participation(what does that entail)
   - terms may also be different based on who is writing,ie. tar sands vs. oil sands
4. Operationalize the concepts
   - move from cenceptual level to variables is called operationalization
   - specific measurment
   ex: social class is an example of multidimensionality
   - the variable should reflect the abstract concept that it represents as closely as possible
5. Gather empirical data
   -test of hypothesis
   -data must be collected on independent, dependent, and other extraneous variables
   how you gather the data: research design strategies
6. Test the hypothesis(es)
   - one of the defining characterisitcs of scientific research is that hypotheses are falsible
   - it must be possible through both logic of anaylsis and the design of the research, to demonstrate the abscense of a causal relationship between the concepts being examined, if not then it was not done scientifically
   - null hypothesis are used in empirical testing, inverted hypotheses
   - reason for this is that the research hypothesis can never be true, never proved, although it can be supported
   - null hypothesis is always accepted or rejected
   - the empirical test is taken as a measure or proxy of the true relationship
7. Reflect back on theory
   - must return to conceptual level in order to draw conclusions
   - were hypotheses confirmed?what are implications for the theoretical underpinnings of study? does the theory need revision in light of research?what generalizations can be made from this study? policy implications? In what direction should future research move?
8. Publicize research for debate and discussion
   - peer evaluation process before publication
9. Replicate results
   - if cant be replicated then it fails

Question 21

Dependent variable

Answer 21

the outcome event or the event to be explained in a research project; the research hypothesis is that an independent variable or variables act on or effect the dependent variable

Question 22

hypothesized causes are called _____ ______ and are measured by independent variables

Answer 22

independent concepts
-the word independent implies that the variation in this concept is independent of, or not caused by, variation in the dependent event

A causes B not the other way around

ex: older people tend to be more conservative politically
- age dictates political view, political view does not dictate age

Question 23

theory in political views

Answer 23

generalized statements about causes of attitudes or behaviour

Question 24

operationalization

Answer 24

movement from concepts to variables in scientific testing
stage 4
-obtaining specific measurment of the concepts with respect to data that has been collected
-easy ex: assigning Male or Female for Sex

Question 25

research design

Answer 25

the manner in which the research question has been structured in light of the literature review of the topic, including how data are to be gathered and analyzed to test the major hypothesis or hypotheses of the study; often presented in a written document before the data are analyzed

Question 26

Null Hyptheses

Answer 26

either accepted or rejected

• the null hypothesis that there is no causal relationship between two variables is accepted if an empirical test shows that they are independent
• rejected if the test reveals that the variables are related to eachother

Question 27

Postmaterialism

Answer 27

a social theory developed by Ronals Ingelhart in the 1970s that postulated that advanced industrial societies were moving from division based on material wealth and physical security to one based on individual autonomy, concern for environment, and self expression

Question 28

critique of scientific method(______)

Answer 28

positivism

1. people argue that it has limited utility for the study of society and politics are recommended alternatives
2. Hard for people to apply determinism to human behaviour
   - free will
   - still can find gernalizations and patterns
3. Aspects of reality cannot be empirically measured
   - beliefs, thoughts, attitudes
   - measurment validity
   - challenge is to select indicators that most closely tap the concept they wish to measure
4. Question objectivity
5. Argue that positivism supports the status quo because it assumes an unchanging order instead of seeing current society as a particular stage in an ongoing process
   - can be argued as a positive because a variet of approaches ensures that a diverse set of perspectives and interpretations of social world are considered

Question 29

measurment validity

Answer 29

the extent to which the measurement of a particular concept matches its operational definition

Question 30

what does Caveat emptor mean?

Answer 30

let the buyer beware

Question 31

Argument

Answer 31

Argument: series of logical statements that lead to a conclusion, with reasons offered to support the conclusion

• If reasons are shown to be incorrect, or if reasoning is faulty, argument is flawed and should be rejected

Question 32

What is evidence?

Value of evidence to argument (2)

Answer 32

data/information that provide basis for a position/point of view – Facts – Observations (from research, own experience, etc.)

• the quality of evidence (validity, reliability)
• the body of evidence (e.g., one study vs. many studies

Question 33

Research Nihilism

Answer 33

“…it is very easy to find flaws with all studies. It is much more difficult, though, to teach people to differentiate between limitations and fatal flaws; that is, to judge whether the problems are serious enough to jeopardize the results or should simply be interpreted with a modicum of caution. Without this judgment, it is easy to become nihilistic, feeling that no study can be believed…”

-we have to critically read not nihilism

Question 34

Describe the Evidence Continuum (4)

Answer 34

1. Misleading Evidence
   - worse than no evidence
2. No or limited evidence
3. Best Available evidence
4. Strong Evidence
   - causality demonstrated, no design flaws, multiple studies

Question 35

Social Science Research can effect…3

Answer 35

effects Political debates, Policy(sometimes), and Popular Beliefs