Experimental Political Science and the Study of Causality: From Nature to the Lab
Cambridge University Press, 10/14/2010
EAN 9780521136488, ISBN10: 0521136482
Paperback, 608 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 4.1 cm
Language: English
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.
Part I. Introduction
1. The advent of experimental political science
Part II. Experimental Reasoning about Causality
2. Experiments and causal relations
3. The causal inference problem and the Rubin causal model
4. Controlling observables and unobservables
5. Randomization and pseudo-randomization
6. Formal theory and causality
Part III. What Makes a Good Experiment?
7. Validity and experimental manipulations
8. Location, artificiality, and related design issues
9. Choosing subjects
10. Subjects' motivations
11. History of codes of ethics and human subjects research
12. Ethical decision making and political science experiments
13. Deception in experiments
14. The future of experimental political science
15. Appendix
the experimentalist's to do list.