Political Science 3800 - Exam 1

What are the two elements of empirical thory?

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Why are clear definitions of your concepts so important?

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characteristics of scientific knowledge

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charictaristics of hypothesis

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debate on merits of political science as a science

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how has plitical science evolved over time?

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major points of Public Role of Political Science

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test of reliability

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ways to generate knowledge

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three moves of drafting literature review

1. establish importance of topic 2. introduce and synthesize studies 3. identify gaps - transition to rest of paper

variable

A factor that can change in an experiment

ecological fallacy

The fallacy of deducing a false relationship between the attributes or behavior of individuals based on observing that relationship for groups to which the individuals belong

causality

The notion that a change in one factor results in a corresponding change in another

deductive

a logical process in which conclusions are drawn from a set of premises containing no more info than the premises taken collectively. E.g. All dogs are animals. This is a dog; therefore this is an animal.

interval

a measure for which a one unit difference in scores is the same throughout the range of the measure

nominal

a measure for which different scores represent different but not ordered categories

ratio

a measure for which the scores posess the full mathmatical properties of the numbers assigned

ordinal

a measure for which the scores represent ordered categories that are not necessarily equidistant from one another

independant veriables

a phenomenon thought to influence, effect, or cause some other phenomenon

inductive

a reasoning process in which a conclusion is drawn from several observations

empirical generalization

a statement that summarizes the relationship between individual facts and that communicates general knowledge.

purpose of literature review

a systematic examination and interpretation of the literature for the purpose of infoming further work on the topic

interitem association

a test of the extent to which the scores of several items, each thought to measure the same concept, are the same. Results are displayed in a correlation matrix.

intervening variable

a variable coming between and independent variable and a dependent variable in an explanitory scheme

theory

an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations

antecedent variable

an independent variable that precedes other independent variables in time

empirical verification

characteristic of scientific knowledge; demonstration by means of objective observation that a statement is true

empirical

derived from experiment and observation rather than theory

normative

describes beliefs or values about how things should be or what people ought to do rather than what actually is

parsimony

if two explanations appear equally plausible, choose the simpler one.

levels of measurement

nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio

hypothesis

possible explanation for a set of observations or possible answer to a scientific question

theoretical research

research designed specifically to test some developmental explanation and expand scientific knowledge

applied research

research undertaken to solve a specific problem

types of validity

retest method, alternative form method, split-halves method

empiricism

the application of empirical methods in any art or science

validity

the correspondence between a measure and the concept it is supposed to measure

reliability

the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting

positivism

the form of empiricism that bases all knowledge on perceptual experience (not on intuition or revelation)

dependent variable

the phenomenon thought to be influenced, effected, or caused by some other phenomenon

falsifiability

the principle that a good scientific idea or theory should be capable of being shown to be false when tested using scientific methods

operational definition

the rules by which a concept is measured and scores assigned

unit of analysis

the type of actor (individual, group, institution, nation) specified in a researcher's hypothesis

operationalizing

turning abstract ideas into something measurable