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Summary Research Methods in Political Science
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Summary of the lectures together combined with notes from the textbook 'Political Research: Methods, and Practical Skills'.
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Summary Research Methods in Political Science (2019/2020)
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Introduction to Political Science Research Exam Part 1
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Summary - Research Methods in Political Science→ Exam: Monday, October 21, 16:00-19:00
Lecture 1: Course overview
Course topics (discussed in this summary)
- Philosophy of Social Science (lecture 2)
- Research design
- Research Questions and Theories (lecture 3)
- Causality and Overview of Designs (lecture 4)
- Research Ethics and (Threats to) Validity (lecture 5)
- Data and Measurement (lecture 6)
- Data Collection
- Comparative and Historical Research (lecture 7)
- Surveys and Sampling (lecture 8)
- Interviews and Focus Groups (lecture 9)
- Experiments (lecture 10)
- Ethnography and Participant Observation (lecture 11)
- Textual/Content Analysis and Big Data (lecture 12)
- Data Analysis, mostly quantitative (lecture 13)
Scientific Research
- Theory: Explanations and predictions
- Method: Procedures and methods
- Analysis: Description and Theory/Hypothesis Testing
Scientific Research Process
Why do we use
research methods?
1
, - Establishment of systematic approach/evidence from intuitions (be skeptical!)
- Question- and problem driven
- They are useful tools that provide us with transparency and replicability
- Methodological pluralism and diversity
- Methods as constraints vs. opportunities
Lecture 2: Philosophy of Social Science
Naive Science Scientific Method
Personal experiences Systematic process
Intuition Falsification
Authority Replication
Appeals to tradition, customs and faith Reflective and self-critical approach
Superstition and myths Cumulative and self-correcting process
↳Insufficient or incomplete data ↳ Cyclical scientific
research process
↳No or biased inquiry
Ontology
- What is the nature of the social world, e.g. is there an objective and/or subjective
reality?
- Objective reality means something exists outside of the mind (objects)
- Subjective reality something exists depending on the mind
(experiences)
Epistemology
- What can we know about social phenomena?
Methodology
- How do we obtain knowledge?
- Quantitative / qualitative research
Positivism
- Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
- Positivism: search for the truth through systematic collection of observable facts
(the natural world)
Positivism maintains that scientific knowledge of the social world is limited to what can
be observed; and that we can explain and predict social phenomena by discovering
empirical regularities, formulating law-like generalisations, and establishing causal
relationships.
1. Scientific methods may be applied to the study of social life
2. Knowledge is only generated through observation
2
, 3. Facts and values are distinct, objective inquiry
- Sociology: scientific study of the social world
Basic tenets of classical positivism
- Naturalism: social sciences should be treated the same as the natural sciences
- Empiricism: knowledge of the world is limited to what can be observed and
measured
- Laws: the goal of social science is to explain and predict social phenomena by
means of laws.
- Induction: observation → theory
- Cause-and-effect relationships: observable ‘constant conjunction’ by
David Hume :
Two events A and B are constantly conjoined if whenever one occurs the
other does. The constant conjunction theory of causation, often attributed
to Hume, is that this relationship is what is meant by saying that the one
causes the other, or that if more is intended by talking of causation,
nevertheless this is all that we can understand by the notion
- Science is objective and value free (distinction between facts and values)
Logical positivism
- Karl Popper (1902-1994)
Goal: introduce logical reasoning as sources of knowledge in addition to
empiricism (deduction).
- Rejection of induction
- One particular experience cannot result in general knowledge
- One counter-observation and law is falsified
- Rejection of verifiability
- Verification of theory is pointless
- The goals must be falsification of theory ( →replacement with better
theory)
Basic tenets of logical positivism
- Empiricism and logical reasoning
- Deduction: theory → observation
- Retroduction: theory → observation & observation → theory
- Verification: establishing truth claims
3
, Deductive-nomological model (Carl Gustav Hempel, 1905-1997)
An observed phenomenon is explained if it can be deduced from a universal law-like
generalisation
- Law expresses necessary connection between properties, accidental
generalisation does not
Hypothetico-deductive model
Test ability of law to predict events
- Law → hypothesis → explicit predictions
- Prediction correct? Hypothesis confirmed
- Prediction incorrect? Hypothesis falsified
Challenges to Positivism
1. Scientific Realism
Similarities to Positivism:
- Social and natural worlds (sciences) are similar
- Realism: ‘objective’ reality exists
Reality exists independently of human beings and their perceptions, and
we can therefore gain objective knowledge of the world because our
knowledge of it is directly determined by an objective reality in the world.
Key difference
- Reality can consist of unobservable elements as well, e.g. structural
relationships
- Assessment by observable consequences
Mechanisms (Charles Tilly)
- Environmental
‘Externally generated influences on conditions affecting social life’
- Cognitive
‘Operate through alterations of individual and collective perceptions’
- Relational
‘Alter connections among people, groups, and interpersonal networks’
4
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