- Winter 2023
Syllabus Description:
link to Professor Smith's Thursday office hours, 4:00-5:00, by Zoom at https://washington.zoom.us/j/5054996338
You can find the full syllabus here
You can find the midterm exam study guide here
You can find the final exam study guide here
You can find Smith's grading scale conversation here
Schedule of Topics and Assignments:
Wednesday, January 4 Introduction to the course (slides)
Friday, January 6 Thinking about social science research
Monday, January 9 The science in political science (slides)
Read: Johnson, Reynolds, and Mycoff, chapter 2
Wednesday, January 11 Theories, models, and causation (slides)
Wednesday, January 11, 8:00 PM. Acknowledgment of course policies due
Read: Marshal Ijaz, How to Identify a Research Question
Read: Stefan Götze, A Brief Guide for Developing a Research Question
Thursday, January 12, 8:00 PM. Section assignment #1 due
Friday, January 13 Finding researchable questions
Monday, January 16 No class (MLK Day)
Wednesday, January 18 The challenges of demonstrating causation (slides)
Read: Johnson, Reynolds, and Mycoff, chapter 6
Thursday, January 19, 8:00 PM. Section assignment #2 due
Friday, January 20 Research design
Monday, January 23 Conceptualization and measurement (slides)
Read: Johnson, Reynolds, and Mycoff, chapter 4
Wednesday, January 25 Sampling (slides)
Read: Johnson, Reynolds, and Mycoff, chapter 5
Thursday, January 26, 8:00 PM. Section assignment #3 due
Friday, January 27 Conceptualizing and measuring variables
Monday, January 30 Sampling; surveys and survey research (slides)
Watch: Armin Trost, Survey Design Part 1
Wednesday, February 1 Surveys and survey research (slides)
Read: Pew Research Center, Writing Survey Questions
Watch: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, What Google Searches Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are
Friday, February 3 Designing surveys; review
Monday, February 6 Midterm exam
Wednesday, February 8 Descriptive and inferential statistics (slides)
Read: Johnson, Reynolds, and Mycoff, chapter 11
Thursday, February 9, 8:00 PM. Section assignment #4 due
Friday, February 10 Descriptive and inferential statistics
Monday, February 13 Descriptive and inferential statistics (slides)
Read: Johnson, Reynolds, and Mycoff, chapter 12
Wednesday, February 15 Hypothesis testing and inferential statistics (slides)
Watch: Hypothesis Testing Problems
Friday, February 17 Inferential statistics
Monday, February 20 No class (Presidents’ Day)
Monday, February 20, 8:00 PM Article review assignment due
Wednesday, February 22 Correlation and bivariate regression (slides)
Read: Johnson, Reynolds, and Mycoff, chapter 14
Thursday, February 23, 8:00 PM. Section assignment #5 due
Friday, February 24 Calculating correlations and bivariate regressions
Monday, February 27 Bivariate regression and multiple regression (slides)
Wednesday, March 1 Multiple regression (slides)
Friday, March 3 Estimating multiple regressions
Monday, March 6 Experiments (slides)
Read: Saloni Dattani, Why Randomized Controlled Trials Matter and the Procedures that Strengthen Them
Monday, March 6, 8:00 PM Data analysis assignment due
Wednesday, March 8 Natural experiments, the comparative method, and case studies (slides)
Friday, March 9 Political science research; review
Monday, March 13 from 2:30-4:20 Final exam