Scopes Midterm

Normative Reasoning

Moral, asks the should questions, political theory, opinion based

Empirical Reasoning

Asks descriptive and explanatory questions based on evidence

The Scientific Method

set of procedures used to test hypothesis about a phenomena based on the collection and analysis of data.

exploratory design

used to get us started thinking about all aspects of topic and generate new ideas for research and hypothesis. What is going on?

Descriptive design

Identifies what its going on/happening as accurately as possible without identifying causes. What does the world look like?

Explanatory Design

explain why phenomenon occurs by identifying causes, the main outcome of intent, and how they are involved. Why does it happen?

Research problem/puzzle

Something we are wondering about the world; Why do some countries do ..

Democratic peace theory

democracy-demcocracy war less likely; democracy-autocracy war more likely

Research Question

Narrowed and focused question derived from research problem that will guide your experiment/research

Hypothesis

tentative answer/guess to the research question that proposes a casual relationship between the variables

Theory

explains how and why the variable will effect eachother

Case Selection

Identifying the population of cases your research applies and speaks to and cases that can help answer your research question

Data collection and analysis

Methods used to gather real-world data to test if the evidence

supports or challenges the hypothesis.

Conclusion

Evaluate the evidence and see if results support your hypothesis

Correlation

two variables vary together

Causation

means that a change in one variable produces/causes a change in another variable

Confounder

An outside or third variable in a study that affects both the supposed cause (IV) and the supposed effect (DV) creating a false link between them

Spurious Correlations

things that happen together but are only correlated by chance. like that there is a connection between the consumption of margarine and divorce rates

Mulitcausality

multiple cause for one answer/thing that happened

Endogeneity

refers to the correlation between the independent variable and unexplained variation/error in the dependent variable. Ex: reverse causation or mutual causality

Conceptualization

turning abstract thoughts into clear and define working concepts

Intension

Defining attributes of a concept

Extension

Which cases apply to a concept and how many of them

Concept

abstract; do not exist as things we can directly observe; help us organize and understand reality

Ladder of Generality

Explains the trade-off between intension and extension; increasing differentiation (intension) comes at the expense of generality (extension)

Conceptual Stretching

When a concept is applied to new cases without adjusting the definition; increasing the concepts extension without reducing its intension

Necessary and sufficient logic

A case belongs to a category only if it possesses ALL defining attributes, not just some

Family Resemblance Logic

A case belongs to a category because it shares SOME defining attributes with other category members

Operationalization

The process of translating abstract concepts into observable indicators; turns abstract ideas into clear measurable facts that can actually be tested

Indicators

Helps us bring concepts down to earth and make them accurately measurable in reality

Good indicators

concrete, specific, and observable; should have high validity an high reliability

Validity

extent to which an indicator measures what it is intended to measure

Reliability

produces same result when applied repeatedly to the same object under the same conditions

Descriptive research questions

Ask WHAT is happening; identify and measure patterns, characteristics, or differences without explaining their causes

Explanatory/causal research questions

Asks WHY something happens or what causes an outcome; examine relationships between variable to determine whether one factor helps produce another

Straw man fallacy

occurs when someone misrepresents or oversimplifies an argument into an absolute claim and then attacks it since they made it easier to criticize

Fundamental Problem of Causal Inference

we can never observe what happens to the same thing under 2 different conditions at the same time; fundamentally impossible/unavoidable

Factual world

real world, observed outcome based on change, thus becomes treatment group in experiments

Counterfactual world

Unobserved outcome of what may or may not happen, can’t physically see the change, thus this becomes the comparison groups in experiments

Random Assignment

assigning populations at random to either control or treatment group; groups are very similar on average and allows control group to approximate the counterfactual and helps eliminate confounding variables

Experimental method

Method in which researchers manipulate and randomly assign individuals to experimental conditions in order to test causal arguments

Observational method

no manipulation just researchers observing as things are in real life

Lab Experiments

take place in an environment controlled by the researcher and the treatment is something participants see or do while completing a task; Pros: more certainty about the proper administration of the experm.

Cons: artificial environment, does the sample actually rep the population of interest

Field Experiments

Take place in a setting where the behavior of interest occurs naturally and the treatment is delivered through some real-world interaction

Pros: more realistic, wouldn’t be ethical to set up but good t study since it naturally occurs Cons: admin of treatment is more contaminated and researchers usually have less control over the research design

Construct validity

degree to which an experimental setup tests/measures the theory it claims to represent

Internal Validity

degree to which the relationship between the explanatory variable (treatment) and the outcome of interest is causal

External Validity

extent to which the conclusions of the experiment are generalizable