Introduction to Political Research

Catalog description

Introduction to conceptualization, research design, and measurement in political research. PL SC 308 Introduction to Political Research (3)This course introduces students to the research process in political science. The course can be taken by itself or as the first in a two course sequence with PL SC 309. It is intended to give political science majors the skills needed to conduct research in political science, or in related fields such as public policy. The course introduces students to the scientific approach to accumulating knowledge, it examines conceptual and theoretical thinking about politics (e.g. understanding what concepts, variables and hypotheses are), it covers different methods of collecting social science data (interviews, surveys, observation, experiments, analysis of documents, etc.) and it provides an introduction to the interpretation of that data. Ethical issues in research are discussed, and students are also introduced to basic statistical concepts. The course typically includes multiple take home and/or in-class assignments that require students to utilize different data collection methods and practice the generation and interpretation of those data.