Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Exploration
Generally not sufficient for dissertation project This can be the goal if significant new facts or relationships are identified Usually need to at least speculate on explanation Central goal of most political science research
Description
Explanation
Identify puzzle in literature Should be able to state question in 1-2 sentences Clearly define the purpose of the project
Once you have a question, you need hypotheses about the answer
Once you have a question, turn to various methods of theory development Deduction formal theory, computational models Induction building by analogy Theory building often involves both methods
Level of aggregation at which your hypotheses can be observed Individuals (citizens, leaders, etc.) Groups (parties, social movements) Organizations/Institutions (states, bureaucracies, firms)
Ecological Fallacy
Cannot infer individual behavior from collective outcomes Cannot infer collective outcomes from individual behavior
Reductionism
Select Observations
What is the population to which you want to generalize? How can you reach that population to draw a sample? If random sampling is impossible or inappropriate, how do you select cases to avoid bias?
Operationalize Variables
Translate theoretical concepts into observable information that can be gathered on units of analysis How valid are your measures? How reliable are your measures?
Be clear and systematic about the type of data collected Keep clear files and records of all data collected If using quantitative data, keep do files for all data construction and analysis.
Make analysis techniques transparent To the greatest extent possible, make analyses easily replicable. Think about presenting results in the most meaningful way possible. Clear and meaningful results are more persuasive and more widely read.
Always draw readers back from analyses to their implications for hypotheses and your original puzzle What does it all mean? Try to get back to those one or two core sentences
Theory development
Is this alone enough for a dissertation? This is the goal of most projects Is it ESSENTIAL for a dissertation? Is this any different from theory testing?
Theory Testing
Policy Evaluation
Historical Evaluative/Descriptive
When does this constitute a contribution to social science? A viable strategy for dissertations? When does this constitute a contribution to social science?
Literature Assessing
Nomothetic vs. Ideographic Explanation Is one mode of explanation preferable to the other? Is one mode of explanation inherently more scientific? Can ideographic work be political science?