PO 307 Political Science Research Methods: 3 semester hours
Students will learn the basic qualitative and quantitative research methods used in the social sciences. The course will begin with an introduction to the foundations of scientific research, hypothesis construction and testing, along with the strengths and weakness of different methodological approaches. Students will use a statistical analysis program (SPSS) to create and manipulate data sets. This computer assisted data analysis will permit students to understand and report basic descriptive statistics, a variety of difference of means tests, bivariate correlations, and basic multiple regression analysis. Students will also learn to read and understand literature from academic journals in the social sciences, including (but not limited to) political science, political/social psychology and political sociology. This course has no prerequisite courses. Familiarity with algebra is a plus, but not a requirement. Prerequisites: PO 111, PO 102 or PO 103 or consent of the instructor).