POLS 209 TAMU Exam 1 With Questions
And 100% Correct Answers Well-
Reviewed And Approved By Expert
Newly Updated 2025.
What are normative questions?
ANSWER ✔✔ questions about how things should be
What are descriptive questions?
ANSWER ✔✔ questions about how the world looks
What is a causal question?
ANSWER ✔✔ why the world looks the way it does
What is a counterfactual?
ANSWER ✔✔ what would happen to people if they were exposed to a causal
influence and were simultaneously not exposed to it
What is the difference between making descriptive and causal claims?
ANSWER ✔✔ counterfactual world is not observable
What is social research?
, ANSWER ✔✔ Collection of methodologies that researchers apply systematically,
to produce scientifically based knowledge about the social world
What does a "good" question have?
ANSWER ✔✔ feasibility, social importance, and scientific relevance
What is empirical research?
ANSWER ✔✔ can't prove normative opinions, only justify why; tackle difficult
problems
What are the components of the Scientific Method?
ANSWER ✔✔ 1. Cumulative enterprise
2. Empirical generalization
3. Empirical Verification
4. Explanatory
5. Falsifiability
6. Normative research
7. Transmissible
8. Parsimony
9. Prediction
10. Probabilistic explanation
What is the structure of a research question?
ANSWER ✔✔ 1. Why or how a political phenomena behaves
2. Theory; body of statements that synthesizes knowledge
3. Hypotheses
4. Empirical analysis; confirms or refutes hypotheses and theory, answers
research question
What makes a good theory?
And 100% Correct Answers Well-
Reviewed And Approved By Expert
Newly Updated 2025.
What are normative questions?
ANSWER ✔✔ questions about how things should be
What are descriptive questions?
ANSWER ✔✔ questions about how the world looks
What is a causal question?
ANSWER ✔✔ why the world looks the way it does
What is a counterfactual?
ANSWER ✔✔ what would happen to people if they were exposed to a causal
influence and were simultaneously not exposed to it
What is the difference between making descriptive and causal claims?
ANSWER ✔✔ counterfactual world is not observable
What is social research?
, ANSWER ✔✔ Collection of methodologies that researchers apply systematically,
to produce scientifically based knowledge about the social world
What does a "good" question have?
ANSWER ✔✔ feasibility, social importance, and scientific relevance
What is empirical research?
ANSWER ✔✔ can't prove normative opinions, only justify why; tackle difficult
problems
What are the components of the Scientific Method?
ANSWER ✔✔ 1. Cumulative enterprise
2. Empirical generalization
3. Empirical Verification
4. Explanatory
5. Falsifiability
6. Normative research
7. Transmissible
8. Parsimony
9. Prediction
10. Probabilistic explanation
What is the structure of a research question?
ANSWER ✔✔ 1. Why or how a political phenomena behaves
2. Theory; body of statements that synthesizes knowledge
3. Hypotheses
4. Empirical analysis; confirms or refutes hypotheses and theory, answers
research question
What makes a good theory?
