POLS 210 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Abortion-Rights Movements, Anti-Abortion Movements, Contingency Table
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The first goal of the political research is to define and measure concepts. Three stages in the measurement process: clearly defining the concept to be measured, determining how to measure the concept accurately, and selecting variables that measure the concept precisely. We begin the measurement process with a vague conceptual term and we end up with an empirical measurement of a concrete characteristic. The measurement process is designed to answer what questions. The 2nd goal of political research: to propose and test explanations for political phenomena. All these questions have two elements: each question makes an explicit observation about a characteristic that varies. Explanation in political research begins by observing a variable- a difference that we want to understand. Individuals abortions beliefs are pro life or pro choice, for example: each question implicitly requests a causal explanation for the observed differences. An explanation for differences in turnout, for example, might propose that education plays a causal role.