POLS 208- Final Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam ( 31 pages long!)
28 Mar 2018
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Evidence: why is it important, evidence: a statement given in support of some claim, can be bad or irrelevant, good evidence brings us closer to the truth, makes claims more believable, helps us structure an argument. Inference, conclusion, abstraction (taking evidence from the world: poor measurement, bad samples. Improper inference (possibly due to confounding/lurking variables: we must identify relevant and accurate evidence to lead our readers to the correct conclusion, we learn how to do research so that we can follow a methodology. We learn how to come to an accurate conclusion. If it is not falsifiable, it may not be science: public procedures, the content is the method, research is the output of a methodology that meets these criteria, and is identified by the methodology, guessing is not research. Descriptive vs. causal research: recipe for causal research: (x causes y, x precedes y, x co-varies with y, the relationship between x and y is not confounded.
