Variables, Hypotheses, and Relations

This week's Discussion will assist you in starting the Final Project. This is the only Discussion in this course that relates directly to this assignment. Ensuing work on the Final Project will be done as written assignments submitted to the Instructor for evaluation.

To prepare for this Discussion:

Review Chapter 3, "Elements of Research" in the course text Research Methods in the Social Sciences, as well as the quantitative sections of Chapters 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 in the course text from RSCH 8101, Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches.

Review the Final Project Description document, located in the Learning Resources.

Select an empirical research problem to focus on for this Discussion and, in turn, for the Final Project.

Identify the units of analysis. How can you support that these are reasonable items to compare? How can you avoid the ecological and individualistic fallacies with respect to units of analysis?

Determine two researchable hypotheses for the research problem you have selected and the independent, dependent, and control variables for each hypothesis.

What changes in magnitude and relations do you expect between the dependent and independent variables for each hypothesis?

With these thoughts in mind:

Post by Day 3: 2 or 3 paragraphs in which you do the following:

Identify your selected empirical research problem and the units of analysis. Include support for these units as being reasonable for comparison and how you would avoid the ecological and individualistic fallacies.

Determine two researchable hypotheses based on your research problem. For each hypothesis, identify the independent, dependent, and control variables. Moreover, estimate expected changes in the magnitude and relations between the dependent and independent variables.