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The Craft of Political Researchimmerses readers not only in how political scientists work but also in how ideas produce research questions and guide the selection of research methods.   Emphasizing the internal logic of research methods and the collaborative nature of the research process, this slender text explores the design behind interesting questions, problems in measurement and analysis, and key statistical methods. Brief and inexpensive to include in any course,The Craft of Political Research's elegant explanations inspire a big picture understanding of how political scientists explain political reality and encourage students to create their own inventive, original, and bold research work.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Foreword(p. ix)
• Preface(p. xi)
• Chapter 1 Doing Research(p. 1)
• Social Research(p. 2)
• Types of Political Research(p. 4)
• Research Mix(p. 8)
• Evaluating Different Types of Research(p. 10)
• Ethics of Political Research(p. 11)
• Chapter 2 Political Theories and Research Topics(p. 13)
• Causality and Political Theory(p. 14)
• What Does Good Theory Look Like?(p. 15)
• Example of Elegant Research: Phillip Converse(p. 17)
• To Quantify or Not(p. 20)
• Choice of A Topic(p. 21)
• Engineering Research(p. 22)
• Theory-Oriented Research(p. 22)
• Development of A Research Design(p. 23)
• Observations, Puzzles, and the Construction of Theories(p. 24)
• Machiavellian Guide To Developing Research Topics(p. 27)
• Further Discussion(p. 31)
• Chapter 3 Importance of Dimensional Thinking(p. 32)
• English as A Language for Research(p. 33)
• Ordinary Language(p. 34)
• Proper Use of Multidimensional Words(p. 37)
• Example of Dimensional Analysis(p. 38)
• Further Discussion(p. 40)
• Chapter 4 Problems of Measurement: Accuracy(p. 41)
• Reliability(p. 45)
• Reliability as a Characteristic of Concepts(p. 46)
• Testing the Reliability of a Measure(p. 47)
• Validity(p. 48)
• Some Examples(p. 49)
• Checks for Validity(p. 51)
• Impact of Random and Nonrandom Errors(p. 53)
• Importance of Accuracy(p. 54)
• Further Discussion(p. 56)
• Chapter 5 Problems of Measurement: Precision(p. 57)
• Precision In Measures(p. 58)
• Precision In Measurement(p. 61)
• Innate Nature of Levels of Measurement(p. 63)
• The Sin of Wasting Information(p. 64)
• Enrichment of the Level of Precision in Measurement(p. 66)
• Examples of Enrichment(p. 67)
• Quantifiers and Nonquantifiers Again(p. 71)
• Further Discussion(p. 72)
• Chapter 6 Causal Thinking and Design of Research(p. 74)
• Causality: An Interpretation(p. 75)
• Elimination of Alternative Causal Interpretations(p. 76)
• Summary(p. 77)
• A Few Basics of Research Design(p. 78)
• Designs without a Control Group(p. 79)
• Use of a Control Group(p. 81)
• True Experiment(p. 83)
• Designs for Political Research(p. 85)
• Special Design Problem for Policy Analysis: Regression to the Mean(p. 88)
• Use of Varied Designs and Measures(p. 90)
• Example of Varied Designs and Measures(p. 92)
• Conclusion(p. 93)
• Holding A Variable Constant(p. 94)
• Further Discussion(p. 95)
• Chapter 7 Selection of Observations for Study(p. 97)
• Sampling From A Population of Potential Observations(p. 99)
• Random Sampling(p. 99)
• Quasi-Random Sampling(p. 101)
• Purposive Sampling(p. 102)
• Selection of Cases for Case Studies(p. 103)
• Censored Data(p. 104)
• When Scholars Pick, the Cases They're Interested In(p. 104)
• When Nature Censors Data(p. 106)
• Selection Along The Dependent Variable: Don't Do It!(p. 107)
• Selection of Cases for Case Studies (AGAIN)(p. 109)
• Another Strategy, However: Single-Case Studies Selected for The Relationship between The Independent and Dependent Variables(p. 110)
• Further Discussion(p. 111)
• Chapter 8 Introduction to Statistics: Measuring Relationships for Interval Data(p. 112)
• Statistics(p. 113)
• Importance of Levels of Measurement(p. 113)
• Working With Interval Data(p. 114)
• Regression Analysis(p. 114)
• Correlation Analysis(p. 123)
• Correlation and Regression Compared(p. 128)
• Problem of Measurement Error(p. 130)
• Further Discussion(p. 132)
• Chapter 9 Introduction to Statistics: Further Topics on Measurement of Relationships(p. 133)
• Measures of Relationships for Ordinal Data(p. 133)
• Measures of Relationships for Nominal Data(p. 137)
• Dichotomies and Regression Analysis(p. 138)
• Logit and Probit Analysis(p. 140)
• Multivariate Analysis(p. 142)
• Conclusion(p. 147)
• Chapter 10 Introduction to Statistics: Inference, or How to Gamble on Your Research(p. 150)
• Logic of Measuring Significance(p. 151)
• Example of Statistical Inference(p. 152)
• Hypothesis Testing(p. 153)
• Null Hypothesis(p. 154)
• Example: x 2(p. 155)
• Sampling Distribution(p. 157)
• Importance of N(p. 160)
• Problem of Independent Observations(p. 162)
• Significance Test: Always Necessary?(p. 163)
• Polling and Significance Tests(p. 164)
• Uses and Limitations of Statistical Tests(p. 165)
• Conclusion(p. 165)
• Further Discussion(p. 165)
• Chapter 11 Where Do Theories Come From?(p. 167)
• Selected Bibliography(p. 170)
• Index(p. 174)

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