POL 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Control Variable, Dependent And Independent Variables
18 Mar 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Differences between the natural and social sciences: Normative: how things should be (cid:1) (cid:1) Come up with theories generalize statements about social reality. Seek to explain (rather than predict) social reality . X causes y a policy causes this. Language: hypothesis, dependent variable, independent variable, control variable. Hypothesis: educated guess, pre-confirmation of a theory, a prediction that needs to be proven. Dependent variable: what we"re trying to understand (rate of poverty in the us) doesn"t change. Independent variable: potential causes of what you"re trying to explain (dependent variable), changes different cities that you look at the poverty rate, explanations for the outcome. Control variable: doesn"t influence the outcome (gdp per capita, level of education), needs to be included. Measuring poverty: census measures people living below a certain income. Indicators used cost of living not taken into account. Most-different comparison: different circumstances, but same results. Most-similar comparison: similar countries who have different results.
