Moderating Interacting Variable Political knowledge is the moderating variable Relationship depends on political knowledge Slope No slope for conservatives for conservatives education does not have an effect on position of nuclear policy Positive slope for liberals For liberals as education increases position on nuclear policy increases too Lines are not parallel There is an interaction Mediating Interpreting Variable Neighborhood Crime rate is the mediating variable discredits first relationship No slope means that TV viewing has no effect on crime fear this is why we have an intervening variable Bar Graph Interpretation Distance between lines indicates that neighborhood crime rate has an effect on crime fear There is more crime fear in high crime rated areas than low crime fear rated areas Model vs Theory 11 4 and 11 11 Theory systematically related generalizations suggesting new observations for testing whose purpose is to explain and predict Purpose of theory is to explain and predict Model A conceptual analogue to some subject matter a simplified representation of reality an object or process system that highlights key elements or illustrations of theory whose purpose is to illustrate or describe Purpose of model is to describe and imagine illustrate show Use of Models Organize data Make predictions by suggesting relationships Help make measurements by suggesting how to design tests Illustrate or teach heuristic tool Physical vs Conceptual Models Physical models o Describes a physical being o Help us communicate our ideas more clearly by serving as visual aids ex models that doctors have that represent different human body parts Conceptual models o Attempt to represent physical psychological and logical processes ex diagram path model illustration usually has labels Structural vs Functional Models Structural models Describe the structure layout of a phenomenon Sketch of a daily newsroom Functional models o o Describe systems in terms of energy forces and their direction Also shows influence certain parts have over others Diagrams showing how the newsroom operates Action Interaction Transaction Models Action Interaction o Communication is something that one person does to another o Adds the possibility of feedback loops communication is an exchange of messages Transaction o Considers sending encoding and receiving decoding to be simultaneous processes Relationships between variables in a model and number of theoretical statements Adding or Subtracting Variables Adding as more variables enter your theory the number of possible relationships between variables increases decreasing parsimony opposite for subtracting Subtracting Establishing Time Order Eliminating possible relationships to determine direction of relationship and to know which variable is affecting which as well as determining independent and dependent variables Allowing Feedback Processes relationships can flow in both causal directions o Looks at manuscript and makes decision whether to send out paper for review Can be returned Alexander Reading 11 20 Publishing Process Editor without a review o Sent out to 2 3 reviewers in a double blind process Reviewer o Have 4 6 weeks to complete a review o Returns ratings and comments that run 1 3 pages o Types of reviews Tell you what is wrong Tell you what is wrong and how to fix it Tell you to do something else Decision o Accept with minor revision o o Reject Invitation for major revision revise and resubmit Most journals have 15 acceptance rate Revise and resubmit almost never unconditional acceptance It s a good thing except it does not guarantee future acceptance Chaffee Lieberman 2001 11 25 Purpose of literature review in a study theoretical paper Synthesize a large number of studies into a coherent view Essentially its a shortened summary of prior work Explains how present study addresses an issue within that literature Concludes with analysis of how the new findings alter the picture Purpose of literature review by itself Book chapter etc Covers a more extensive body of existing research without presenting new study findings Proposition axiom also covered in Writing and Presenting lectures Specify propositions or axioms to create a logical progression of arguments These are central claims for which you must then provide warrants and evidence Order them in coherent argument See if you need new ones or can delete any Insert evidence definitions assumptions Propose hypothesis that emanates from the proposition or axiom Ch 9 12 2e Evaluating Theory o Testability falsifiability The ability of a theory to be tested and repeated by researchers They should obtain the same results as the original theory If a theory is proven to be false an explanation as to why must be able to be obtained A theory must be simple and not too complicated The simpler the terms so more people can o Parsimony understand the better o Explanatory predictive power o Scope the better the theory Theories must be able to provide explicit explanations The more simple this explanation is The more precise your prediction the better the theory The generality of a theory The more your theory helps us understand a phenomena the better o Cumulative nature of science how much evidence Theory is not static but is changing and growing Theories are continually refined as newer studies build upon and improve older studies The more a phenomena is studied the closer we move to obtaining the truth Degree of formal development o Heurism how much research A theory is valuable when it helps us generate ideas for future research The more new hypotheses that can be generated from a theory the better The thought that ideas presented in theories are important and beautiful o The need for developing alternative hypotheses for theories in order to avoid bias o Aesthetics Strong Inference Approach Tradeoffs in Theory Building culture context Scope precision tradeoff The broader your theory the more generalizable it is Lang wants a general theory of communication you will be able to accurately predict but this ignores roles of The broader your theory the less precise it is and the more exceptions there are going to be lower the probability that people are actually going to do the thing u say they are going to do Covering laws perspective probabilistic approach Lang 12 9 Paradigms give scientists utility of o Set of assumptions an understanding of fundamental nature of phenomenon being studied o Acceptable methodology ontology