chapter two
theory
simplified explanation of the world
what does a theory talk about
relationship between a dependent and independent event.
what can a theory do
create a hypotheis. test and not prove right
Political scientists strive for theories that are:
parsimonious
general
falsied
theory...
Theory grows and develops through a balance between theory- building research and theory-testing research
theory building research
Also called “inductive” or “exploratory research”
qual research well suitednfor theory building
theory testing research
also knowj deductive research
the researcher collects and analyzes real-world observations to assess if
the theory is supported
theory explains
relationships between concepts
concepts
Helps us organize and classify phenomena and are central to theory
concepts must have...
conceptual definition (specific and clear about what the concept is and is not.)
What makes good concepts for research?
They are clearly expressed in order to prevent misunderstanding or obfuscation.
• They will make sense to other researchers and help locate the concept in the literature.
• The operational definitions (how we actually measure a concept) are a good reflection of the conceptual
definition.
concepts can be
Typologies or Continuum:
Unidimensional or Multidimensional
Concrete or abstract
Typologies or Continuum:
Typologies: The classification of cases based on their characteristics.
Continuum: a continuous series or event whose parts are indistinguishable from each other.
Unidimensional or Multidimensional
Unidimensional: a concept with only one underlying dimension. (for example: age or height)
• Multidimensional: is one in which more than one factor, or dimension, exists within a concept (for
example: social status)
Concrete or abstract
Concrete: being straightforward
Abstract: (e.g democracy)
Conceptualization
the process of choosing the conceptual definition for a study.
conceptulization three reasons
Choice of Conceptual Definition:
Clarity and Consistency:
Link between Concepts and Measures:
what is the process or transforming abstract concepts into measurable forms
operalization
conceptualized
having a strong conceptual definition that makes sense and
makes sense in the context of the study – all of these can be good concepts to use for research.
what is indutive reasoning
drawing conclusions from empirical evidence) to form or adjust conceptual definitions.
in theory building
concepts and their expected relationship are defined
in theory testimg
hypotheses are tested with empirical evidence.
explain measure
is a tool by which we obtain observable evidence about our concept of interest.
applied research
focuses on answering specific questions or solving immediate problems
operationlization
variable which is a more concrete representation of the concept that has within it variations, to an
◦ indicator, which is the means by which we assign each individual case to the different values of the
variable.
concepts are
abstract ideas, while variables are measurable manifestations of those concepts, and indicators are specific ways to measure the variables.
operalization involves
making choices about how to translate concepts into variables and indicators.
back and forth process
constant movement between concepts, variables, and indicators to ensure that empirical
measurements accurately reflect the abstract concepts.
trade offs
Moving from concepts to variables and indicators involves trade-offs, as some aspects of a concept may not be fully captured.
What do you do when a concept is too difficult to capture in a single variable?
devise an index
Hypotheses
central to theory-testing research and to our understanding of causal relationships.
correlation
means there is a relationship between two variables, but it doesn’t indicate which is the
cause and which is the effect.
casuality
when one event produces a change in another.
casual mechanism
explains why a relationship exists between two variables
importance of casuality
understanding cause and effect
5 Causality Criterions
correlation
temporal order
Absence of confounding variables
plausible causal mechanism
consistency
null hypothesis
The default assumption that there is no relationship between the two variables of interest.
The research hypothesis:
the relationship you actually want to test
Bivariate relationships
relationship between two variables, one dependent and one independent.
Multivariate relationships
relationship between more than two variables (one dependent and two or more independe
types of variables
intervening variable
conditional
reinforcing
spurious
intervening variable
one that comes between the independent and dependent
conditional variables
variables that strengthen the relationship between an independent and a dependent variable for some
categories
reinforcing variables
variables that strengthen and magnify the relationship between an independent and dependent
variable
spurioous variables
something that inflences both IV and DV and creates a problem for casuality
categorial concept
differences between values are differences in kind
Continuous concept:
differences between values are differences in amount
Level of measurement:
the precision used in interpreting the numerical values of the measures used in the research project;
distinction is made among nominal, ordinal, and interval/ratio measures.
Nominal variables:
The levels of measurement, moving from the lowest to the highest level of precision, are as follows
Ordinal variables:
variables that allow for the ordering of categories along a continuum, but without a precise distance
between the categories.
Interval variables:
variables that can be ordered and where the categories are separated by a standard unit; do not have
an absolute zero.
Ratio variables:
have the same qualities as interval variables, with the additional quality of an absolute zero
how to determine what level of measurement to use
concept itself
the analysis yo want
generlizability and accuracy
measurement error
random error
non random error
how to decrease measurement error
reliability
measureneb validitiy
other types of validity
face
internal
extrenal