The craft of political research /
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| Author / Creator: | Shively, W. Phillips, 1942- |
|---|---|
| Edition: | 8th ed. |
| Imprint: | Boston : Longman, c2011. |
| Description: | xiii, 176 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Longman classics in political science Longman classics in political science. |
| Subject: | |
| Format: | Print Book |
| URL for this record: | http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/8002667 |
Table of Contents:
- Foreword
- Preface
- Chapter 1. Doing Research
- Social Research
- Types of Political Research
- Research Mix
- Evaluating Different Types of Research
- Ethics of Political Research
- Chapter 2. Political Theories and Research Topics
- Causality and Political Theory
- What Does Good Theory Look Like?
- Example of Elegant Research: Phillip Converse
- To Quantify or Not
- Choice of A Topic
- Engineering Research
- Theory-Oriented Research
- Development of A Research Design
- Observations, Puzzles, and the Construction of Theories
- Machiavellian Guide To Developing Research Topics
- Further Discussion
- Chapter 3. Importance of Dimensional Thinking
- English as A Language for Research
- Ordinary Language
- Proper Use of Multidimensional Words
- Example of Dimensional Analysis
- Further Discussion
- Chapter 4. Problems of Measurement: Accuracy
- Reliability
- Reliability as a Characteristic of Concepts
- Testing the Reliability of a Measure
- Validity
- Some Examples
- Checks for Validity
- Impact of Random and Nonrandom Errors
- Importance of Accuracy
- Further Discussion
- Chapter 5. Problems of Measurement: Precision
- Precision In Measures
- Precision In Measurement
- Innate Nature of Levels of Measurement
- The Sin of Wasting Information
- Enrichment of the Level of Precision in Measurement
- Examples of Enrichment
- Quantifiers and Nonquantifiers Again
- Further Discussion
- Chapter 6. Causal Thinking and Design of Research
- Causality: An Interpretation
- Elimination of Alternative Causal Interpretations
- Summary
- A Few Basics of Research Design
- Designs without a Control Group
- Use of a Control Group
- True Experiment
- Designs for Political Research
- Special Design Problem for Policy Analysis: Regression to the Mean
- Use of Varied Designs and Measures
- Example of Varied Designs and Measures
- Conclusion
- Holding A Variable Constant
- Further Discussion
- Chapter 7. Selection of Observations for Study
- Sampling From A Population of Potential Observations
- Random Sampling
- Quasi-Random Sampling
- Purposive Sampling
- Selection of Cases for Case Studies
- Censored Data
- When Scholars Pick, the Cases They're Interested In
- When Nature Censors Data
- Selection Along The Dependent Variable: Don't Do It!
- Selection of Cases for Case Studies (AGAIN)
- Another Strategy, However: Single-Case Studies Selected for The Relationship between The Independent and Dependent Variables
- Further Discussion
- Chapter 8. Introduction to Statistics: Measuring Relationships for Interval Data
- Statistics
- Importance of Levels of Measurement
- Working With Interval Data
- Regression Analysis
- Correlation Analysis
- Correlation and Regression Compared
- Problem of Measurement Error
- Further Discussion
- Chapter 9. Introduction to Statistics: Further Topics on Measurement of Relationships
- Measures of Relationships for Ordinal Data
- Measures of Relationships for Nominal Data
- Dichotomies and Regression Analysis
- Logit and Probit Analysis
- Multivariate Analysis
- Conclusion
- Chapter 10. Introduction to Statistics: Inference, or How to Gamble on Your Research
- Logic of Measuring Significance
- Example of Statistical Inference
- Hypothesis Testing
- Null Hypothesis
- Example: x 2
- Sampling Distribution
- Importance of N
- Problem of Independent Observations
- Significance Test: Always Necessary?
- Polling and Significance Tests
- Uses and Limitations of Statistical Tests
- Conclusion
- Further Discussion
- Chapter 11. Where Do Theories Come From?
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
