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Political Inquiry > Midterm > Flashcards

Midterm Flashcards

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1
Q

Qualitative Research

A
  • Research question, theory, data collection, data analysis
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2
Q

Research Question

A
  • The why, how, and how possible
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3
Q

Rational Choice Theory

A
  • Focused on individual people as rational being
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4
Q

Critical Theory

A
  • Questioning overarching structures in society
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5
Q

Qualitative and Quantitative Commonalities

A
  • Understanding, describing, and answering social and political phenomena
  • Used for theory-testing and building
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6
Q

Theory-Testing

A
  • Trying to evaluate different theories
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7
Q

Theory-Building

A
  • Developing new theories about how the world works
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8
Q

Ontology

A
  • Peter Hall, the world as it actually is
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9
Q

Epistemology

A
  • One’s assumptions about methods needed to acquire knowledge
  • Standards to judge what makes knowledge valid
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10
Q

Positivism

A
  • Assumes universal laws and principles exist and can be discovered socially and physically (onto)
  • Assumes laws can be discovered by applying reason (epistem)
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11
Q

Post-Positivism/Interprevtivism

A
  • Rejection of the covering law (onto)
  • Limitations in sci method (epistem)
  • Explain sci phenomena and perspectives of those being studied (epistem)
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12
Q

Large-N

A
  • Lots of different data points and cases
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13
Q

Small-N

A
  • Only a few data points and cases
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14
Q

Mixed Methods

A
  • Combining methods to get a better answer
  • Qual as a precursor to quant
  • Quant as a precursor to qual
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15
Q

Goals of Political Research

A
  • Answering questions about lived reality
  • Producing policy-relevant insights
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16
Q

Plausibility Probes

A
  • Taking theory for test-drive
  • Not full scale study, small test first
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17
Q

Producing Policy-Relevant Insight

A
  • Studying things that are politically important
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18
Q

Goals of Postivist Research

A
  • Infer from data a description of an event or an actor
  • Descriptive
  • Causal
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19
Q

Descriptive Inference

A
  • Positivist, not as important as causal inference
  • Drawing conclusions or making interpretations based on observed data
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20
Q

Causal Inference

A
  • X and Y relationship between variables
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21
Q

Goals of Interpretive Research

A
  • Focused on verstehen (sympathetic understanding)
  • Takes into account experience of subjects
  • Definition of the situation
  • Omitted variables
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22
Q

Definiton of the Situation

A
  • How people’s understanding of the world can be self-fulfilling
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23
Q

Omitted Variables

A
  • Things that are being left out can be found with interpretive research
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24
Q

Critical vs. Problem-Solving Theory

A
  • PS is aimed at policy relevant insights
  • Crit believs our systems are oppressive and PS accepts them
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25
Choosing a Research Topic
- Choose your topic based on scope of time and resources as well as interest - Bias and lived experience affect her
26
Importance of a Good Research Question
- Should be unambiguous and easy to understand - Provides a narrow entry point
27
Choosing a Research Question
- Make a specific contribution to academia - Be aware of epistem disagreements
28
Framing a Research Question
- Identify a puzzle specific to your discipline - Leverage theory and define core concepts - Deductive vs. inductive reasoning
29
What is Theory
- Simplified model of how the world woks - Concepts are related, how, and why
30
Cycles of Theory Development
- Find what needs explaining, develop theory to explain it, test it, modify accordingly - Never proven once and for all
31
Good Theory
- Clear and concrete - Generalizable - Falsifiable - Debates about parsimony
32
Clarity of Theory
- If no specific predictions, hard to assess and compare
33
Generalization of Theory
- Extend beyond a particular event or context - Positivists want more generalizable - Interpretivists think no generalization
34
Falsification of Theory
- More learned from wrong theories than broad theories - Interpretivists don't like due to coming from natural sciences
35
Parsimonious Theories
- Simple as possible - Sacrifice empirical richness for parsimony - Relies on onto assumptions of natural world - Rejected by qual
36
What are Concepts
- Unidimensional vs. multidimensional - Typologies - Ranked on a continuum
37
Typologies
- Conceptualizing and classifying the world based on traits or other common characteristics
38
Conceptual Stretching
- Sometimes there aren't very many of a particular phenomena - If you stretch too much you compare apples and oranges
39
What are Measures
- Link theory with empirical study - Obtaining observable evidence about concepts of interest
40
Variables and Indicators
- Conceptual definitions to select variables - Indictors locate individual cases among different values/variables - Both must be accurate measure of concept
41
Causality Criteria
- Positive or negative correlations - Temporal order, X precedes Y - Absence of confouding variables - Plausible causal mechanism - Consistency
42
Advantages of Case Studies
- Deep dive into one case or a comparison across cases - In case analysis and cross-case comparisons
43
Value of Case Studies
- Conceptual validity - Identify and measure indicators that best reprsent theoretical concepts
44
Case
- Class or subclass of events - Single event can be a case of many things
45
War in Ukraine
- Single event that is a case of many things - E.g. inter-state war, military occupation, etc.
46
Universe of Cases
- Refers to all possible cases of a phenomenon - Requires clear def of a case
47
Selection Bias
- You may choose a sample that skews results
48
Cherry Picking Cases
- Overrepresenting cases at one end of the distribution - Potentially overstating strength of causal relationships between variables
49
Selecting on Dependent Variable
- Chosen cases so they all share the same outcome - KKV disagrees - Collier and Bennett/George agree
50
Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)
- Based on set theory, relies on Boolean algebra - Allows equifinality - Middle ground between quant and qual
51
Case Studies
- Well defined aspect of a historical episode selected to analyze - Single vs. comparative
52
Advantages of Case Studies
- Conceptual validity - Assessing complex causal mechanisms - Deriving new hypos
53
Female Legislators and Equifinality
- If three different countries all have gender parity in legislature within 5 years - Same outcome, different mechanisms - Comparative study of thre countries would help
54
Equifinality
- A desired outcome is achieved through multiple pathways
55
Limitations of Case Studies
- Selection bias - Scope conditions - Assessing strengthe of causal relationship - 'Degrees of freedom' problem - Lack of representativeness - Single-case research design - Potential lack of independence of cases
56
Scope Conditions and Necessity
- How widely does a theory apply - Case study limitation
57
Assessing Strength of Causal Relationships
- How much impact does dependent have on independent - Case study limitation
58
'Degrees of Freedom' Problem
- Interpretives aren't worried, positivists are - Depending on independent variables, you need a certain number of cases for other factors - Case study limitation
59
Single-Case Research Designs
- Some hate it and some say it can be sometimes valuable - If there is only one case to apply then it's good, e.g. nukes
60
Theoretical/Configurative Idiographic
- The description is what happened in this event
61
Disciplined Configurative
- Taking an existing theory and applying it to explain a case
62
Heuristic
- What matters most, develop new hypotheses about it
63
Theory Testing
- Gonna test this theory, if it's strong it should explain
64
Building Block Studies
- Trying to identify common patterns in an existing phenomenon
65
Most-Likely Case
- 'Easy' test of theory - Based on what you know about a theory, may choose a case that seems like a good fit
66
Least-Likely Case
- 'Hard' test of theory - Seems like a scenario where my theory is least likely to explain the outcome
67
Crucial Case
- Central to the confirmation or disconfirmation of a deterministic theory
68
Methods of Structured, Focused Comparison
- Bennett and George - All cases must be part of the same class or subclass - General questions that deal only with certain aspects of cases - Applying this to all allows for good studies
69
Qual and Quant Similarities
- Understanding political phenomena - Describing social and political reality - Answering questions about the above - Becker
70
Qual and Quant Common Uses
- Theory-testing - Theory-building - Becker

Political Inquiry (4 decks)

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