PSCI 2701 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Design Of Experiments, Content Analysis, Ethnography
14 Dec 2018
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Document Summary
Experimental: best method for establishing causality focuses on one explanation, and simultaneously eliminates almost all other competing explanations. Cross-sectional and longitudinal: cross-sectional designs analyze a sample at a single point in time; longitudinal designs explore changes over time in the sample. Comparative: relies on the general rule that if a cause and an effect go together in one situation (case), they will go together in other causes as well. Historical: relies on the general rule that causes occur before effects; examines or reconstructs past events. Interview data: collected new information by asking questions to elicit responses that can be written, oral, or digital. Observational data: make new observations of behaviours and patterns. Documents: documents or other forms of text that have already been created. Secondary data: data collected by others for purposes other than research. Big data: very large volumes of often digital information that can be readily harvested.
