Wichita State University
Political Science Department
Spring 2016
POLITICAL RESEARCH METHODS
POLS 365
Professor:
Dinorah Azpuru
Class Time:
MW – 11:00 to 12:15
Course Location:
Social Science Lab 429B, Lindquist Hall
Office Location: 415 Lindquist Hall
Office Hours: Monday 12:30 to 2:30 pm or by appointment
Email: dinorah.azpuru@wichita.edu
COURSE OVERVIEW
This course provides students who are majoring in Political Science the basic knowledge
needed to understand the methods used for the analysis and research of political phenomena. The
course has a dual purpose: to teach students how to read and interpret research done by professional
political scientists and to provide them the tools to conduct their own basic research. To attain this
goal the course has a theoretical and a practical component. The main questions we will examine in
this course are: What issues are political scientists concerned with? What kind of questions do they
seek to answer? How do they go about answering these questions? How do they know their answers
are reliable and how confident are they in their conclusions?
COURSE GOALS
a) To understand the methods used in research articles and books written by professional political
scientists and professionals from other social sciences.
b) To conduct basic political research, using qualitative and quantitative methods.
c) To differentiate between the approaches used in the four subfields of political science.
d) To find and identify the appropriate sources and data available for research of political issues.
e) To interpret basic statistics used in political science research.
f) To carry out their own basic statistical analysis using SPSS software.
At the end of the course students should be familiar with the steps and the tools for designing
research papers in other courses, particularly those leading to the major in political science. This
course will also help students begin designing their Senior Seminar papers.
More specifically Political Research Methods has the objective of helping students acquire or
reinforce the following skills (listed in the American Political Science Association pamphlet “Careers
in Political Science” as skills that a Political Science major should have):
1














Employ effectively a variety of research sources, including the internet
See problems from a variety of perspectives
Understand components of complex problems
Synthesize themes from complex issues
Organize information
Conceptualize problems
Interpret and analyze data
Turn data into usable information
Perform basic quantitative analysis
Use summary statistics
Design basic research
Test theories and hypotheses
Understand the importance of citing sources correctly
Present ideas clearly in writing
********************************************************************************
IMPORTANT GENERAL INFORMATION
STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
The following statement is taken from the WSU student handbook. These rules will be fully applicable to this course.
Please contact me if you have any questions or doubts regarding these issues.
Academic Dishonesty
Students who compromise the integrity of the classroom are subject to disciplinary action on the part of the University.
Violations of classroom standards include:
1. Cheating in any form, whether in formal examinations or elsewhere.
2. Plagiarism, using the work of others as one's own without assigning proper credit to the source.
3. Misrepresentation of any work done in the classroom or in preparation for class.
4. Falsification, forgery, or alteration of any documents pertaining to academic records.
5. Disruptive behavior in a course of study or abusiveness toward faculty or fellow students.
Note on Plagiarism
It is essential to avoid plagiarism, which can result in failing the class. For a refresher on how to avoid plagiarism review
the following links:
http://library.wichita.edu/empower/module6/citingSources.html
http://plagiarism.org/plag_article_what_is_plagiarism.html
http://www.plagiarism.org/resources/student-materials
STATEMENT REGARDING DISABILITY SERVICES
Students with disabilities should refer to the Office of Disability Services and the instructor will collaborate so that
everyone can fully profit from this course.
EXPECTATIONS ABOUT STUDY HOURS
3 credits class: A rule of thumb for college classes is that a student should expect to study 2 to 3 hours per week, outside
of class, for each credit hour enrolled. Therefore, a student taking a 3-credit course should study between 6 to 9 hours
outside of class for that course.
2
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
a) Mid-term exam: 15%
b) Final exam: 20%
c) In-class and at-home exercises assigned by professor (including exercises in Pollock SPSS Book): 50%
Note that in-class exercises will be graded and some of them imply group work. If you are absent from class,
you may not be able to make up those points.
d) Research design on a topic of student’s choice: 10%.
-First draft: 4% of the final grade (due in mid-October)
Students will discuss advances on their research design with Prof. Azpuru throughout the semester and will
explain their final design to the class on the last day of class. Guidelines for the research design will be
provided separately.
-Final paper: 6%. Due on the day scheduled for the final exam.
e) Attendance to class is worth 5% of the final grade. Students who are absent more than five times without a
valid excuse will not get any points. Attendance to lab sessions is particularly important. We will be using
statistical software that is not available outside of the university. Learning to use this software by just reading
the book is difficult and not recommended.
The designated letter grades are as follows:
A = 94-100
B + = 87-89
A- = 90-93
B = 84-86
B- = 80-83
C + = 77-79
D+ = 67-69
C = 74-76
D = 64-66
C- = 70-73
D- = 60-63
F = 0-59
REQUIRED BOOKS AND REQUIRED BLACKBOARD READINGS
The following book is available at the WSU Bookstore. You must buy the bundle that contains
SPSS access and a CD with datasets. It is only available at the WSU Bookstore or from the publisher. Older
editions will not be accepted for this class.
Pollock, Philip H. III. An SPSS Companion to Political Analysis (Sage, CQ Press 2016), 5th Edition.
The following book is also required. It is only available as a Kindle book, which you can download to
your computer, even if you don’t have a Kindle. The cost is only $0.99.
Political Science for the Curious. Why Study Political Science? (The Curious Academic Publishing 2015).
URL:http://www.amazon.com/Political-Science-Curious-Why-Study ebook/dp/B00ZVZGZI0/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8
BLACKBOARD READINGS
A list of REQUIRED readings will be posted on Blackboard. They are included in the schedule of readings
below.
Please check your WSU email and Blackboard often for messages and materials regarding the course.
3
COURSE OUTLINE AND SCHEDULE
DATE
January
20, 25
January
27
February
1, 3
February
8, 10, 15,
17
TOPIC
--Course introduction
--The Political Science major
--Politics and Political Science
--The subfields of Political Science
--Empirical vs. normative statements
--Political research and the scientific
method.
--Basic terminology for research
--Levels of analysis (unit of analysis).
--Dependent and independent variables.
--Measurement
--Using the existing literature:
-Exploring a topic
-Selecting appropriate sources
-Writing a literature review
The Steps of the Scientific Method
1. Identifying a research topic and
developing a research question.
REQUIRED READINGS
Blackboard:
--Political Science for the Curious (Kindle)
--American Political Science Association
pamphlet, pp. 1-8
--Dickovick and Eastwood, pp. 2-6
--Jones and Olson, Chapter 4
Blackboard:
--Barrington, Chapter 1
--Dickovick and Eastwood, pp. 7-13
Video:
Research Methods for the Social Sciences
(will be shown in class)
Blackboard:
--Johnson and Reynolds (7th Ed), Chapter 3
--Baglione, Chapter 4
2. Reviewing the literature
--Primary and secondary sources.
February
22, 24, 29
March
2
3. Generating hypotheses
3.a. Finding sources for hypotheses
testing:
Document analysis:
The current written record and
archives.
Qualitative data:
In-depth interviews and focus groups
Quantitative data:
-Primary (raw) and secondary data
-Survey (individual-level) data
-Aggregate data
--Existing datasets with raw data
(Pollock CD and other sources)
Blackboard:
--Hoover and Donovan, Chapter 4
--Pollock (Essentials), Chapter 3
HOMEWORK AND
GRADING
Read
Homework: Written review
of Chapter 5 and another
one of your choice in
Political Science for the
Curious.
In class exercise:
differences between
empirical and normative
statements.
Read
In class exercise:
Discerning good and bad
sources
Read
Exercises, in class and
homework:
-Understanding
relationships between
variables;
-Finding research articles in
journals
--Conducting a literature
review
Read
In class exercise:
proposing hypotheses.
--Johnson and Reynolds, 6th ed., Chapter 9
--Pennings et al, pp. 56-59
--Manheim and Rich, Chapter 7
--List of research sites provided by
Professor
See Senior Seminar Library Guide:
http://libresources.wichita.edu/pols600
In class exercises: finding
aggregate data and
individual-level data
4. Testing the hypotheses:
Conceptualization and
operationalization of variables
•
Methods for testing the
hypothesis(es)
4
MID-TERM ON MONDAY, MARCH 7
March
9, 21, 23, 28,
30
Spring Break is
March 14-18
What is a research design? Types of
research papers
Pollock (SPSS Companion) , Chapters
1, 2, 3
The basics of empirical research in
Political Science:
--The data matrix (dataset)
--Levels of measurement of the variables
--Descriptive statistics (univariate
statistics)
Presenting the data in graphs and tables
Blackboard:
--Baglione, Chapter 7
--Foster (Data Analysis), pp. 4-12
--Holcomb, Chapter 1
--Patten, pp. 103, 107
Going beyond descriptive statistics:
--Making comparisons and controlled
comparisons
Pollock (SPSS Companion), Chapters
4 and 5
Exercises Pollock chapters
Exercises Pollock chapters
Blackboard:
--Review Pollock (Essentials), Chapter
3 (second half of Chapter, Making
Comparisons)
April
4, 6, 11, 13,
18
Testing relationships between two
variables (bivariate statistics):
--Cross-tabulation analysis
--Mean comparison analysis
The meaning of statistical significance
(inferential statistics)
--Measures of Association
--Correlation analysis
--Bivariate regression
April
20, 25
Review of journal articles: literature and
methods
Pollock (SPSS Companion), Chapter 8
Exercises Pollock chapters
Blackboard:
-Salkind,
pp. 171-176
pp. 179-184
-Foster (Data Analysis), pp. 13-16
Articles TBD
Homework: work on
research design
Work on Research Design
April 27
Brief presentation of students’ Research Design in class.
May 3
Review for final exam
FINAL EXAM ON MONDAY, MAY 9
FINAL RESEARCH DESIGN DUE AT THE END OF THE DAY ON DATE OF FINAL EXAM
5