PSC 441 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Internal Validity, Focus Group, Content Analysis
Document Summary
Researcher observes iv and dv in natural habitat. Must have variation in iv and dv. Data is not in the form of numbers. Dara is in the form of numbers. Ex on a scale of 1-10 how much do you trust your governor? . Few research topics are impossible to study. Focuses on variation between individual spatial units. Focuses on variation over time within single spatial unit. Ex how does government debt affect the unemployment rate? . Entity that we want to describe (not the iv or the dv) Some units of analysis seem like individual units are actually aggregate: Level of confidence about whether the relationship we uncovered between the iv and dv is accurate. Level of confidence that the results of our research applies not only to the participants of the study, but to the larger population. More likely to choose on the dv. Nonnumeric information for small number of observations.
