POLI 380 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Dependent And Independent Variables
Document Summary
Think formally about the causes that lead to variation in your dependent variable. One extensions of rigorous thinking is labeled formal theory or. Rational choice. : used to develop answer to research question about how people make strategic decision. Formal theorists think about the world in terms of outcome of a collection of individual-level decisions about what to do. The utility from a particular action is equal to the sum of all benefits minus the sum of all costs from that action. It is important to note that people have different evaluations and values. This is just assumptions as there are limitations such as having incomplete information. Does your theory offer an answer to an interesting research question: if you can"t give a straightforward answer to the question, it will be good to rethink the theory. Is your theory causal: it needs to be causal.