Political science research methods

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Title:

Author:

Johnson, Janet Buttolph, 1950-

ISBN:

9780872894426

Personal Author:

Johnson, Janet Buttolph, 1950-

Edition:

6th ed.

Publication Information:

Washington, D.C. : CQ Press, c2008.

Physical Description:

xxvi, 613 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Contents:

Machine derived contents note: Contents -- Tables, Figures, and Features -- Preface -- 1. Introduction 1 -- Research on Winners and Losers in Politics 4 -- Who Votes, Who Doesn't? 8 -- Repression of Human Rights 11 -- A Look into Judicial Decision Making and Its Effects 12 -- Influencing Bureaucracies 15 -- Effects of Campaign Advertising on Voters 17 -- Research on Public Support for U.S. Foreign Involvement 20 -- Conclusion 23 -- Notes 24 -- Terms Introduced 26 -- 2. Studying Politics Scientifically 27 -- Characteristics of Scientific Knowledge 28 -- The Importance of Theory 35 -- Acquiring Empirical Knowledge: The Scientific Method 40 -- Deduction and Induction 42 -- The Scientific Method at Work 44 -- Is Political Science Really "Science"? 45 -- Practical Objections 46 -- Philosophical Objections 47 -- A Brief History of Political Science as a Discipline 49 -- The Era of Traditional Political Science 49 -- The Empirical Revolution 50 -- Reaction to Empiricism 51 -- Political Science Today: Peaceful Coexistence? 53 -- Conclusion 55 -- Notes 55 -- Terms Introduced 58 -- Suggested Readings 59 -- 3. The Building Blocks of Social Scientific Research: Hypotheses, Concepts, and Variables 60 -- Specifying the Research Question 60 -- Proposing Explanations 65 -- Formulating Hypotheses 70 -- Characteristics of Good Hypotheses 70 -- Specifying Units of Analysis 77 -- Cross-level Analysis: Ecological Inference and Ecological Fallacy 78 -- Defining Concepts 81 -- Conclusion 86 -- Notes 86 -- Terms Introduced 86 -- Suggested Readings 87 -- 4. The Building Blocks of Social Scientific Research: Measurement 88 -- Devising Measurement Strategies 89 -- Examples of Political Measurements: Getting to Operationalization 92 -- The Accuracy of Measurements 94 -- Reliability 94 -- Validity 97 -- Problems with Reliability and Validity in Political Science Measurement 102 -- The Precision of Measurements 104 -- Levels of Measurement 105 -- Working with Precision: Too Little or Too Much 108 -- Multi-item Measures 110 -- Indexes 111 -- Scales 113 -- Conclusion 118 -- Notes 118 -- Terms Introduced 120 -- Suggested Readings 121 -- 5. Research Design 122 -- Causal Inferences and Controlled Experiments 123 -- Causal versus Spurious Relationships 123 -- Randomized Controlled Experiments 127 -- Randomization and the Assignment of Subjects 132 -- Interpreting and Generalizing the Results of an Experiment 133 -- Internal Validity 133 -- External Validity 135 -- Other Versions of Experimental Designs 138 -- Simple Post-test Design 138 -- Repeated-Measurement Design 139 -- Multigroup Design 140 -- Field Experiments 142 -- Nonexperimental Designs 147 -- Small-N Designs 148 -- Cross-Sectional Designs: Surveys and Aggregate Data Analysis 155 -- Large Longitudinal (Time Series) Designs 159 -- Panel Studies 162 -- Alternative Research Strategies 166 -- Formal Modeling 166 -- Simulation 171 -- Conclusion 175 -- Notes 175 -- Terms Introduced 178 -- Suggested Readings 181 -- 6. Conducting a Literature Review 182 -- Selecting a Research Topic 183 -- Why Conduct a Literature Review? 187 -- Collecting Sources for a Literature Review 188 -- Identifying the Relevant Scholarly Literature 189 -- Identifying Useful Popular Sources 193 -- Reading the Literature 199 -- Writing a Literature Review 200 -- Anatomy of a Literature Review 202 -- Conclusion 207 -- Notes 207 -- Terms Introduced 207 -- Suggested Readings 208 -- 7. Sampling 209 -- The Basics of Sampling 209 -- Population or Sample? 211 -- Fundamental Concepts 213 -- Types of Samples 216 -- Simple Random Samples 217 -- Systematic Samples 219 -- Stratified Samples 220 -- Cluster Samples 223 -- Nonprobability Samples 225 -- Samples and Statistical Inference: A Gentle Introduction 227 -- Expected Values 229 -- Measuring the Variability of the Estimates: Standard Errors 231 -- Sampling Distributions 235 -- How Large a Sample? 236 -- Conclusion 238 -- Notes 239 -- Terms Introduced 240 -- Suggested Readings 242 -- 8. Making Empirical Observations: Direct and Indirect Observation 243 -- Types of Data and Collection Techniques 243 -- Qualitative versus Quantitative Uses of Data 244 -- Choosing among Data Collection Methods 245 -- Observation 248 -- Direct Observation 249 -- Indirect Observation 256 -- Physical Trace Measures 256 -- Validity Problems with Indirect Observation 258 -- Ethical Issues in Observation 258 -- Conclusion 261 -- Notes 262 -- Terms Introduced 264 -- Suggested Readings 265 -- 9. Document Analysis: Using the Written Record 266 -- Types of Written Records 267 -- The Episodic Record 267 -- The Running Record 271 -- The Running Record and Episodic Record Compared 276 -- Presidential Job Approval 278 -- Content Analysis 282 -- Content Analysis Procedures 282 -- News Coverage of Presidential Campaigns 285 -- Advantages and Disadvantages of the Written Record 290 -- Conclusion 293 -- Notes 294 -- Terms Introduced 295 -- Suggested Readings 296 -- 10. Survey Research and Interviewing 297 -- Fundamentals: Ensuring Validity and Reliability 299 -- Survey Research 302 -- Types of Surveys 302 -- Characteristics of Surveys 304 -- Response Quality 313 -- Survey Type and Response Quality 317 -- Question Wording 319 -- Question Type 324 -- Question Order 328 -- Questionnaire Design 331 -- Using Archived Survey Data 331 -- Advantages of Using Archived Surveys 331 -- Publicly Available Archives 333 -- Interviewing 338 -- The Ins and Outs of Interviewing 340 -- Conclusion 344 -- Notes 344 -- Terms Introduced 349 -- Suggested Readings 350 -- Ch.11 Statistics: First Steps 351 -- The Data Matrix 352 -- Data Description and Exploration 352 -- Frequency Distributions, Proportions, and Percentages 355 -- Descriptive Statistics 360 -- Measures of Central Tendency 361 -- Measures of Variability or Dispersion 368 -- Deviations from Central Tendency 373 -- Graphs for Presentation and Exploration 384 -- Presentation Graphs: Bar Charts and Pie Diagrams 386 -- Exploratory Graphs 387 -- Statistical Inference 393 -- Hypothesis Testing 395 -- Significance Tests of a Mean 406 -- Confidence Intervals and Confidence Levels: Reporting Estimates of Population Parameters 416 -- Conclusion 420 -- Notes 420 -- Terms Introduced 423 -- Suggested Readings 425 -- 12. Investigating Relationships between Two Variables 426 -- The Basics of Identifying and Measuring Relationships 426 -- Types of Relationships 427 -- The Strength of Relationships 429 -- Numerical Summaries: Measures of Association 430 -- Cross-tabulations of Nominal and Ordinal Variables 431 -- A First Look at the Strength of a Relationship 434 -- The Direction of a Relationship 437 -- Coefficients for Ordinal Variables 439 -- A Coefficient for Nominal Data 445 -- Association in 2 x 2 Tables: The Odds Ratio 451 -- Testing a Cross-tabulation for Statistical Significance 454 -- Analysis of Variance and the Difference of Means 462 -- Difference of Means or Effect Size 463 -- Difference of Proportions 471 -- Analysis of Variance 473 -- Regression Analysis 477 -- Scatterplots 477 -- Matrix Plots 480 -- Modeling Linear Relationships 482 -- The Regression Model 483 -- Interpretation of Parameters 485 -- Measuring the Fit of a Regression Line 487 -- The Correlation Coefficient 490 -- Standardized Regression Coefficients 492 -- Inference for Regression Parameters 495 -- Regression Is Sensitive to Large Values 497 -- Conclusion 498 -- Notes 498 -- Terms Introduced 500 -- Suggested Readings 502 -- 13. Multivariate Analysis 503 -- Multivariate Analysis of Categorical Data 504 -- Multiple Regression 514 -- Interpretation of Parameters 516 -- Dummy Variables 519 -- Estimation and Calculation of a Regression Equation 521 -- Standardized Regression Coefficients 521 -- Measuring the Goodness of Fit 524 -- Tests of Significance 525 -- Logistic Regression 526 -- Estimating the Model's Coefficients 534 -- Measures of Fit 534 -- Significance Tests 537 -- An Alternative Interpretation of Logistic Regression Coefficients 539 -- A Substantive Example 542 -- Conclusion 545 -- Notes 546 -- Terms Introduced 548 -- Suggested Readings 549 -- 14. The Research Report: An Annotated Example -- Bias in Newspaper Photograph Selection -- Conclusion -- Appendix -- Glossary -- Index.

Subject Term:

Political science -- Methodology.

Added Author:

Reynolds, H. T. (Henry T.)

Mycoff, Jason D., 1975-

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025517539	320.072 J67P 2008	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Don′t let an introduction to research methods be your students′ least favorite (and most intimidating) political science course. Relevant, timely, insightful, comprehensive, and always mindful of their student audience, the authors have revamped their popular text so that the sixth edition is friendlier and more intuitive than ever--the perfect gateway to understanding not just the "how" but also the "why" behind research into politics.

Covering the discipline′s major methods, the authors lead students step-by-step through the logic of research design. "Building block" chapters on hypothesis formation and testing, variables, and measurement are right up front; the introduction to research design, sampling, and literature reviews now come with more explanation as to why a researcher would pursue different kinds of methods; the stats chapters begin with a common-sense primer that walks students through foundational ideas and practices. Throughout the text, updated examples of contemporary research problems keep readers engaged.

Each chapter has bolded key terms that are also listed in a glossary at the end of each chapter and the end of the text. "Helpful hints" feature boxes give students nuts-and-bolts reminders they can refer to when they conduct their own research or assess the work of others.

NEW TO THIS EDITION

New examples of political science research in Chapter 1, including a case on judicial decision making and current research into public opinion on the war in Iraq.

Expanded discussion of theory in Chapter 2, showing how competing paradigms can be applied to the same topic of study.

Substantially updated discussion of survey research including coverage of Internet polling and a fuller description of interviewing.

Computational formulas and calculations are now featured in "How It′s Done" boxes allowing students to separate lengthy calculations from substantive discussion of the meaning or interpretation of statistical results.

Greater coverage of newer developments in applied statistics, including exploratory data analysis and descriptive and inferential statistics for counts and functions of counts. In general, less emphasis on computation, and more on interpretation.

Reorganized statistics chapters for better comprehension with regression analysis and logistic regression in their own chapters.

A new overview of statistical analysis, including discussion of data preparation, description, modeling, inference, interpretation, and the communication of results.