Multivariate Analysis for Political Research

Catalog description

Analysis of selected issues in quantitative political analysis; introduction to advanced multivariate analysis techniques. PL SC 503 Multivariate Analysis for Political Research (3) This course is part of the methods sequence required of doctoral students in political science. The prerequisites are PL SC 501 and PL SC 502. The course has three objectives. First, students will acquire a theoretical/mathematical understanding of multivariate regression analysis. Such understanding is fundamental to applying appropriate applications of quantitative methodology to substantive problems. Students must acquire clear and correct conceptual understanding of the statistical ideas behind the mathematics in order to succeed in this course. Second, students will learn to program in SAS to relate statistical ideas to practice and develop a set of programming skills that will benefit their research over the long run. They are expected to acquire proficiency in SAS in terms of data management and statistical analysis, which will be useful when they find the need to pick up some other statistical software package in the future. Third, students will gain experience in quantitative research by applying their statistical and computing skills to substantive problems in political science. Students should aim at producing publishable quality work. They would also develop the ability to evaluate other scholars' use of quantitative methods.