Experimental Political Science and the Study of Causality: From Nature to the Lab

by Rebecca B. Morton , Kenneth C. Williams

• ISBN13: 9780521136488
• ISBN10: 0521136482
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-08-06
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Increasingly, political scientists use the term 'experiment' or 'experimental' to describe their empirical research. One of the primary reasons for doing so is the advantage of experiments in establishing causal inferences. In this book, Rebecca B. Morton and Kenneth C. Williams discuss in detail how experiments and experimental reasoning with observational data can help researchers determine causality. They explore how control and random assignment mechanisms work, examining both the Rubin causal model and the formal theory approaches to causality. They also cover general topics in experimentation such as the history of experimentation in political science; internal and external validity of experimental research; types of experiments - field, laboratory, virtual, and survey - and how to choose, recruit, and motivate subjects in experiments. They investigate ethical issues in experimentation, the process of securing approval from institutional review boards for human subject research, and the use of deception in experimentation.

Table of Contents

Introduction:

The advent of experimental political science

Experimental Reasoning about Causality:

Experiments and causal relations

The causal inference problem and the Rubin causal model

Controlling observables and unobservables

Randomization and pseudo-randomization

Formal theory and causality

What Makes a Good Experiment?:

Validity and experimental manipulations

Location, artificiality, and related design issues

Choosing subjects

Subjects' motivations

History of codes of ethics and human subjects research

Ethical decision making and political science experiments

Deception in experiments

The future of experimental political science

Appendix: the experimentalist's to do list

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