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Exam-December-2020cat.pdf

Anonymous

Introduction to Social Research

1st Degree in Political and Administration Sciences

Faculty of Political and Social Sciences

Pompeu Fabra University

All rights reserved.

Economic exploitation or transformation of this work is not permitted. Printing in its entirety is permitted.
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Exam December 2020, Introduction to Social Research

First and last name.

Instructions
- Each question indicates its score (out of a total of 10 points).
- You need to get a minimum of 4 to make an average with the continuous assessment.
- Answer the questions in the spaces provided. Extending the document extension is not allowed.
- Copying in the exam leads to the opening of a file.

1. Explain and compare what each of the six consider as a scientific contribution
approaches we worked on in class (1.5 points)

Behaviorism: Production of general laws and hypotheses

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Rational choice: Production of general laws with a predictive capacity
Institutionalism: Questioning previous theories, empirically, theoretically and reflexively

Feminism: Plural approach to methodological paradigms, but critical use of all of them
Marxism: Emphasis on the discovery of structures not directly observable but which guide historical
events
Interpretivism: Seeking understanding, not laws or truths

Comparison: The first 3 approaches focus more on empirical research (MQN)

The others, in structures not directly observable (MQL)

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2. Say whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F) and very briefly justify your answer (1.5
points):

a) The inductive approach always starts from clearly defined hypotheses.

False, since the inductive approach builds the hypotheses. What starts from hypotheses is deductive.

b) Studies with a positivist approach need a large number of cases to carry out their analyses.

True, since the larger the sample, the easier it is to assimilate to the population (of course, as long as it is well
chosen.

c) The Mill method of similarity involves the maximum difference in the control variables and the
maximum similarity in the dependent and independent variables
True, since it tries to verify the similarity of the studied variables.

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d) The new institutionalism focuses on the study of public or constitutional law and the formal
operation (roles and powers) of the main political institutions .
False, it also focuses on how individuals and institutions interact.

e) The technique that involves the creation of an artificial environment in order to control the
effects of any variable on another, keeping the rest of potential influences stable, is statistics.

False, this is done through experiments.

3. The abstracts or summaries of two articles are presented below . For each of them: (i)
identify the research question; (ii) identifies and defines the ontology and epistemology from
which it starts; (iii) whether it is a deductive or inductive approach; (iv) the methodology used
(including data collection methods and data analysis methods); and finally (v) justify which
approach you think is used (4 marks).

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Jaráiz, Erika; Lagares, Nieves and Pereira, María (2020). «Emotions and voting decision.
The voting components in the 2016 general elections in Spain. Spanish Journal of Sociological
Research, 170: 115 -136. (http://dx.doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.170.115 )

The study of emotions has reemerged in the last twenty years from different disciplinary spaces
and with different theoretical approaches and methodological mechanisms, although its
incorporation into the field of political science has not been easy. Under a
complementary reading of the relationship that emotions and reason have between them, we
propose in this work to carry out an analysis of the role that emotions may have in the voting decision.
To this end, the turbulent and confusing political context that occurred in the 2016 general elections
in Spain, after a failed attempt to form a government, is the ideal scenario in which to analyze and
study the impact on the voting decision of the voters played, along with other traditional
components, the emotional element.

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(i) What role do emotions play in the voting decision?
(ii) Anti-foundationalist ontology (phenomena are socially constructed) / Interpretivist
epistemology (we cannot know the real world, only how individuals interpret it)
(iii) Inductive approach
(iv) Qualitative methodology (data are collected in interviews or focus groups/analyzed using
discourse analysis)
(v) Interpretivist, since they try to interpret how emotions affect the vote for each person,
because each person experiences it in a totally different way.

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Ortega -Villodres, Carmen and Recuero - L ópez, F átima (2020). "Political leadership and
municipal elections: nationalization, regionalization or localism?" Spanish Journal of Sociol ogic
Research, 169: 123 -142. (http://dx.doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.169.123 )

Municipal elections have traditionally been conceptualized as second-order calls, thus being subject
to the national political situation. However, voters could take into account national, regional or local
factors to define their vote in these calls. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the
electoral incidence of these factors through political leadership. Thus, the effect of national, regional
and local leaders on the municipal vote within the autonomous community of Andalusia is verified.
Binary logistic regression is used as an analysis technique. The results show that local candidates
have a greater impact in municipal elections than national and regional leaders, so that local
consultations would have their own autonomy.

(i) What is the electoral impact of national, regional or local factors through political leadership in
municipal elections? (ii) Foundational
ontology (the world can be observed apart from our knowledge of it) / Critical realist epistemology

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(there is a reality that can be studied and generalized but which is not directly observable, but
generated by other invisible social structures) (iii) Deductive approach (iv)
Quantitative methodology
(data are collected in surveys and analyzed using binary logistic regression) (v) Behavioral, since it
tries to explain
how these factors influence electoral behavior (human behavior, which is the object of study of this
approach)

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4. Define the level of measurement for the variables listed below. For nominal and ordinal
variables, roughly identify their categories and for quantitative variables, identify whether they
are interval or ratio, and whether they are discrete or continuous (1.5 points) .

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- Level of studies
- Opinion on political leaders following a scale
- Age: day/month/year of birth
- Age at the time of the survey
- Size of the home (square meters)
- Party voted for (list of parties)
- Level of income
- Profession

Categories / Continuous or discrete

Nominal
Age: day/month/year of birth
Party voted for (list of parties)

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profession

Ordinal
Opinion on political leaders following a scale

Level of studies

Quantitative reason
Age at time of survey (discreet)

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Size of home (square meters) (continued)

Income Level (continued)

Range quantity

5. Say whether or not these hypotheses are well defined and justify your answer. On the other hand, for
all hypotheses, also identify the dependent variable and the independent variable (1.5 points).

a. National and regional leaders influence the municipal vote, but the influence of local leaders will be greater,
especially in smaller municipalities

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It is well defined because it is concrete, it includes an empirical statement without value judgment, it has a theoretical
implication, it can be measured and it describes a general phenomenon.

VI: Leaders (national and regional / local) / VD: Municipal vote

b. A general and multidimensional categorization of party systems is possible, as well as

desirable, if cross-national comparisons are to be made

It is not well defined, since it does not establish a relationship between two variables.

There is only one variable, the party systems, which you want to categorize, not study the dependence with
another variable.

c. The increase in income inequality has transformed the structure of spatial relations between social
groups, affecting residential segregation.

It is well defined because it is concrete, it includes an empirical statement without value judgment, it has a theoretical
implication, it can be measured and it describes a general phenomenon.

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VI: income inequality / VD: residential segregation

d. A greater level of knowledge about environmental problems is associated with a greater level of
involvement in pro-environmental behavior.

It is well defined because it is concrete, it includes an empirical statement without value judgment, it has a theoretical
implication, it can be measured and it describes a general phenomenon.

VI: Level of knowledge about environmental problems / VD: Level of involvement in pro-environmental behavior

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e. The trend towards greater dedication of men to domestic work is not accompanied by a
decrease in the time that women devote to domestic tasks, especially the more routine ones

It is poorly defined, because it assumes that women are the ones who have to do the housework (value judgment)

VI: Men's dedication to domestic work / VD: Time spent by women on domestic tasks

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