Social explanation in Research methods

Drawing  on Bailey (1994), I provide the following lecture agenda to examine the topic of "Social Explanation" in Research Methods:

1. Descriptive vs Explanatory Studies
2. Major considerations on "Theory"
• Concepts, propositions, and variables
3. Proposition types:
• Hypothesis
• Empirical generalization
• Axiom
• Postulate
• Theorem
4. Relationships between variables
• Positive vs negative relationsips
• Strength of relationships
• Symmetrical vs asymmetrical relationships
• Independent vs dependent variables
• Causal relationships
• Linear vs nonlinear relationships
• Spurious vs intervening relationships
5. Hypothesis formulation strategies
• The classical approach vs grounded theory
6. On Operationalism

This agenda provides an overview on the topic of Social Explanation. You could refer to Bailey (1994; Chapter 3) for a detailed discussion on this topic.



Reference
Bailey, K.D. (1994) "Chapter 3: Constructing Social Explanations", Methods of Social Resarch, Free Press.