Foundations of Political Research
POL 10170 Foundations of Political Research
Monday 9.00-10.00 and Wednesday 9.00-10.00 through Virtual Classroom on Brightspace.
All information about the course can be found in the syllabus.
The core textbook is Babbie's The Practice of Social Research. His The Basics of Social Research can also be used.
For the data project, you will need the following resources:
Overview of variables in the data set
Original data and codebook (Look up any variables you use in your assignment in the questionnaire!)
Unfortunately, the graphical user interface is not working. Instead - and this is much easier for you! - you can just select the variables you want to use here: Find My Plot. Make sure you download "Plot A", "Plot B", "Plot C" when the link to it appears.
Thus, select your dependent variable, download Plot A, then select your independent variable, download Plot B, etc.
Videos: barchart | scatter plot | three-way graph | using the template
Template for the essay
28 Sep | What is political science research? | slides | |
30 Sep | Counting or interpreting? | slides | |
5 Oct | Know what you’re talking about | slides | |
7 Oct | Example: Who voted yes in the marriage referendum? | slides | article |
12 Oct | Looking at a variable: Graphs for single variables | slides | video on levels of measurement video on misleading axes |
14 Oct | Looking at relations: Graphs for two variables | slides | |
19 Oct | Testing relations: Graphs for three or more variables | slides | video on proportional ink video on common causes and control variables |
21 Oct | Lab: Using the ggplotgui interface | (continued) | |
2 Nov | Reading and writing political science research | slides | article |
4 Nov | Experimental designs | slides | |
9 Nov | Theories | slides | |
11 Nov | Survey sampling | slides | |
16 Nov | Example: Development projects and corruption in Tanzania | slides | article |
18 Nov | Coding text: Qualitative approaches | slides | |
23 Nov | Coding text: Quantitative approaches | slides | |
25 Nov | Example: Power relations in the Kremlin | slides | article |
30 Nov | The ethics of doing research | slides | |
2 Dec | Review session | quiz |