SCS 2150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Nomothetic, Random Assignment, Treatment And Control Groups

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Social Sciences
• Course: SCS 2150
• Professor: Efe Peker

Document Summary

Question 1: not topic, but what they are arguing or adding to the original article/book. Question 2: how it might differ from the original article/book. Question 3: try and find an article that has actually collected data, avoid evaluation of other articles. A framework for the collection and analysis of data. What kind of explanation will i want: typically, nomothetic and idiographic. Nomothetic explanations: involve attributions of cause and effect, expressed in terms of general laws and principles. Nomothetic explanations have to satisfy three criteria of causation: correlation two variables following same trajectory, not the same as causation, time order, non-spuriousness not a random relationship between the two variables. Most numerical data can only go so far with correlation: before it fails to explain causation. Idiographic explanations: involve a rich description of a person or group and seek to explain the particular. Not meant to apply to persons or groups who were not part of the study: empathetic understanding.