Robinson
SIS 600.001
Syllabus – 09/09/12 version
International Affairs: Statistics and Methods
American University • School of International Service
SIS-600.001 • Fall 2012
Instructor
Rachel Sullivan Robinson
robinson@american.edu
202-885-1636
SIS 341
Tuesdays 2:00-5:00
Wednesdays 5:15-6:15
Course Meeting Time
Wednesdays 2:35-5:15
Meeting Location
Kogod T62
* Please sign up first using Google calendar
Name
Email
Phone
Office
Office Hours*
Faculty Assistant
Kate Tennis
kt1578a@student.american.edu
SIS T10-E
Wednesdays, 10:00-12:00
Course Description and Objectives
The purpose of this course is to provide you with the knowledge and skills necessary to be an
informed consumer and producer of statistical knowledge, as well as to briefly introduce you to
additional social science research methods. My philosophy of statistics, which guides this
course, is that the simplest argument is almost always the most compelling, particularly when
your audience consists of non-specialists, such as members of Congress, or the boss you’re
trying to impress! Thus we start the course by discussing descriptive statistics, data sources,
and how to present data clearly in tables and figures. We then move on to bivariate
comparison−the best way to begin to understand the relationship between two concepts. We
continue on to multiple regression analysis, which allows for the simultaneous assessment of
the effect of different factors on an outcome of interest. We conclude the statistical portion of
the course by learning about sampling techniques and a variety of ways to test whether groups
differ from one another in meaningful ways. In addition, you will learn about research design,
ethics in social research, crafting literature reviews, and a handful of research methods beyond
statistics (case studies and process tracing; interviews and focus groups; and content analysis).
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course you will be able to:
1) Ask research questions relevant to the field of international affairs and use a variety of
methods to answer them
2) Write a research paper of publishable quality based on original quantitative data
analysis
3) Interpret and critique quantitative analyses commonly found in international affairs
journals (e.g., International Studies Quarterly, World Development, and World Politics)
With specific reference to statistics, by the end of the course you will be able to:
♦ Present data in figures and tables using Microsoft Excel and Word
♦ Interpret results of commonly performed statistical procedures
♦ Conduct descriptive and multivariate analyses using statistical software (SPSS)
Robinson
SIS 600.001
Syllabus – 08/29/12 version
Texts
♦ Recommended: Salkind, Neil J. 2011. Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate
Statistics (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
♦ The textbook is available from the AU bookstore and a variety of online sources (e.g.,
Amazon.com, Powells.com, etc.). Earlier additions exist, as does an e-version.
♦ If you are feeling unsure about statistics, you may want to consider the study guide,
Kremelberg, David. 2011. Study Guide to Accompany Neil J. Salkind’s Statistics for
People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
♦ The textbook and study guide are on reserve at the library.
♦ All other required readings will be available online through Blackboard or public sites.
SPSS Software
SPSS is an all-purpose statistical analysis software package for the social sciences. Homework
assignments and the research paper require its use. You have several options to access SPSS:
♦ The computer labs on campus, all of which have SPSS
♦ The Virtual Computing Lab, which allows you to access SPSS from anywhere off campus
that has an internet connection. Using Chrome (PC) or Safari (Mac), go to
vcl.american.edu and log in. Detailed instructions will be provided in class.
♦ Rent the SPSS Standard (not Base) GradPack for either Windows or Mac, for 6 months
for $54 (http://www.onthehub.com/spss/).
♦ Download the free, 14-day trial version of SPSS (http://www14.software.ibm.com/
download/data/web/en_US/trialprograms/W110742E06714B29.html)
Course Activities
♦ Pragmatics The course meets once a week for 14 weeks, excluding the week of
Thanksgiving (11/21/12). Each class lasts two hours and forty minutes, and we will
always take a 10-minute break in the middle of class to stretch and have a snack. We
will organize collective snack sign-up for the semester during the first meeting.
♦ Class Time Class time will be divided between lectures, Q&A, and time in the computer
lab. Lectures will be focused on the material in the readings, while time in the computer
lab will be for learning how to use SPSS and for accessing data.
♦ Homework There are six homework assignments. The first five include problems to
solve, practice interpreting statistics from published materials, and SPSS exercises. You
will need a basic calculator. The sixth relates to other research methods. Assignments
will be posted on the course’s Blackboard site.
♦ Research Project The research project will provide you with an opportunity to practice
asking a research question, familiarizing yourself with the relevant literature, finding
and analyzing data to answer your question, and presenting the results in both visual
and written form. The final paper will include an original, statistical analysis of data
pertinent to your question. You will receive feedback on your paper at several points
during the semester, and you will present your findings in a poster session on Friday,
November 30 along with students from other sections of the class.
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SIS 600.001
Syllabus – 08/29/12 version
♦ Exams The course has two exams. The midterm, taken in week eight, covers the first six
weeks of material. It does not require use of SPSS, but does require interpretation of
SPSS output. Calculation is not the emphasis, but some is required, so you will need a
basic calculator. The final, taken during the course’s scheduled exam time on Dec. 17,
will exclusively cover the interpretation of statistics in the published literature.
Evaluation
Your final grade is out of 1000 points and has four components:
♦ Midterm exam
15% 150 points
♦ Homework
30% 6 assignments worth 50 points each
♦ Research project
45% 50 points for literature review assignment
25 points for draft data set (Excel)
25 points for draft data set (SPSS)
75 points for first draft of data analysis
75 points for poster
50 points for review of a peer’s data analysis
150 points for final paper
♦ Final exam
10% 100 points
Homework is graded on a √+, √, √-, √-- (etc.) basis, where a √+ corresponds to 50 points, a √ to
45 points, a √- to 40 points, and so forth. Your homework may be typed or handwritten, and
the pages should be stapled together. If you write up your homework by hand, please try to be
at neat as possible, and remove all hanging pieces of notebook paper. It is OK to use Excel for
its calculating capabilities, but please do not use the formula commands. I encourage you to
work together on homework, but ask that you please write up your own assignment.
At the end of the semester, your total points will be converted to a letter grade based
on the following schema:
A 95% and higher
A- 90-94.9%
B+
B
B-
87-89.9%
83.5-86.9%
80-83.4%
C+
C
C-
77-79.9%
73.5-76.9%
70-73.4%
An “A” means outstanding work, a “B” good work, a “C” satisfactory work, a “D” unsatisfactory
and/or incomplete work, and an “F” below minimum-standard work.
Participation, which includes coming to class, asking questions, and contributing to
discussions, is expected and so therefore is not attributed a specific percentage of the total
grade.
Policies
♦ As members of the same intellectual community, we benefit from one another’s insights
and presence, so your attendance at all class sessions is expected. If you miss class,
please be sure to contact your peers for notes and information on assignments (email
addresses are available through Blackboard).
♦ The best way to contact me is via email or by coming to my office hours. I will try to
answer all emails received Sun-Thurs within 24 hours of their receipt; emails received
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SIS 600.001
Syllabus – 08/29/12 version
over the weekend will usually have to wait until Monday. If you cannot come to my
office hours, I am willing to try to schedule appointments for other times.
♦ Homework assignments 1-5 must be turned in during class in hard copy. Homework
assignment 6 will be turned in electronically. Homework assignments will not be
accepted late, as we will always discuss them immediately following their completion.
♦ All research paper assignments are to be turned in electronically via Blackboard by the
beginning of class the day they are due. Please upload assignments as Word/Excel
documents (not PDFs), and do not write me comments in Blackboard. (Comments
should be in the Word/Excel file, or sent via email.) For assignments related to the
research paper, I will automatically grant you a 24-hour extension if and only if it is
requested at least 24 hours before the due date. The grades of late papers (those turned
in anytime after class the day the paper was due, or anytime after a 24-hour extension)
will be reduced by one letter grade and will be accepted no later than a week after the
original due date.
♦ All requests for grade changes must be made in writing, and submitted to me in person
within one week of the return of the test/assignment. I reserve the right to increase or
decrease a disputed grade.
Additional Support
If you experience difficulty in this course for any reason, or if you anticipate experiencing
difficulties of any sort, please don’t hesitate to consult with me. In addition to what I can offer,
a wide range of services is available to support you in your efforts to meet the course
requirements:
♦ The Academic Support Center (http://www.american.edu/ocl/asc/, MGC 243) offers
study skills workshops, individual instruction, tutor referrals, and services for students
with learning disabilities. Writing support is available through the ASC Writing Lab or the
Writing Center (http://www.american.edu/cas/writing/index.cfm, Battelle 228).
♦ The Counseling Center (http://www.american.edu/ocl/counseling/, MGC 214) offers
counseling and consultations regarding personal concerns, self-help information, and
connections to off-campus mental health resources.
♦ Disability Support Services (http://www.american.edu/ocl/dss/index.cfm, MGC 206)
offers technical and practical support and assistance with accommodations for students
with physical, medical, or psychological disabilities. If you qualify for disability-related
accommodations, please make sure that you have registered with Disability Support
Services such that they will send me an accommodation letter.
Green Teaching
This is a Certified Green Course. This means, for example, that I will try to limit the number of
printed materials I hand out, and that I will use Blackboard extensively to post handouts, collect
assignments, and provide you with feedback on assignments. To help make our class as green
as possible, I encourage you to buy used books or e-books, minimize paper use by submitting
assignments electronically as instructed, and to read course readings online rather than printing
copies. If you choose to print, please print double-sided or on paper that has already been used
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SIS 600.001
Syllabus – 08/29/12 version
on one side, and recycle the paper after the end of the semester. Please try to use public
transit or your own muscles to get to campus, and if you drive, try to carpool. If you don’t have
a car, consider Car2Go (www.car2go.com) or ZipCar (http://www.zipcar.com).
Academic Integrity
University policies on academic integrity (this includes plagiarism!) will be strictly enforced. By
registering for this course, you have acknowledged your awareness of the Academic Integrity
Code (http://www.american.edu/academics/integrity/), and you are obliged to become familiar
with your rights and responsibilities as defined by the Code.
Emergency Preparedness
In the event of an emergency, American University will implement a plan for meeting the needs
of all members of the university community. Should the university be required to close for a
period of time, we are committed to ensuring that all aspects of our educational programs will
be delivered to our students. These may include altering and extending the duration of the
traditional term schedule to complete essential instruction in the traditional format and/or use
of distance instructional methods. Specific strategies will vary from class to class, depending on
the format of the course and the timing of the emergency. Faculty will communicate classspecific information to students via AU e-mail and Blackboard, while students must inform their
faculty immediately of any absence. Students are responsible for checking their AU e-mail
regularly and keeping themselves informed of emergencies. In the event of an emergency,
students should refer to the AU Student Portal, the AU Web site (www.prepared.american.edu)
and the AU information line at (202) 885-1100 for general university-wide information, as well
as contact their faculty and/or respective dean’s office for course and school/ college-specific
information.
My Teaching Philosophy
Successful learning means both mastering the relevant subject matter as well as acquiring and
practicing associated skills. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to 1) create an environment
where all students can learn, 2) equip students with the tools necessary for that learning to
occur, and 3) provide necessary support along the way. Consider me your guide to this course
as well as to the subjects of statistics, research design, and research methods more broadly. It
is my responsibility to try to anticipate your needs, but it your responsibility to let me know if
your needs are not being met. To that end, I will ask you to complete a mid-term evaluation of
my teaching and the course overall, and welcome your feedback at any point.
Additional Resources
♦ Course Wiki http://quantitativeanalysissis600.pbwiki.com/?pwd=8FmENQWisN Kate will
help authorize you add materials to the Wiki.
♦ Salkind Companion Web Sites
− http://www.sagepub.com/salkind4e/study/default.htm for quizzes, flashcards, and
data sets.
− http://www.statisticsforpeople.com/ for data sets, corrections, and a brownie recipe!
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SIS 600.001
Syllabus – 08/29/12 version
♦ Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research SPSS Resources Provides written tutorials
(http://www.american.edu/ctrl/software.cfm#spss). Similar resources are also available
through J:\CLASSES\SSRL\SPSS\Doc Tutorial Files.
♦ AU Library’s List of Statistics Databases
http://subjectguides.library.american.edu/content.php?pid=122441
♦ Lynda.com Includes training for numerous software packages, including SPSS and Excel.
Must access through AU IP address, or through the portal if not on campus.
♦ iTunes Statistics Tutorials (http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/statistics-tutorialsstata/id438297258#ls=1) Includes five tutorials on SPSS.
♦ Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research (CTRL) Lab Located in Hurst 202, this computer
lab is staffed by graduate students knowledgeable about statistics and SPSS who are paid to
help you! (http://www.american.edu/ctrl/lab.cfm) The lab’s phone number is (202) 8853862 and its hours are:
Monday-Thursday
9:30 am – 8:00 pm
Friday
9:30 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday
12:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Sunday
Closed
♦ StatSoft Electronic Textbook Online textbook with clear descriptions of statistical concepts,
from the basic to the complex (http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/stathome.html)
♦ The Math Forum An amazing resource for all things math, including a database of problems
and their solutions, with commentary from math experts (http://mathforum.org/)
♦ UCLA Stat Computing Portal Includes links to a variety of online statistics resources,
organized by software (including SPSS) and type of analysis (multilevel, survey, etc.)
(http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/)
♦ Web Center for Social Research Methods Includes a neat statistical “advisor” (under
“Selecting Statistics”) that helps you select the appropriate statistics to use
(http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/)
Detailed Schedule
Please note that you are expected to have completed assignments by class time the day that
they are listed. Chapters listed from Salkind will be covered in lecture that day, so if you are
using the book, should be read before class.
Week
1
Date
Aug. 29
2
Sept. 5
3
Sept. 12
Readings
Intro. & Measures of Central Tendency
** SPSS Lab (second part of class)
 Salkind 1, 2, & 6 (only p. 101-105)
Research Project, Measures of Dispersion, Crosstabs,
Measures of Association
 Salkind 3, 17
Research Questions, Data Sources, Graphs
** SPSS Lab (second part of class)
 Salkind 4
Assignment
None
HW 1 on
descriptive
statistics
Paper proposal
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Week
Date
SIS 600.001
Syllabus – 08/29/12 version
Readings
 King, Charles, “How to Write a Research Paper.”
Assignment
http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/kingch/How_to_Write_a_
Research_Paper.htm
 Xavier University Library, “Qualitative vs. Quantitative
Research,”
http://www.xavier.edu/library/help/qualitative_quantitative.pdf
4
Sept. 19
 Luker, Kristin. 2008. “What is This a Case of,
Anyway?” Ch. 4 in Salsa Dancing Into the Social
Sciences: Research in an Age of Info-Glut. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press. Note – read only p. 5169.
 Brown-Syed, Christopher. 2003. “What is a PeerReviewed Journal?” http://valinor.ca/peer-review.html
 Bergh, Andreas and Therese Nilsson. 2010. "Good for
Living? On the Relationship between Globalization
and Life Expectancy." World Development 38:11911203.
Lit Reviews, Scatterplots, Correlation Coefficients &
Bivariate Regression
 Salkind 5, 15, 16
 Edwards, Paul N. 2008. “How to Read a Book, v. 4.0”
HW 2 on graphs
and charts
http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/PDF/howtoread.pdf
 Knopf, Jeffrey W. 2006. “Doing a Literature Review.”
PS: Political Science and Politics. 39(1): 127-132.
** SPSS Lab – Bivariate & Multivariate Regression
 Salkind p. 299
 Handout on multivariate regression
5
Sept. 26
6
Oct. 3
7
Oct. 10
8
Oct. 17
Literature
assignment –
bring to class for
peer review
** SPSS Lab – Regression, Data for Paper
HW 3 on
regression
** SPSS Lab – Regression Continued: Logistic Regression Draft data set Excel
Midterm Exam (covers material through week 6)
None
9
Oct. 24
** SPSS Lab – Data Analysis for Paper Project
10
Oct. 31
The Normal Curve, Sampling, & Z-Scores
 Salkind 8, 9
11
Nov. 7
Confidence Intervals & Significance Testing
 Salkind 7, 10
Draft data set SPSS
Bring draft data
analysis tables to
class for peer
review
Draft data
analysis due
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Week
12
13
SIS 600.001
Date
Nov. 14
Readings
** SPSS Lab – T-Tests & ANOVA
 Salkind 11, 13
Nov. 21
No Class – Thanksgiving!
Nov. 28
Ethics, Interviews, Focus Groups
 AU’s IRB guidelines.
Syllabus – 08/29/12 version
Assignment
HW4 on the
normal curve and
CIs + peer review
of draft data
analysis
HW 5 on
significance tests
http://www.american.edu/irb/index.cfm
14
Nov. 30
(Friday)
Dec. 5
 Leech, Beth L. 2002. "Asking Questions: Techniques
for Semistructured Interviews." PS: Political Science &
Politics 35(04):665-68.
 Bernard, H. Russell. 2006. Research Methods in
Anthropology. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press. Part
of Ch. 9 (p. 232-239), “Focus Groups and Group
Interviews.”
Poster Session – 5-7 pm, SIS Atrium
Case Studies, Process Tracing, Content Analysis
 Bennett, Andrew and Elman, Colin. 2007. "Case Study
Methods in the International Relations Subfield."
Comparative Political Studies 40(2):170-95.
 Bennett, Andrew. 2010. "Process Tracing and Causal
Inference." Pp. 207-219 in Rethinking Social Inquiry,
edited by H. E. Brady and D. Collier. Lanham, MD:
Rowman and Littlefield.
 Bernard, H. Russell. 2006. Research Methods in
Anthropology. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press. Pp.
505-512, “Content Analysis.”
 Gershkoff, Amy, and Shana Kushner. 2005. "Shaping
Public Opinion: The 9/11-Iraq Connection in the Bush
Administration's Rhetoric." Perspectives on Politics
3(03):525-37.
Dec. 12 Final paper due to Blackboard by noon
Dec. 17 Final exam, 2:35-5:05, can be taken in class or from afar
** Note: Location of SPSS labs TBD **
Slides due by 5
pm
HW 6 on
interviews (due
Dec. 4 to allow
time to upload
for analysis)
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