What are actions? | Physical human movement or behavior done for a reason. |
Define applied research. | Research designed to produce knowledge useful in altering a real-world condition or situation. |
What is behavioralism? | The study of politics that focuses on political behavior and embraces the scientific method. |
What is a causal relation? | A connection between two entities that occurs because one produces, or brings about, the other with complete or great regularity. |
What is constructionism? | An approach to knowledge that asserts humans actually construct - through their social interactions and cultural and historical practices - many of the facts they take for granted as having an independent, objective, or material reality. |
What is critical theory? | The philosophical stance that disciplines such as political science should assess critically and change society, not merely study it objectively. |
What is cumulative knowledge? | Characteristic of scientific knowledge; new substantive findings and research techniques are built upon those of previous studies. |
What is deduction? | A process of reasoning from a theory to specific observations. |
What are descriptive statistics? | Summarize the information in a collection of data. The main purpose of descriptive statistics is to reduce the data to simpler and more understandable forms without distorting or losing much information. |
What is an empirical generalization? | A statement that summarizes the relationship between individual facts and that communicates general knowledge. |
Define empirical research. | Research based on actual, ''objective'' observation of phenomena. |
What is an empirical verification? | Characteristic of scientific knowledge; demonstration by means of objective observation that a statement is true. |
What is an explanation? | A systematic, empirically verified understanding of why a phenomenon occurs as it does. |
What is explanatory information? | Characteristic of scientific knowledge; signifying that a conclusion can be derived from a set of general propositions and specific initial considerations; providing a systematic, empirically verified understanding of why a phenomenon occurs as it does. |
What is falsifiability? | A property of a statement or hypothesis such that it can (in principle, at least) be rejected in the face of contravening evidence. |
What is general information? | Characteristic of scientific knowledge; applicable to many rather than a few cases. |
What is induction? | Induction is the process of drawing an inference from a set of premises and observations. The premises of an inductive argument support its conclusion but do not prove it. |
Define interpretation. | Philosophical approach to the study of human behavior that claims that one must understand the way individuals see their world in order to understand truly their behavior or actions; philosophical objection to the empirical approach to political science. |
What is a literature review? | a systematic examination and interpretation of the literature for the purpose of informing further work on a topic |
What is non-normative knowledge? | Knowledge concerned not with evaluation or prescription but with factual or objective determinations. |
What is normative knowledge? | Knowledge that is evaluative, value laden, and concerned with prescribing what ought to be. |
Define parsimony. | The principle that among explanations or theories with equal degrees of confirmation, the simplest - the one based on the fewest assumptions and explanatory factors - is to be preferred. (Sometimes known as Ockham's razor.) |
What is political science? | The application of the methods of acquiring scientific knowledge to the study of political phenomena. |
What is postbehavioralism? | The reaction to behavioralism that called for political science research to be more relevant to important current political issues. |
What is predictive information? | A characteristic of explanatory knowledge; indicates an ability to correctly anticipate future events. The application of explanation to events in the future forms a prediction. |
What is a probabilistic explanation? | An explanation that does not explain or predict events with 100% accuracy. |
What is provisional information? | A characteristic of scientific knowledge; subject to revision and change. |
What is pure or theoretical research? | Research designed to satisfy one's intellectual curiosity about some phenomenon. |
What are reasons? | Beliefs and desires that justify or explain an action or behavior. |
What is a scientific revolution? | The rapid development of a rival tradition of scientific research; usually accompanied by conflict among scientists over the theoretical perspective that will endure. |
What is statistics? | A body of methods for obtaining and analyzing data. |
What is the difference between statistics and parameters? | Statistics summarize sample data, while parameters summarize entire populations. |
Define theory. | A statement or series of statements that organize, explain, and predict phenomena. |
What is transmissible information? | Characteristic of scientific knowledge; indicates that the methods used in making scientific discoveries are made explicit. |
What is formal theory? | A set of propositions that explain how people and organizations should behave, assuming that people are economically rational. |
Define testable. | A proposition is testable if it can be falsified. There must be a way to show that the proposition could be false. |
What is theory-oriented research? | Academic research aimed at explaining political phenomena. Theory-oriented research focuses on cause-effect relationships to help us better understand why things happen the way they do (even if these things aren't good or bad, and we can't do anything about them). |