PO315 Research Methods in Politics

Prerequisites: A grade of "C" or better in both PO 201 and in MA 135 or higher A study of research methods in politics which aids students in drafting and presenting an original research project. Students will be guided in the use of qualitative and quantitative methods in political inquiry. Using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and widely available large-n datasets, students explore key quantitative concepts like descriptive statistics, frequency distributions, measures of central tendency, difference of means, correlation, and linear regression. They will also be introduced to qualitative methods, such as the use of case studies and interview techniques. This course can be taken to fulfill the Empirical Reasoning core requirement. Offered in the spring semester.

Credits

3

Prerequisite

PO201 [minimum grade = C] and MA135 [minimum grade = C] or MA151 [minimum grade = C] or MA201 [minimum grade = C] or HO208 [minimum grade = C]