Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods

Module Code: PO8006

Module Name: Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods

• ECTS Weighting: 10
• Semester/Term Taught: Hilary
• Module Personnel: Lecturer - Professor Peter Stone

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, it is expected that students should be able:

• to develop causal models of the social world;
• to identify data useful for testing such models;
• to recognize different types of data;
• to identify populations of observations and samples selected from such populations;
• to make use of several different statistical estimators, with a basic knowledge of their respective strengths and weaknesses;
• to interpret and critique basic quantitative results found in the political science literature.

Module Learning Aims

The goal of this module is to introduce students to the practice of data analysis at an introductory postgraduate level. More than ever before, political science research relies upon data—information about people, firms, nations, etc. that can be standardized, compared, and analyzed en masse. Political scientists analyze data with an eye to explaining the social world. Not all political scientists perform data analysis, of course, but because data analysis provides so much of our knowledge about politics, every student of the subject must now know at least a little about how it works. Love it or hate it—and lots of people hate it—there’s no escaping data.

Module Content

Students will learn about quantitative research methods through lectures and readings. Specifically, they gain a basic understanding of statistics and the classical model of hypothesis testing, as well as a number of key statistical tests used by social scientists in hypothesis testing. In tutorial, they will develop their knowledge of Stata, a useful statistical software package. (Students are not obliged to use this particular package.) Each student will then write an original research paper that asks a social science question and uses one or more statistical tests to answer it.

Software: I have assigned the statistical software package Stata for the module. It is relatively easy to use. I have arranged for students to obtain the student version of the program (Small Stata) at a discounted rate. I shall make available to code students will need to obtain this rate. Students are strongly encouraged to obtain the software right away. Students are welcome to use a different software package (SPSS, R, etc.) should they so choose.

Recommended Reading List

Assessment Details

Each student will complete 8 short assignments, each of which will count for 5% of the grade. Each student will also write a research paper due at the end of the module, which will count for the remaining 60% of the grade. Each student is responsible for identifying a research question that can be addressed using quantitative analysis. Students must receive approval for their topics from me; no student may pass the module unless I have first approved the student’s research question.

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