PSCI 301 Reading questions Week 2 . Chapter 1, Kellstedt and Whitten, The Fundamentals of Political Science Research Questions: 1. Consider this theory: "higher economic performance causes higher incumbent vote." What is the independent variable? The dependent variable? What is a way to figure out which is which? 2. What does "measure (or operationalize) variables" mean? 3. The authors talked about at least three ways to measure "economic performance." Pick your favorite measurement. If this measurement has a large value, does it mean good economic performance or bad one? Why? 4. Consider this hypothesis: "higher unemployment rate causes lower incumbent vote." What is the relationship between "unemployment percentage" and "incumbent vote?" a positive one or a negative one? Why? If you are to draw this relationship in the graph below, what should it look like? 0 10 20 34 40 50 60 70 80 90 109 Incumbent-Party Percentage of Major Party Vote 10 20 30 50 Co 70 Unemployment Percentage Figure 1.5. What would you expect to see based on the theory of economic wating? . Chapter 4, Wheelan, Naked Statistics. Chapter 4, Wheelan, Naked Statistics Questions: 5. What is the relationship between height and weight? A positive one or a negative one? Why? If you are to draw this relationship in the graph below, what should it look like? Weight (pounds) Height (inches) 6. Wheelan says: "correlation does not imply causation." More specifically, he discusses the example that a student's SAT scores positively correlate to the number of televisions his family owns, but this correlation is not causation. Why was it not causation