Syllabus
Part I: Research Methods
Week 1: Introduction and Background to Research

Thurs 23 Aug

(No reading.)

Week 2: Measurement and Defining Research Problems

Tue 28 Aug

Bernard, Chapters 1 and 2PDF

Thu 30 Aug

  • Creswell, Chapters 1 and 6 PDF
  • Brown and Muchira. 2004. "Investigating the relationship between internet privacy concerns and online purchase behavior." Journal of Electronic Commerce Research. [*Focus on first 6 pages*].  PDF
  • Mark, Noah.  1998. "Birds of a Feather Sing Together" Social Forces 77:2. [*Focus on first 16 pages, up until the Results*] PDF

NOTE: The main goal for these readings is to critically examine the research problems and questions in each paper, and how the method fits the stated questions/problem.

Week 3: Survey Data Collection and Questionnaires

Tue 4 Sep

Bernard, Ch. 7
RMKB: Survey Research
(Be sure to click through all the subsections that appear when you click through the sections of Survey Research on the left-hand navigation.)

Thu 6 Sep

Bernard, Ch. 8

Week 4: Surveys and Lab 1

Tue 11 Sep

  • Jon Krosnick, "Question and Questinnaire Design" PDF
  • Saris, W., Revilla, M., Krosnick, J. A., & Shaeffer, E. (2010). Comparing questions with agree/disagree response options to questions with item-specific response options. Survey Research Methods, 4, 61-79. PDF

Thu 13 Sep

Lab 1 in class

Week 5: Experiments and Experimental Design

Tue 18 Sep

  • Bernard, Ch. 4
  • Freedman, Pisani, and Purves, Ch. 1

Thu 20 Sep

Part II: Probability and Statistics
Week 6: Probability and Sampling

Tue 25 Sep

Chapters on Probability: Freedman et al. Chapters 13-18 (pp. 221-329). Please note that most of this text is made up of excercises and examples for each chapter.

Thu 27 Sep

Freedman et al. Chapters 19-21; Bernard Chapter 5, "Sampling"

Week 7: STATA Bootcamp: Data Prep and Using STATA

Tue 02 OctNotes (258.6 KB)

ICPSR Guide to Social Science Data Preparation: Chapter 3 (carefully read pp. 13-18)

Thu 04 Oct

No Class

Week 8: Univariate Analysis

Thu 09 OctNotes (38.5 KB)

Freedman et al. Chapters 3 and 4

Tue 11 Oct

Freedman et al. Chapters 5, 6 and 7

Week 9: Analysis with STATA and Lab 2

Thu 16 Oct

Intermediate and Advanced STATA recodes and error-checking

Tue 18 Oct

Lab 2 in class: Working with Numeric Data in STATA

Part III: Bivariate and Multivariate Analyses
Week 10: Correlation and Logic of Hypothesis Testing

Tue 23 Oct

Freedman et al. Chapters 8 and 9

Thu 25 Oct

(Review Freedman et al. Chapters 17, 18) and Read Freedman et al. Chapter 26 (through page 488)

Week 11: The T-Test and Chi-Square Test

Tue 30 Oct

Bernard, Chapter 14 and 15 "Univariate Analysis" (pp. 526-535), Bivariate Analysis (pp. 546-549)
Freedman et al. Chapter 26 (488-500), Chapter 29
RMKB: The T-Test

Thu 1 Nov

Bernard Ch 14 (pp. 535-537)
Freedman et al. Chapter 28

Week 12: Bringing it Together: Correlation, t-tests and Chi-Square / Lab 3

Tue 6 Nov

No New Reading; In-Class program examples and discussion.

Thu 8 Nov

Lab 3 in class: Hypothesis Testing with Numeric Data using STATA

Week 13: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Intro to Regression

Tue 13 Nov

Bernard, Chapter 15 (pp. 549-557).

Tue 15 Nov

Freedman et al. Chapters 10, 11 and 12

Week 14: Thanksgiving

Nov 20-- No Class

Nov 22-- Thanksgiving Holiday

Week 15: Regression Diagnostics, Multiple Regression, Transforming Variables

Tue 27 Nov

  • Multiple Regression ChapterPDF

Thu 29 Nov

Week 16: Review Session and Final Exam

Final exam