These are the (extensive) notes i took during the both periods of ipres lectures in my first year of political science, some of the material from the seminars is also included. All graphs, tables and instructions are carefully copied from the examples shown i class which helped me a lot during the ...
,Lecture 1.1
you need tools to make sence fo political phenomena and to advise on current and future affairs
what kind of research methods depends on
aims of your research
: characteristics of your object of study
not good or bad but there is better or lesser fit and proper and poor application
quality of research is crucial
methodological literacy = ability to understand and asses research
research methods = codified insights on how to make credible knowledge claims in scientific way
credibility is produced differently in different forums
in realm of scientific debate complying with ‘rule of the game’ is necessary
holds true for both social science and natural science
social scientists study societies and relations among individuals and with society itself
focus on testing and constructing theory to explain social dynamic
focus on assessing quality of research who has written what? which theories?...
also considering quality of the argument
to systematically investigate ideas we hold about the world enables us to
analytically engange with political affairs
Lecture 1.2
three perspectives on research: positivism, interpretism, realism
can we find knowledge that doesnt require prior knowledge?
yes: foundationalist positivist positivist, realist or interpretivist?
“foundation is found in experienve and in own existence” ontologie: wat kunnen we weten?
no: anti-foundationalist interpretist
interpretivist positivist
“no firm ground of which humans agree to agree upon” epistemologie: wat is de relatie tussen
ontology = what is there to be known onderzoeker en onderwerp?
emistemology = what is the relation between interpretivist
realist positivist
the observer and things being observed
positivists say there is real relations between two phenomena while methode
interpretism beliefs its al within our conceptualisation
realist say reality is out there but only objectively observable to limited extend
“there are enduring structures and generated mechanisms underlying and
producing observable phenomena” (Bhaskar 2010)
observed via manifestation in observable reality
positivism interpretivism realism
foundationalist foundationalist
anti-foundationalist
ontology the world exists independent of our the world exists independent of our
the world is socially construted
knowledge of it knowledge of it
relations are dependent on our not all relations are directly observable
epistemology relations are directly observable (facts)
interpretation of them (meanings) (deep structures)
aim to make casual statements and aim to uncover how people understand aim to understand why things are the
implications predict social phenomena way things are
knowledge is mediated by the concepts
criticism and interpretation
lack of concreteness relativism claims may not be testable
Lecture 1.3
methodological principles are concerned with how we obtain knowledge about the world
methods are tools used for gathering data
answer to ontological question relates to epistemological question relates to
methodological question creates perspective
there are two sets of methodological perspectives
, 1. positivist perspective usually quantitative methods
2. interpretivist perspective usually qualitative methods
reliability: does repeated measurement with same instrument lead to same results?
yes when we measure the same thing under the same conditions, the first
measure doesnt affect results, measuring tool is stable, etc.
repicabilitiy: is the research possible to be replicated?
validity: can we make the claims we want to make?
e
internal = how confident can we be that the assumed cause really is responsible for the
variation that has been identified in the outcome?
: external = can findings be generalised to other cases
ecological = are (social) scientific finding applicable to natural setting?
research is never 100% reliable
observer-expectancy effect is distortion biases/expectancy
can be inadequacies of the measuring instruments used in the observation
reactivity = distortions via reactions of these researched into
heisenberg effect: the act of observation directly alters investigated phenomenon
:
hawthrone effect: subjects behave differently because aware of being studied
roosenthal effect: shared expectations researchers will influence the result
:
can interpretivist research be ‘credible’?
because its observed in “the eye of the beholder” and data gathering &
analysis take place simultaneously
researchers should undertake set of activities to avoid mistakes and biases
credibility (internal validity) = is there a match between respondents constructed
realities and those constructed by the researcher? (respondent check)
transferabilility (external validity) = can conclusion drawn in one situation also be
: argued to hold other such situations?
dependability (reliability) = are shifts in researcher constricts tracked and trackable?
conformability (objectivity) = are results not mere figments of researchers
imagination? can data be traced back to the source?
different ways to look at different political phenomena
results of actions of individuals or social collectives in their own right
Emile Durkheim is founder of sociology famous for research on suicide
“why do suicide rates go up with economic prosperity and increasing social differentiation?”
individual behavior cannot be fully understood in individual terms
larger social contact is explanatory factor by itself
created social facts: the social is a phenomena that is general over the whole of a given society
whilst having existence of its own, independent of individual manifestations
system of action social outcome methodological individualism = actors serve as a basis for
macro level explaining political behaviour
colemans bathtub: change comes about through the
changes in individuals and their interactions
methodological holism = structures serve as a basis for
micro-level explaining political behaviour
contraints on actors action by actors
methodological ‘relationalism’ = reasoning between agency of
individuals and the influence exeted onto them by social structures
inspires structure-agency debate
Lecture 1.4
in order to make sense of a subject you need to conceptualise prescience
cannot remain neutral, no view from nowhere
paradigms = conceptual scheme about which some community of scholars paradigm
normal
change
agree and which defines objects of investigation & how they’re investigated science
knowledge outside of paradigm = incommensurable the kuhn
when it cannot be made to fit = anomaly model
cycle model
drift
with increasing number of abomalies you get revolution revolution
research starts with selecting a topic you feel engaged with model
crisis
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