Understanding Political Science Research Methods: The Challenge of Inference

ISBN-13: 9780415895200 / Angielski / Miękka / 2013 / 234 str.

Brian Schaffner

Opis

This text starts by explaining the fundamental goal of good political science research - the ability to answer interesting and important questions by generating valid inferences about political phenomena. Before the text even discusses the process of developing a research question, the authors introduce the reader to what it means to make an inference and the different challenges that social scientists face when confronting this task.

Spis treści

Introduction. Section I: Establishing the Framework. 1: The Challenge of Inference. 2: The Research Question. 3: Linking Theory and Inference. Section II: A Menu of Approaches. 4: The Challenge of Descriptive Inference. 5: Experiments. 6: Large-n Observational Studies. 7: Small-n Observational Studies. 8: Conclusion