Читать книгу Political Science For Dummies - Marcus A. Stadelmann - Страница 47

The first step on the way to create a theory is to come up with a hypothesis. All a hypothesis is, is a testable proposition. An example: Women are more liberal than men. This is a basic proposition or proposal. Next, researchers set out to test the proposition. They collect information or data empirically — that is, based on observable evidence. In this case, they could create a public opinion survey and administer several polls in different countries. They then quantify the results, measure them with numbers, and test them. If the hypothesis proves true, they’ve created a theory. The aforementioned hypothesis, women are more liberal than men, is actually wrong. It holds true in the U.S. but is wrong in other countries, where men are more liberal.