POLSCI 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Dependent And Independent Variables
5 Dec 2018
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Humans don"t respond the same way (we can learn and adapt to something in one moments, and then the next moment it will be different ) The type of experimental method used in the natural sciences simply cannot be replicated for many of the questions that we have in the social sciences. We can develop a hypothesis: a statement that one or more variable(s) (independent variable(s)) will cause a particular outcome (dependent variable, x + y = z. Form a hypothesis and then test it. However, there is a problem with testing the hypothesis. We cannot simply isolate and combine social variables (unlike the case for chemistry or physics) The variables we are interested in always exist in a larger social context that contains many many other simultaneously coexisting variables. Any one of the alternative variables, or perhaps some combination of the alternative variables, could be responsible for the outcome you are interested in understanding.
