Ray Block, Jr.

Class Description: This course will give you an overview of the nature of research in the social sciences. With this in mind, several things about this class are worth mentioning. First, I do NOT assume that my students are Statistics or Mathematics majors. This is a very important assumption, and you will thank me for it later. Second, this class will focus mostly on quantitative , not qualitative research techniques (don’t worry, by the end of the quarter, you will understand the difference between the two). Third, I designed this course for Political Science students, but I think it might prove useful for anyone interested in conducting empirical research. Fourth, while this class will introduce you to some of the statistical methods used by social scientists, I place more emphasis on the application of these methods rather than on their mathematical foundations. In other words, we will spend less time memorizing formulas and more time thinking about the problems of planning a research project, acquiring, collecting or preparing the data, analyzing those data, and writing up the results. Finally, research is something you learn by doing, so we will spend a fair amount of time working with “real” data and statistical software.

My goal for the class is simple. I want to teach you the some of the “tools of the trade” for doing successful research. This is a very broad goal, and you can interpret this goal in many ways. For those of you who are only here to satisfy the math requirements, consider this course “a necessary evil.” For those of you who actually get a kick out of this stuff or plan to pursue it further, consider this an introduction to the world of social science research. For all of you, I hope that this course will lead you to think critically about the assumptions you bring to your research interests. Also, I hope this class will broaden your appreciation for the range of research tools available to you.