POS 3713 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Positive Political Theory, Time Series, Dependent And Independent Variables
Document Summary
Develop casual theories about the political world and test those theories scientifically: create theories, form hypotheses, research, evaluation, modification and extension. A theory is a model of the world. Models are composed of a dependent variable (y), and one or more independent variables (x) A theory is a set of interconnected statements. Examples; people with more money tend to vote for republicans. A hypothesis is a testable implication of the theory. Temporal variation same spatial unit, multiple points in time. Spatial variation different spatial units, same point in time. Ex; changing public opinion of obama over months/years. Ex; ten donors to cap 2003, measured by us$. ), but same point in time (year 2003) A time series (temporal variation): considers variation of a single unit (a person, state, or country) over time. A cross-sectional study (spatial variation): considers variation across multiple spatial units at one point in time.
