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401 Political Analysis

Study Guide#1 for Exam #1 Feb. 3, 2009

Dr. Folz

Overview of Exam Structure:

Part I: Multiple Choice: 30 questions worth 2 points each. (60 pts)

Part II: Short Answer/Identification/ Decisions in Research. Answer 8 of 9 questions worth 5

points each. (40 pts). (Examples: Identify and describe the 3 criteria for causality;stage in a research design that is most vulnerable to criticism, identify the independent and dependent variables, their level of measurement, the unit of analysis, whether the study is cross-sectional or longitudinal, whether the operational definitions have possible validity or reliability problems, or problems that may relate to time order, correlation, or attribution in causal analysis.)

An Overview of the Research Enterprise

-- According to Pollock, with what kinds of questions is science concerned?

-- What does it mean to think Empirically? Probabilistically?

-- What is empirical research? What does it mean for research to be “replicable?” Why is this important?

--Why should we think critically about how a researcher measures variables?

-- Be able to identify examples of questions that are and are not testable via the Scientific Method.

-- What is research? Be able to recognize projects that may or may not represent “research” as we

have defined it in class.

-- What is the Scientific Method? What makes it scientific? What are its main stages?

-- What is a Research Design? What kinds of questions should it answer?

-- What is “agreement reality?”

-- What are the 5 main stages/steps in empirical political research?

-- Be able to describe and explain key concepts associated with scientific research: theory and its roles,

empirical, nomothetic or idiographic, probabilistic, & causal.

Approaches to & logical models employed in Political Science Research

-- What are the three main historical periods of political science research?

-- What’s involved in the philosophical debate between (Modernism, Behavioralism or Positivism)

v. (Post-Modernism, Post-Behavioralism or Post-Positivism)? Why is this debate

important; what are the implications? What’s involved in their respective approaches to research? (Can you recognize examples of each?)

-- What distinguishes a modern or behavioralist approach to research v. a post-modern or post-

behavioralist approach to research?

-- What are the modernist critiques of post-modernism?

-- What are the post-modern critiques of modernism?

-- Deductive and inductive reasoning are the two logical modes of scientific inquiry. Can you recognize

each in a research scenario and explain how each operates? Under what circumstances would a

researcher employ each mode of logic?

Concepts & Elements of the Research Process

-- What role do theories have in research?

-- What is a hypothesis and what is its purpose? What must a good hypothesis have? (See template p. 50).

Can you compose a directional hypothesis between two variables?

-- What is an H1? An H0? Why do political scientists use this convention in empirical research?

-- Be able to recognize the four possible patterns of relationships between two variables: (no relationship,

positive, negative & curvilinear.

-- Can you recognize and define the difference between a correlational claim and a causal claim?

-- What are Concepts? Variables? Attributes?

-- What is an independent variable (X)? A dependent variable (Y)? What is the purpose of each in

research? (You should be able to identify the independent and dependent variable in a hypothesis

or a research scenario).

-- What are the three main steps in Operationalization of a variable?

-- How does a researcher use the measuring scheme in an operational definition for a variable?

-- Why is operationalization the stage in research that is most vulnerable to challenge or attack?

-- What two issues in an operationalization should we investigate if don’t believe a study’s findings?

-- Be able to recognize & identify issues/problems related to:

1). a variable’s level of measurement (nominal, ordinal or interval)

2). whether a nominal or ordinal measure is exhaustive

3). whether a nominal or ordinal measure is mutually exclusive

-- Why is it important to correctly identify a variable’s level of measurement?

-- What is a Unit of Analysis & why should researchers clearly specify it? What is an

ecological fallacy? Can you recognize an example of an ecological fallacy in a research scenario?

-- Be able to identify the unit of analysis in research scenario

-- What is a Cross-sectional study? a Longitudinal study?Be able identify each in a research scenario.

Measurement Issues

-- What does it mean to have a Reliable measure?

-- Be able to identify problems with a measure’s reliability in a research scenario.

-- What are the 3 dimensions of reliability? Recognize tests for each dimension.

-- What does it mean to have a Valid measure? Recognize the use of checks for validity.

-- Be able to identify a problem in a research scenario that may relate to reliability, validity or both.

The Nature of Causality

-- What is Causality? In causal analyses, what do X & Y typically represent?

-- How did the OMB in the Bush administration use the results from evaluation research?

-- What’s the difference between Correlation and Causality? Can you distinguish correlational

findings from causal findings?

-- What are the three Criteria that must be satisfied to have an Internally Valid evaluation

research design? (Time order, correlation or covariation, & attribution)

-- What do each of these three criteria mean?

--Why is the “How else?” question the unofficial mantra of social research? p. 80

-- What does it mean to have an Internally Valid research design?

-- Why is it impossible to demonstrate causality between X and Y if any one of the criterion are

not satisfied?

-- Be able to recognize problems in charts or research scenarios that involve issues related to one

or more of the three criteria for causality.

-- What is a spurious relationship?

-- What is a “Z” variable?

Evaluation Research Designs

-- What is the purpose of Evaluation research?

-- Know the 3 main categories of evaluation research designs: Experimental, Quasi-Experimental, and

Non-experimental

-- What are the 3 main features of an Experimental research design? (independent & dependent variables;

usually a pre-test but always a post-test; and use of random assignment to place cases in a

treatment and a control group(s).

-- What is randomassignment? How does random assignment address the attribution criterion of

causality?

-- What does randomselection mean? (refers to how cases are chosen from the population for

inclusion in a research design).

-- What is required for a research design to have external validity?

-- Why are Experimental designs usually the strongest type of evaluation design?

-- Why can’t experimental designs be used very frequently in political science research?

-- What is the Hawthorne Effect?

-- Be able to recognize the symbolic notation for types of experiments using the “R X O” notation.

-- What is a Quasi-experimental design?

-- Be able to recognize the symbolic notation for the different types of quasi-experiments using

the “NX O” notations. (e.g.: pre-test, post-test with or without a comparison group; a

single interrupted time series; a time series with a comparison group).

-- What is one of the common weaknesses of quasi-experimental research designs?

-- Be able to choose an appropriate evaluation design based on the “decision tree” for an evaluation design.

-- Be able to recognize/determine whether X might have a causal effect on Y in illustrations of

the results from experimental and quasi-experimental designs.