Prepare: Review Chapters 3 and 4 in the course text and any assigned additional learning material. In addition, please go to page 99 in your course text and review Exercise 5. Reflect: As your course text explains, “The political world is a complicated place. For every explanation we describe, there is a competing explanation that accounts for the same dependent variable” (Pollock, 2016, p. 79). Therefore, one phrase that you will hear again and again in scientific research is “how else can a relationship between a cause and effect be explained?” The primary way to eliminate rival or alternative explanations is with superior research design and methods. Professional political science researchers often use research designs and methods that include random assignments in laboratory experiments and/or field experiments. These designs/methods also include controlled comparisons where the relationship between an independent variable (X) and a dependent variable (Y) is examined while holding constant other variables (Z) that may provide alternative explanations and hypotheses. The objective is to identify one of three types of relationships between the variables X, Y, and Z: spurious, additive, and/or interactive. This week’s discussion will provide you an opportunity to explore all three of these types of relationships. Now is the time to put on your thinking caps and be creative and productive! Write: In your initial post of at least 300 words, using Exercise 5 on page 99, complete the following:5(a): Using the chapter’s discussion of spuriousness as a guide, write at least 100 words explaining how Z could produce a spurious relationship between X and Y.
You are not required to sketch a line graph.
5(b): Using the chapter’s discussion of additive relationships as a guide, write at least 100 words explaining how this set of relationships would fit an additive pattern.
You are not required to sketch a line graph.
5(c): Using the information provided, write at least 100 words describing an interactive relationship between X, Y, and Z.
You are not required to sketch a line graph.
Guided Response: By Day 7, respond to at least two of your classmates’ initial posts. Your peer responses each must be at least 75 words. As you reply to your classmates, attempt to take the conversation further by examining their claims or arguments in more depth or by responding to the posts that they make to you. Keep the discussion on target and try to analyze things in as much detail as you can. For example, look over your classmates’ responses and identify one that comes to different conclusions than your own. Is your response correct, and if so, why? Is your classmate’s response correct, and if so, where did you make a mistake in your own response? This topic is closed for comments.