Political Research Methods (611)
Research Methods (PS 611)
ocean.otr.usm.edu/~w302011
Instructor Contact Information:
Course Description:
The purpose of this course is to prepare students to conduct real research in Political Science. Methods to be discussed include issue papers, book reviews, article critiques, and the construction of research designs in political analysis. The course is online and will feature weekly chat/teaching sessions, video lectures, and Power Point lecture notes.
Required Text:
Course Requirements:
Course Outline:
Date |
Activity |
Date |
Activity |
Aug 23 |
Orientation; Ch. 1 Introduction |
Oct. 25 |
Ch. 10 Survey Research and Ch. 6 (Salkind); Exercise 10-3; Brady, Henry. 2000. “Contributions of Survey Research in Political Science.” PS: Political Science and Politics 33: 47-57. |
Aug 30 |
Ch. 2 Studying Politics Scientifically; In class activity Exercise 2-2 & Exercise 2-7 |
Nov. 1 |
Ch. 7 (Salkind) Univariate Data Analysis; Exercise 11-1; Exercise 11-2; |
Sept 6 |
NO CLASS |
Nov. 8 |
Ch. 8 (Salkind) Introducing Inferential Statistics and Hypothesis testing; Exercises 4, 8, 10 |
Sept. 13 |
Ch. 3 Research Design; In class exercise: 5-1; 5-9 |
Nov. 15 |
Continue; Interpretation of OLS and Logit Regression Output/Tables |
Sept. 20 |
Ch. 4 Hypotheses, Concepts, and Variables; Exercise 3-3; 3-4
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Nov. 22 |
Interpretation of Regression Output continued |
Oct. 4 |
Ch. 6 Measurement; Bowman, Kirk and Mahoney James. 2005. Comparative Political Studies 38:939-970; Exercise 4-1; 4-2; 4-3a |
Nov. 29 |
Executive Summary*** (Seminar Style Discussion) |
Oct. 11 |
Ch. 5 Conducting a Literature Review; Citation norms; Annotated Bibliography* and Journal Article Critiquing (Executive Summary exercise***); Exercise 6-1; Practice citation techniques |
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****Papers are Due by Thursday, Dec. 2 by 5pm in my box. |
Oct. 18 |
Ch. 10 (Salkind) Qualitative Methods |
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*You are expected to do an Annotated Bibliography (see lecture notes and handout). Be sure to properly cite at least 5 references on one of the following 3 topics (1 popular media or internet think-tank; 4 scholarly publications):
1. Are evangelical Christians becoming more and more Republican?
2. Is Congress becoming more and more polarized along party lines?
3. Is true democracy feasible in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Use the search engines EBSCOHOST and/or JSTOR for scholarly articles especially. For help with the content and proper citation in doing an Annotated Bibliography, consult:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm
http://depts.washington.edu/pswrite/cite.html
**Research Design Paper: Select a topic where you might do actual research in Political Science. You need to identify a research question, conduct a literature review, present relevant theories, identify a research hypothesis, select and operationalize a dependent variable and at least two independent variables, identify data sources or locations for both, report and interpret univariate statistics for the dependent and main independent variable, explain what method or technique you would use for analysis. You do NOT have to actually do any multivariate analysis since we will not learn these in this class. Your paper should be double-spaced with proper citations and a reference page and 10-15 pages in length. You will need an introduction; literature review; data, variables, and hypotheses section; methods selection section (provide justification as well as procedure), and a brief conclusion. For help: http://arches.uga.edu/~csallen/edicts.htm
***Write Executive Summaries for the following journal articles and be prepared to have a seminar style discussion of them at the designated time. Note: I will be asking you to interpret tables.
Executive Summary (Journal Article Critique)
I. Research Question or Problem
Is the question or problem clearly stated? State it in your own words.
II. Theoretical Base
Is there a review of the literature related to the problem or question? Summarize the theory and literature base presented.
III. Methodology
Does the researcher explain the methods used in the study? What are they? What are the subjects of observation (units of analysis)? How were they selected? What instruments were used to gather data?
IV. Results
Are the results clearly stated and understandable? Did the results answer the question or clarify the hypothesis?
V. Discussion
Are the results discussed? Are there suggestions for practical implications? Are there recommendations for further research?
VI. Personal Reaction
What did you learn from reading the study? What further questions did it generate?
***