Flashcards
EPR Week 3
Cards in this deck (24)
- 1What are concepts in social science ?- express common elements in the world
=> we give them names
- Specify what we mean when we use particular terms in research (What do we mean, when talking about XY?) - 2What is the issue with concepts ?Most concepts are not directly observable
(e.g power, poverty, prejudice) - 3What is a conceptual definition ?Tells you what the concept means !
- 4What is the operational definition of a concept ?Choice of what empirical observation methods should measure the concept of interest !
- 5What is Measurement ?According to Maxim (1999) it is a process of mapping empirical phenomena with using system of numbers
=> assignment of numerical values to empirical properties according to predefined rules
(e.g translating the results of a survey in numerical data) - 6Why is measurement important ?1. translate theory into reality
2. make causal generalisable statements
3. experiments without would be problematic
3. systematic comparison
4. comparison across time & space - 7What is the definition of a variable ?"Measurement of a characteristic of a subject that varies across subject in a population" (e.g. Hair colour, income)
- 8What is a dependent variable why do we call it "dependent variable" ?- a variable, that changes in response to changes of other variables
- called dependent, because it is dependent from the change of the independent variable ! - 9What is a independent variable ?A variable that influences the value of another variable !
- 10What is a intervening variable ?- hypothetical variable, used to explain causal links
=> provides a link between dependent & independent variable ! - 11How/ Why do we use intervening variables ?1. allows us to answer more RQ in one experiment
2. allows us the answer of the question whether one IV depends from another IV
(=>interaction between variables) - 12Give some examples of different variables !1. Simple descriptive concepts
=> e.g Age, gender, income
2. Latent variables
=> Ideology, social class, party identification - 13What is a latent variable & what does it represent ?1. represent concepts
2. is a variable that is inferred using models from observed data/ variables - 14What are the different levels of measurement ?1. Nominal/ Categorical
2. Ordinal
3. Interval/ Ratio - 15What is a Nominal/ Categorical variable ? + examples !- variable with mutually exckulsive set of discrete categories
e.g. war, religion, party support
- no meaningful ranking
=> no ranking possible, that would make sense (one religion is not better than the other)
- not ordered/ ranked - 16What are Ordinal variable ? + examples !- variable with ordered/ ranked categories
- religiosity, social class - 17What are Intervall/ Ratio variables ?- variable with meaningful intervals between units of measurement
- e.g temperature, years (Interval)
=> abitrary neutral point
age, income (Rational)
=> neutral point chosen from specific reasons - 18What are the different levels of measurement ?1. Individual
2. State level
3. System level
4. Aggregate level - 19What is the individual level of analysis ?It focuses on the choices, perceptions and personalities of individuals
- 20What is the state level of analysis ?It includes factors such as political institutions, interest groups
- 21What is the system level of analysis ?It includes attributes of the international system
e.g states in Europe - 22What is the aggregate level of analysis ?It consists different data combine from different measurements
- 23What are the Problems we encounter with measurement ?1. All measurement lead to error
=> conceptional clarity: income as a indicator of wealth (not everywhere!)
2. Accuracy
=> Systematic measurement error (sensible questions; probably biased then!)
3. How precise can political measurement be ?!
4. Availability - 24What is the major difference between a hypothesis & theory ?1. Hypothesis: Potential explanation or guess
2.Theory: Tool to explain something that has been verified over and over as true
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- - Lernzettel Woche 3 - HWS 2019 Carey
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- Alexandru Sandor
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