2012 american national election study – setups version H u m a n i t i e s

A.​We tend to treat theory as separate from practice, but, in reality, all intentional actions are based on theory. That is, they are based in human belief that the action will result in an outcome. This means they are based on an implicit, if not explicit, explanation of reality. One source for research topics is looking at texts of political actors to reveal their implicit explanations. Read (or watch) the 2015 State of the Union Address delivered by President Obama

​1.​Read the official transcript of the 2015 State of the Union Address as recorded in the Congressional Record at:

​​ President Obama deliver the speech at:

​​http://youtu.be/UPFT4xlNE5g

2.​Write two research questions that are derived from the text that meet the criteria for good research questions. You do not have to read the entire speech. You can look at short passages if you wish, although it wouldn’t hurt you to read or see whole speech. Include the passages that inspired your questions in your homework.

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B.​Propose the research question that you will use for your term paper in this course. You MUST read the handout on the research paper that is in the Handouts and Supplemental Materials folder on the Blackboard site before you complete this assignment. You should also look at the codebooks for the two datasets described below to see what variables are contained in them so that you can propose a topic for which we have data. The question you propose must meet the criteria for a good research question that I covered in class. That is, it must be

• Positive

• General,

• Explanatory,

• Past or present oriented, and

• Empirical.

In regards to being empirical,

• you must be able to answer the question using data on the opinions, attitudes, beliefs, or behavior of the American electorate from the 2012 American National Election Study – SETUPS Version. The codebook that describes the

or

• you must be able to answer the question using data on countries of the world from the Norris Crossnational Data. The codebook that describes the variables in this survey is in the Data Files folder in the Course Documents area of the Blackboard Site,

​Answer the following questions to complete this part of the assignment:

1.​What is your research question? (state it as a question)

2.​Why do you think this is an important question?

3.​Is your question

• Normative or positive?

• General or specific?

• Explanatory or descriptive?

• Past, present, or future oriented?

• Empirical?

4. ​What data do you expect to use to answer your question?

Question

A1. First question from the State of the Union. Is this question:

• Normative or Positive

• General or Specific

• Descriptive or Explanatory

• Present or Past Oriented or Speculative

A2. Second question from the State of the Union. Is this question:

• Normative or Positive

• General or Specific

• Descriptive or Explanatory

• Present or Past Oriented or Speculative

B. Research question for your paper in this class