Political Science 451/EPE 451
Spring, 1998
This course surveys problems of research methodology that arise in social science or, indeed, any
field of empirical inquiry. A variety of qualitative and quantitative methodologies will be
discussed, but special attention will be devoted to field experiments, survey research, participant-observation, and comparative case study. Applications will be drawn from the disciplines of
sociology, political science, psychology, anthropology, and public health.
Prerequisites. This course is intended for juniors with some background in social science.
Requirements. Students must complete all three of the following assignments.
Due week 3: A 5 page write-up of an experiment. Students may elect to perform any
experiment they choose (it may be in the domain of social, physical, or life science). The
experiment may be substantively trivial, but the design, analysis, and exposition should be
well-crafted. Students will make brief presentations of their findings in class.
Due week 10: A 5-7 page write up of an
ethnographic account undertaken by the student.
Students may elect to write on any topic of interest to them but are encouraged to study
phenomena outside the confines of the campus.
How to Do
Ethnographic Research
Due during exam week: A 5-7 page write-up of research (on any interesting topic)
involving quantitative information. The data in question may be contemporary or historical,
domestic or international. The paper should lay out an hypothesis, discuss issues of
conceptualization and measurement, and draw inferences from the data selected.
Guidelines for
Quantitative Research Project
One-fourth of the total course grade will be based on the quality of
each student's participation in
class discussions.
Readings. Most course readings may be found in a photocopied course reader available at Tyco Copies (located at 262 Elm St., phone: 562-9723).
Purchase the following book at the Yale Coop Bookstore:
Baugh, L. Sue. 1993.
Essentials of English Grammar: A Practical Guide to the Mastery
of English. 2nd Ed. Lincolnwood, IL: Passport Books.
Course Schedule.
Week 1. Introduction: Causality, Experiments, and Quasi-Experiments
Read King, Gary, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba. 1994. Designing
Social
Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, chp.3. Skim passages with algebra and focus on the meaning and
assessment of causality.
Week 2. Experiments and Quasi-Experiments: Issues of Internal and External Validity
Experimentation. Evaluate the merits of lab studies of agenda-setting in relation to time-series analyses.
Iyengar, Shanto, and Donald. R. Kinder. 1987. News That Matters: Television and
American Opinion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Read chps. 2-3.
Field Experimentation. Field experiments have certain advantages over lab experiments,
but to what extent do issues of external validity remain unresolved in this experiment?
Newhouse, Joseph P. A Health Insurance Experiment. 1989. In Judith M. Tanur, et
al., eds. Statistics: A Guide to the Unknown (3rd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Wadsworth
and Brooks.
Quasi-Experimentation. What distinguishes an experiment from a quasi-experiment?
What are the practical and ethical trade-offs between the two? What would an
experimental test of Green and Gerken's hypothesis look like?
Green, Donald Philip, and Ann Elizabeth Gerken. 1989. Self-Interest and Public
Opinion toward Smoking Restrictions and Cigarette Taxes. Public Opinion Quarterly
53: 1-16.
Week 3. Causal Mechanisms and Units of Analysis
Aggregate-level relationships. What accounts for the apparent link between affluence
and life-expectancy at the aggregate level? Is the process the same at the individual
level?
Russett, Bruce. 1978. The Marginal Utility of Income Transfers to the Third World.
International Organization 32: 913-928.
Individual-level causality? What do the results of this article suggest for the relative
importance of nature vs. nurture (or the interaction between the two)? What
conceptual/measurement issues remain unresolved here?
Bailey, J. Michael, and Richard C. Pillard. 1991. A Genetic Study of Male Sexual
Orientation. Archives of General Psychiatry. 48: 1089-96.
Is there a mismatch here between levels of theoretical analysis and empirical
investigation? To what extent does this classic essay on political tolerance and
consensus address the hypothesis it poses?
Prothro, James W., and Charles M. Grigg. 1960. Fundamental Principles of Democracy: Bases of Agreement and Disagreement. Journal of Politics: 22: 276-94.
Further reading. How many observations do you count in the following
study?
Dockery, Douglas W., et al. 1993. An Association between Air Pollution
and Mortality in Six U.S. Cities. New England Journal of Medicine
329 (24): 1753-9.
Weeks 4-5. Conceptualization and Measurement: Approaches to the Study of Racism and
Prejudice in the Contemporary United States
Bobo, Lawrence. 1989. Racial Attitudes and Behavior. In Gerald David Jaynes and
Robin M. Williams, Jr. (eds.) A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society.
Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Jones, Edward E., and Harold Sigall. 1971. The Bogus Pipeline: A New Paradigm for
Measuring Affect and Attitudes. Psychological Bulletin 76: 349-64.
Fazio, Russell H., et al. 1995. Variability in Automatic Activation as an Unobtrusive
Measure of Racial Attitudes: A Bona Fide Pipeline? Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology 69: 1013-27.
Fix, Michael, George C. Galster, and Raymond J. Struyk. 1993. An Overview of
Auditing for Discrimination. In Michael Fix and Raymond J. Struyk, Clear and
Convincing Evidence: Measurement of Discrimination in America. Washington, DC:
Urban Institute Press.
Sears, David O. 1988. Symbolic Racism. In Phyllis A. Katz and Dalmas A. Taylor,
Eliminating Racism: Profiles in Controversy. New York: Plenum Press.
Wellman, David T. 1993. Portraits of White Racism. (2nd ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. Read chps. 1-2.
Week 6. Description: Statistical and Graphical
Principles of data presentation. Importance of presenting statistical information in a
form that conveys the underlying causal process in question.
Tufte, Edward R. 1996. Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press. Read chp. 2.
Introduction to statistical description of a single variable. Understand the definitions of
mean, median, variance, and skewness.
Harnett, Donald L., and Ashok K. Soni. 1991. Statistical Methods for Business and
Economics (4th ed.). New York: Addison-Wesley.
Week 7. Thick Description
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic. Read
chapter on Balinese cockfighting.
Week 8. Ethnographic Observation
Pinderhughes, Howard. 1993. The Anatomy of Racially Motivated Violence in New
York City: A Case Study of Youth in Southern Brooklyn. Social Forces 40: 478-92.
Jankowski, Martin Sanchez. 1995. Ethnography, Inequality, and Crime in a Low-Income Community. In John Hagan and Ruth D. Peterson, eds. Crime and Inequality.
Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Suggested Reading: Johnson, Janet Buttolph, and Richard A. Joslyn. 1986. Political
Science Research Methods. Washington, DC: CQ Press. Read chp. 9, "Document
Analysis: Using the Written Record."
Week 9. The Elaboration Paradigm and Analysis of Quasi-Experimental Data
Babbie, Earl R. Survey Research Methods. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Read chapters
13, 15.
Tufte, Edward R. 1974. Data Analysis of Politics and Policy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall. Read pp. 65-91.
Week 10. Selection and Presentation of Evidence
Thoughts on data mining, proof by illustration, problems with hypothesis testing,
convenience sampling.
Lord, Charles, G., Lee Ross, and Mark R. Lepper. 1979. Biased Assimilation and
Attitude Polarization: The Effects of Prior Theories on Subsequently Considered
Evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 11: 2098-109.
Week 11. Modeling Social Processes: Deductive Approaches
Axelrod, Robert. 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books.
Schelling, Thomas C. 1978. Micromotives and Macrobehavior. New York: Norton.
Read chps. 3-4.
Suggested Reading: Green, Donald P., and Ian Shapiro. 1994. Pathologies of Rational
Choice Theory: A Critique of Applications in Political Science. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press. Read chps. 3-4.
Week 12. Ethical Dilemmas in Research
Zimbardo, Philip G. 1973. A Pirandellian Prison. New York Times Magazine. April 8,
p.28.
Gilbert, John P., Richard J. Light, and Frederick Mosteller. 1979. How Well Do Social Innovations Work? In Judith M. Tanur, et al., eds. Statistics: A Guide to the Unknown (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Holden-Day.