Flashcards
GEG306 - Chapter 1
Flashcards do conjunto (25)
- 1How do we know things epistemologyTradition
Makes sense
Expert Source
Direct Observation - 2absolute disparityIf Blacks are 20% of the adult population, but only 15% of those in the jury pool, than the difference is 5 percentage points. This is the absolute disparity and should be expressed as a 5 percentage point disparity, not as a 5% difference
- 3relative disparityThe relative disparity is the 5 percentage points divided by the 20% of adults who are black (or a 25% under-representation) and should be referred to as a 25% relative disparity
- 4Methodologyis the science of finding out and includes procedures for scientific investigation
- 5Causal reasoningStudying leads to good grades is causal reasoning
- 6probabilistic reasoningThe Patriots are a better team than the Dolphins, yet there is some probability that the Dolphins will win
- 7Errors in Inquiry: Inaccurate ObservationsIf you know that you are about to observe a crime, you would probably do better at observation
- 8Errors in Inquiry: OvergeneralizationGuard against this by doing 100s of interviews. Guard against this by repeated observation. The plural of anecdote is anecdotes, it is not data
Many people are saying is not a substitute for data. - 9Errors in Inquiry: Selective ObservationOnce you conclude that a particular pattern exists, you tend to focus on things in the future that fit that pattern
Cognitive Dissonance – a person’s beliefs clash with new evidence, so the new evidence gets ignored.
Deviant Cases – cases that do not fit the typical pattern (statistical term is “residual”) - 10Errors in Inquiry: Illogical Reasoning”The exception that proves the rule” does not make any sense
Can you conclude that because a given male executive is nice and kind, that it proves that most male executives are nasty and cruel? Of course not - 11Errors in Inquiry: Gambler’s FallacyA consistent run of bad luck, simply does NOT have to be followed by good luck! (Please tell my wife!)
- 12Foundations of Social Science Logic and observationtwo pillars of science
Scientific theory deals with logic
Data collection deals with observation
Data analysis deals with finding patterns in what is observed and with comparison of what is logically expected with what you actually observed - 13Social sciencehas to do with how things are and why they are that way
We may start with a theory, then collect data, and then analyze that data to test the theory - 14Difficulty in measuring concepts: operationalizewe must operationalize definitions, how do we define such terms as:
Dignity
Freedom
Whether a person is racist
The quality of a religion
Whether a person is religious
The design of survey questions to “get at” these concepts, that is to operationalize these concepts, is often difficult - 15Social Regularitiessocial science theory aims to find patterns in social life
Lots of social norms that we can list:
Republicans are more likely to vote for Republican candidates than are Democrats
Women are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates than for Republicans
Rural areas are more likely to vote for Republican candidates than urban areas
Men earn more than women
Professors make more money than plumbers (there are exceptions!) - 16Three objections to Social RegularitiesCharge of triviality
Contradictory cases
People could interfere - 17The Charge of TrivialityPeople who get promoted think the promotion system is fair and those not promoted think it is unfair
Seems obvious, but it turned out not to be true in a study done for the US army by Stouffer (see text)
Something called reference group theory was found that explained the Stouffer findings
Palestinians, under initial Israeli rule (1967), were comparing themselves to Jordanians
By 1987, Palestinians began to compare themselves to Israelis, resulting in a new reference group and the First Intifada (1987) - 18contradictory casesBecause not everything follows the general rule simply does not disprove the general rule
Residual analysis: looking at a correlation between two variables and then looking at the cases that do not fit the general relationship - 19Does social science look at individuals?No, it looks at groups. Theories in social science are about the nature of groups, not individuals
- 20Variable and AttributesVariable: Age (Group)
Attribute: (Characteristic) - 21Correlation vs. Cause and EffectBecause we see that something is correlated does not necessarily mean that one variable causes the other
- 22Independent and Dependent VariablesIf a person’s attributes on Variable A are expected to cause, predispose, or encourage a particular attribute on Variable B, then Variable A is the Independent Variable and Variable B is the Dependent Variable
- 23Dialectic Methoduses a discourse (or discussion or reasoning method) between alternative approaches and points of view (dialectic means debate
- 24Ideographic methodIdeographic is describing the unique, describing one case and giving all the reasons something happens
- 25Nomothetic methodmeans law giving, that is trying to come up with general rules that explain the majority of cases (uses words like: on the whole, and everything else being equal )
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- FlashCards sobre GEG306 - Chapter 1, criado por Bob Harold em 24-01-2020.
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- Bob Harold
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