POL 51 Midterm: Midterm Study Guide
21 Feb 2017
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Scientific method: causal theory (to explain the outcome) Why and the how, the process, reasoning, think because. Theory: tentative conjecture about the causes of some phenomenon of interest. Operationalization: how will we measure the concept. Evidence to go from theory hypothesis (ex. % of something: hypothesis: theory based statement about a relationship that we expect to observe. Dv effect: empirical test (w/real-life data, evaluation of hypothesis (what do the tests say?, evaluation of causal theory (re-examine causal theory) Importance of having variation in your independent and dependent variables. Differences in outcomes (we need different values of iv and dv to explain results) Covariation: changes in the value of the iv should result in different values of the dv. No covariation if one value of the iv causes all the different values of the dv. Confounding variable (causal factor): any other variable that also has an effect on your dependent variable.
