Course Syllabus

PLS 209 Syllabus

PLS 209                                                                          Dr. Aspin (aspin at bradley.edu)
POLITICAL RESEARCH METHODS                             426E Bradley Hall (677-2496)
Fall 2009                                                                        Office Hours: MWF 10-11; TT 10-12

PURPOSE

The purpose of this course is threefold: first, it will introduce you to the standards, steps, and methods of scientific research; second, it will enable you to use some of these research methods with confidence; and third, it will make you a critical consumer of research. By the end of the course you will be able to structure a research problem, select the appropriate tools, and then conduct and report upon your research.

CONTENT

At the most general level, the course focus is on what constitutes sound and acceptable empirical research by those who use the scientific approach to the analysis of political phenomena. As the first course in the scientific approach it must provide you an overall framework and knowledge of the fundamentals. Thus, three elements of the scientific approach receive the most attention: criteria of admissibility, the research process for hypothesis testing, and research methods. First, criteria of admissibility are the standards used to determine whether or not something is true. Some of these standards are covered in the early discussion of methodology. Other standards will be covered later in the course (e.g., the requirements for causal inference are covered in the section on research design). Second, while there are many uses for the scientific approach, the research process used in hypothesis testing forms the backbone of the course. Each step or stage in the process is a topic heading in the course outline. Once you have mastered the basic steps and tools used in hypothesis testing, you can easily use them for other types of basic and applied research. Third, at each step in the hypothesis testing process we first examine the overall task and then examine the fundamental quantitative research tools available to complete the task. For example, empirical testing requires measurement of concepts, thus we focus on the basic techniques used in scale and index construction. Even when we are focusing on specific methods such as index construction, there is always the concern for what constitutes proper usage.
Although helpful, no prior knowledge about the logic of science or research methods is assumed. However, the nature of both the material and of this course make it extremely important that all assignments are completed on time. Failure to do so will greatly reduce what you gain from the course.

MATERIALS

(A) BOOKS
The following Books are available at the book store:
    (Required) (1) Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias, Research Methods in the Social
                              Sciences w/Data Bank CD , 7th edition This is the core text for the course.
The only required readings are those from the required text. Often the way a particular author presents a topic does not lead to automatic comprehension by all who read it. If you have trouble with a particular topic it may thus be helpful to read a different treatment of that topic. The following are some of the alternative texts which cover the same or very similar topics:
     (1) K. Bailey, Methods of Social Research
     (2) K. Eckhardt & D. Ermann, Social Research Methods
     (3) J. Manheim and R. Rich, Empirical Political Analysis
     (4) B. Smith, et al., Political Research Methods
     (5) J. Williamson, et al., The Research Craft
     (6) E. Tufte, Data Analysis for Politics and Policy
     (7) W. Trochim, The Research Methods Knowledge Base
Links to online texts are on the PLS 209 home page.

(B) STORAGE DEVICE

Some homework exercises in the course (and your research project) will involve the use of the statistical package SPSS. You will not purchase SPSS, but rather use the version installed on university computers. Since you will be creating and modifying files that you will want to save, you need a portable storage device. Floppy disks are ok for small files (e.g., the lecture notes), but may not be large enough for a large downloaded data file. Thus, if you do not already have one, you may find a portable USB memory stick very useful. These drives are given different names by the various manufacturers (e.g., thumb drive, travel drive), but they are basically small memory sticks you insert in the USB drive of a computer. Whatever storage device you use, BACK IT UP REGULARLY!!!

(C) OTHER COURSE MATERIALS

There are numerous documents for the course ranging from instructions for working with SPSS to files transfers. These documents are available only on the WWW home page for this course.
http://hilltop/~aspin/209www/209homepage.htm
or http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~aspin/209www/209homepage.htm
The home page contains all class handouts, all homework assignments, available electronic codebooks, and all lecture material from the statistical analysis portion of the course (Note taking in the last weeks of the course will be easier if you down load the lecture material and bring it to class).

FORMAL REQUIREMENTS AND POLICIES

Your final grade for the course will be based on three major areas according to the following percentages:
     60% Exams
            1st   Hourly 20% Wednesday September 30
            2nd Hourly 20%   Wednesday November 4
            3rd Hourly 20%     During final exam period (Section 1 is Saturday the 12th at 2:20; Section 2 Saturday the 12th at 9:00 )
     25% Research Project
     15% Homework
Your course grade is a weighted average of the grades you receive for each of the four requirements with the following exception: In order to pass the course you must complete the research project and all exams and receive a grade of D or better in at least three of the five requirements.

(A) EXAMS

There will be three exams each covering approximately one-third of the material and each constituting 20% of the total course grade. Make-up exams will be given only in the cases of unavoidable major obligations or serious illness. In all cases (1) it is the instructor’s decision on whether or not a make-up will be given, and (2) requests for a make-up exam must be made at least 24 hours in advance of the regular exam. There will be no early exams given for the final. If you have a documented disability and require special arrangements, contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester.

(B) RESEARCH PROJECT

Specific details will be given in class, but in general you must conduct a systematic empirical test of (1) at least one bivariate hypothesis (2) while controlling for at least one other causal variable. While the hypothesis you test need not be an original hypothesis, the empirical test must be original. Simply reporting the empirical analysis done by others is an automatic grade of F. While there is no specific length for the paper, certain components, to be elaborated in lecture, are required.
The project will occur in several stages, but two need to be noted here. After your project has been approved, you will draft the paper up to the presentation of the results section. This draft paper will (1) review the literature, (2) indicate what the hypothesis is, (3) discuss its significance, (4) indicate how you conceptually and operationally define the variables, (5) specify the sample and data source(s) to be used, and (6) indicate the statistical analysis to be employed. I will critique this portion and return it. WHILE I WILL NOT ASSIGN A LETTER GRADE TO THIS PORTION OF THE PAPER, THERE WILL BE A FULL LETTER GRADE DEDUCTION ON THE FINAL PAPER IF YOU FAIL TO SUBMIT THIS FIRST DRAFT. You will then revise to correct flaws, carry out the data analysis, and then add the data analysis and your conclusions to the paper. Dates for submission of the basic hypothesis, the draft of the first 2/3, and the final draft are listed below. No late papers will be accepted.
        (1) Basic Hypothesis           (2 copies) October 16
        (2) First 2/3 of the paper     ( 1 copy)   November 13
        (3) Final Draft                      (2 copies--one hard copy [returned] & one electronic copy [archived]) Monday December 7
Since the first 2/3 draft is not officially graded, some students are tempted to skip this stage. If you value your GPA, resist this temptation. In addition to the automatic one grade penalty, almost without exception, papers that have been handed in without the benefit of review contained serious errors resulting in a low letter grade.

(C) HOMEWORK

Through the course of the semester you will be given several homework assignments. To receive full credit, homework assignments must be turned in on time. No credit will be given for any assignment submitted a week past its due date. LEARN the fundamentals--you will see similar problems on the exams.

(D) CLASS ATTENDANCE

While attendance is not officially required, in reality it is required. The quickest way to failure is to begin missing classes. Because the topics are so interrelated and the course is cumulative, skipping classes diminishes your comprehension. In addition to substantive losses, there can also be important procedural losses. For example, the rest of the semester will be more frustrating and time consuming than it need be if you skip the day we review Bradley computing systems. A special note to late risers----the class starts on time with announcements, which are not repeated in the middle or at the end of class.

(F) ACADEMIC ACCOMMODATIONS

All students are expected to meet the standards for this course as set forth herein. However, students with documented learning disabilities who need accommodations should discuss options with the professor during the first 2 weeks of class and provide documentation and verification of need.

COURSE OUTLINE AND READINGS   (Note the page assignments in Nachmias are based on the initial 6th edition.)
    I. An Overview
        Readings:
            1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Research Methods in the Social Sciences, Preface
        Homework: None

   II. The "logic of scientific discovery," or "what is knowledge?"
        Readings:
            1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Ch. 1
        Homework: NONE

III. Defining and Formulating Research Problems
        Readings:
            1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Chs. 2; 3; 4
            2. PowerPoint Presentation on Creating and Testing a Bivariate Scientific Hypothesis
        Homework:
            #1 Concepts and Hypotheses
            #2 SPSS Introduction

IV. Research Design in Experimental and Ex Post Facto Research
        Readings:
            1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Ch. 5; 6
            2. PowerPoint Presentation on Controlling Causal Variables when Testing a
                                                       Bivariate Scientific Hypothesis
        First Hourly Exam
   (Usually the middle of the 6th week)

   V. Measurement
        Readings:
            1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Ch. 7, p. 138-148; Ch. 18
        Homework:
            #3 Levels of Measurement

VI. Construction of Reliable and Valid Measures
        Readings:
            1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Ch. 7, pp. 148-157
        Homework:
           #4 Download Data from ICPSR and Generating Contingency Tables with SPSS

VII. Sampling
        Readings:
            1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Ch. 15 p. 339-347, Ch. 8
        Homework:
            #5 Areas Under the Normal Curve Normal Curve
            #6 Confidence Interval for the Mean

VIII. Data Storage and Processing
        Readings:
            1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Ch. 14, Appendix A
        Homework:
           #7 Creating a Data Set in SPSS

IX. Univariate Descriptive Statistics
        Readings:
            1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Ch. 15
        Homework:
           #8 Univariate Descriptive Statistics

Second Hourly Exam
(Usually the middle of the 11th week)

   X.  Bivariate Descriptive Statistics
        Readings:
            1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Ch. 16
        Homework:
            #9 Contingency Table
          #10 Correlation and Regression

XI. Multivariate Statistics
        Readings:
            1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Ch. 17
        Homework:
            #11 Partial Contingency Tables
            #12 Regression and Partial Corr Multivariate

XII. Measuring Risk: Inferential Statistics
        Readings:
            1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Ch. 19
        Homework: NONE

XIII. Modes of Observation
       A. Survey
            Readings:
                1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Chs. 10, 11
            Homework: NONE

       B. Direct
            Readings:
                1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Ch. 9
            Homework: NONE

       C. Secondary Data Analysis
            Readings:
                1. Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias, Ch. 13
            Homework: NONE

Return to PLS 209 Home Page

Larry Aspin aspin at bradley.edu
Dept of Political Science
Bradley University