Text Ch.3 Flashcards
- Applied Research
2. Basic Research
- research directed at finding answers to specific problems with immediate practical usage
ex: cost-benefit analysis, social impact assessment
- maximize efficiency and effectiveness in short term
- indicates how things are but not why they are
- aims to broaden our understanding of political life, seeking to advance general knowledge, basic researchers examineing theories about politics and attempt to formulate explanations and generalizations by empirically testing hypotheis
- Royal Commmision on Aboriginal Peoples is an ex of combined applied and basic research
theory
hypothesis
proposition
identifies a general pattern of behaviour, from which we can both make predictions and empirically test relevant hypotheses
are statements of the relationships between concepts or, more specifically, are proposed explanations for an observable phenomenon
a statement expressing the truth of falseness of a situation
ex: if the hypothsis is true, the following predicate of a subject is either false or true
concept
causality vs correlation
is a defined term that enables us to organize and classify phenomena
- can be concrete like age, or abstract like equality
ex: politician, region, discrimination, power..
the relationship between two events, in which one is consequence of the other(ie. a cause and affect relationship)
-when the change in one of the variables leads to change in the other
vs.
correlation is when a change in one occurs when there is a change in the other
you classify concepts based on ______ on a ______
variables, continuum
- variables ordered or ranked
- ex: Left-right spectrum of political ideology
means of classifying concepts:
- continuum(left-right)
- ideal type: compare against one ideal
- typology-using new concepts formed between to concepts to describe relationship
ex: aristotles typology of regimes= monarchy, tyranny, aristrocracy, etc.
Positive Correlation vs. Negative correlation
occurs when an increase in value in one concepts is accompanied by an increase in value in the other concept. same situation but with decrease in both is same
negative does not mean that there is no relationship between the two variables, but that the direction of change is inverse
-a decrease in one and an increase in another
How to develop a theory?2 ways
Inductive: approaches move from data to theory-we begin by observing the world and develop generalizations and conclusions from our observations
- involves the progression from empirical evidence to generalizations
- often exploratory
ex: Alexis de Tocqueville’s democracy in America saying political equality leads to bad leadership - observation to generalization
Deductive: begin with specific assumptions, or hypothesis, and set out to test them in the real world
- often refered to as “hypothesis-testing”
- general to specific(opposite of inductive)
-both inductive and deductive play off eachother
.notice a pattern in society and make broad generalizations(inductive)
.then test hypothesis desrived from the theory(deductive)
.then data collection from deductive may led to new theories(inductive)
.new hypothesis(deductive)
alternative hypothesis
the statement of a possible causal relationship in contrast to another statement, often the research hypothesis; can be helpful in assessing the relative magnitude of the relationship in the research hypothesis
hypothesis testing can be seen as the gradual elimination of _____ ______
alternative explanations
4 characteristics of a hypothesis
- Relationship: it states a relationship between two variables
- Comparison: it states a comparison between values of the independent variable
- Direction: it states the direction of the relationship if possible
- Testability: it is empirically testable
causality
the key element is the notion of agency-it is because of the action of the causal variable that the outcome variable exists in its current state
- temporal order helps us understand which caused the other
- reacting variable is dependent on preceding event(cause)
the dependent variable is the _______/______ (influenced or influencing) variable
influenced
independent variable= cause
-its values are independent of the dependent variable
Causal Relationships and Causal Models
Bivariate
Multivariate
Spurious
causal models help us visualize the relationships between variables
=relationships between a single independent variable and the dependent variable
-two variables being considered
=causal relationships involve more then one independent variable
=when a relationship between two variables can be accounted for by a third variable
- if the relationship between A and B ceases when C is removed then it is spurious
- C is a control variable
Errors in causal reasoning
- Spurious Relationship not causal
- temporal order does not imply causality
- just because variable A comes before B does not mean it is the cause - Ecological Fallacy-the assumption that group-level patterns imply individual-level patterns
intervening variables
is one that comes between an independent and a dependent variable, but the direction of causality flows from independent variable to the intervening variable to the dependent variable
-the original independent variable in important because it causes variation in the dependent variable, whereas in a spurious relationship the initial independent variable is not important because its effect on the dependent variable dissapears