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Apr 23, 2024
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POLS 6302 - Research Design for Political Scientists Credit Hours: 3.0
Lecture Contact Hours: 3 Lab Contact Hours: 0
Prerequisite: None.
This seminar introduces students to the principles of research design in mainstream political science. We begin with some questions in the philosophy of science as they apply to the social sciences. Then we review the purpose of theories, as well as different approaches to generating and evaluating them. Next, we discuss the purpose and form of hypotheses, focusing on how to derive hypotheses from theories; how to develop and implement hypothesis tests; how to treat competing explanations for observed phenomena of interest; how to measure theoretical constructs; and what to do (and not to do) with data. Finally, we explore how different research designs (including the construction of counterfactuals, comparative case studies, quasi-experiments, and experiments) may be used to help researchers make valid causal inferences. The course will introduce students to elementary methods of data analysis, but no knowledge of advanced statistics or econometrics is presupposed.
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