Political Science and Research Methods Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering fundamental political science concepts, theoretical approaches, subfields, rational choice assumptions, and research methods based on lecture notes.

Science

The study of areas of the natural and social world, as well as the general process of studying and understanding.

Normative Approach

An approach focused on the way the world should be from an objective point of view.

Positive Approach

An approach focused on understanding what is and why, acknowledging that people will not always agree.

International Relations

A subfield of political science focusing on relationships and interactions around the world.

Comparative Politics

A subfield of political science focused on looking at, comparing, and contrasting countries.

Feminist Approach

An approach from a gender point of view focusing on gender, designed to answer questions important to women based on female experience.

Behavioralism

An approach trying to understand how people think and react by focusing less on institutions and more on the individual, without a clear set of assumptions.

Institutional Approach

An approach focused on studying a set of rules.

Constructivism

An approach where social norms, history, social aspects of society, and the group itself define what symbols mean.

Interpretivism

An approach rejecting the positive approach, holding that there is no objective truth, and relying on subjective understanding based in culture and interpretive meaning of terms and concepts.

Theory

A logical story of why one thing affects another and causal stories of how the world works to explain relationships between two variables.

Hypothesis

A testable claim extracted from a theory.

Literature Reviews

The process of establishing existing knowledge relevant to a theory being tested before contributing new research.

Assumptions

Accepted truths regarding the structure of the world, human behavior, or form of approach.

Rational Choice

An approach stating that individuals hold personal preferences and prefer one thing over another.

Utility

The benefit an individual gets out of an action, such as donating time.

Transitive Preferences

A rational choice assumption stating that preferences can be ranked in order, such as order $A$, $B$, $C$.

Completeness Assumption

A rational choice assumption stating that individuals know all the options available to them.

Single Peaked Preferences

A preference condition where an individual has one preference that outweighs all other preferences.

Interpersonal Comparison of Utility

The comparison of utility across individuals, which cannot be made because utility structures are unique.

Cultural Approach

An approach viewing culture as the central force that dictates everything, where bound individuals are socialized to adopt cultural norms and customs.

Quantitative Research

A method of testing theoretical arguments by analyzing data.

Qualitative Research

A method of testing theoretical arguments using thick descriptions and detailed case studies.

Formal Research

A method of testing theoretical arguments using game theory, formal mathematical notation, charts, and diagrams.