SCS 2150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Statistical Hypothesis Testing, Conditionality, Structural Functionalism
17 Oct 2016
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Scs2150 lecture 2 general methodological approaches. Theory: an explanation of observed regularities or patterns. Asses the adequacy of a particular social theory. Important to do academic research to develop new theories. Ex: election polls to predict which political party may win based on research of social, economic, political issues and peoples" opinions. Limited in scope and can be tested directly. Ex: seymour martin lipset"s theory of democracy. General and abstract theories (typically cannot be tested directly) Ex: rational choice (you cannot test to see if people are rational or not because it is based on opinion), structural functionalism. Usually are the basis of specific theories. One way to conduct social scientific inquiry is through deduction. Using deduction is done by creating a theory or explanation for something and then testing it in the world. Testable expectation about empirical reality that follows from a more general theory. Ex: the level of economic development has a positive effect on democracy.
