Political Science 221
Introduction to Political Analysis
Spring 2006
MWF 11:00-11:50
AH 215
Instructor: Dr. Fred Slocum
Office: 204A Morris Hall
Phone: 389-6935
E-mail: frederick.slocum@mnsu.edu
Web site: http://sbs.mnsu.edu/psle/faculty/slocum.html
Office Hours: M, W, F 1:00-3:00; T, Th 9:30-11:00, or by appointment
This course introduces students to the guiding principles and techniques used by researchers in political science, criminal justice and law enforcement. In completing this course, students should come to better understand and appreciate the research process, and the various techniques researchers use to present their findings. During roughly the first third of the course, we will examine the principles of sound scientific inquiry and research design, including the elements of scientific research, theory building, hypothesis testing, and use of sound measures of social scientific concepts. We'll also look at various research strategies (including public opinion surveys), their strengths and weaknesses. During the second two-thirds of the course, students will become acquainted with some of the descriptive and inferential statistics used by social scientists. These will be taught at an introductory college level. This course has no prerequisites, and assumes no specialized background in mathematics. Numerous examples will be drawn from research studies and scenarios in political science, law enforcement and social psychology.
To the extent they do well in this course, students will gain knowledge and understanding of the following:
Course grades will be based on two midterm exams, homework assignments, attendance and a final exam. There are no papers required in this class. The first midterm exam will consist of short identification and essay questions. The second midterm and final exam will consist of problems, patterned after problems completed in the homework exercises. These problems will ask you to demonstrate and apply your mastery of the statistical techniques learned during the second two-thirds of the semester. The final exam will not be cumulative. However, much more than in most political science courses, the course material is by nature cumulative. To do well on the final exam, students will need to understand well the concepts presented throughout the course. The exam dates are Friday, February 24; Monday, April 3; and Thursday, May 11. Before each exam, I will distribute in class a study guide to help you prepare.
Homework will be assigned most weeks, especially after the first midterm. These homework exercises are very important, as they allow students to practice techniques and principles described in class and in the texts. On exams, you'll be asked to complete exercises very similar to those in the homework. Equally important is submitting homework assignments on time (see the late assignment policy below). In general, assignments will be due five to seven calendar days after they are distributed.
I will make periodic attendance checks during the semester. The attendance check may come at any time during the class period. Students present for all attendance checks will receive 100% on the attendance portion of the course grade. Attendance grades will be awarded proportional to the frequency of attendance, as indicated by the attendance checks. Each student will receive one grace absence. Absences may be excused if the student notifies me in advance, providing a valid reason for the miss.
This is primarily a lecture course, but I welcome student questions, comments and participation at any time. On occasion, I will ask students to raise comments or answer questions in class. In addition, feel free to volunteer questions and comments in class. Class participation is not a component of your grade per se, but it may become a factor in borderline grading situations (i.e. a student's course grade is 79.97% and the instructor must decide whether the student receives a B or a C). Quality of comments and questions is more important than quantity.
Grading in this course will be determined as follows:
Grades in this course will not be curved, meaning that you will not be competing against your classmates for a limited number of A's, B's and so on. Therefore, the grading scale is a straight scale, as follows:
Students whose point totals place them very near (within 0.1 percentage point of) the cut point for the next higher letter grade will be considered on an individual basis for promotion to the higher grade. In such a situation, evaluation criteria include primarily participation, attitude and improvement during the semester.
I would like to hear (early in the semester is much preferred) from students with a documented learning or other disability that might require some modification of seating, testing, or other class arrangements. I will make every effort to accommodate students with these needs. If you have any questions, please see me or contact Julie Snow in the Disability Services Office (132 Memorial Library, 389-1819).
As noted above, I will make unannounced attendance checks at various times through the semester. If you must miss a class, you are responsible for obtaining notes for the missed session. Students are responsible for all homework assignments, handouts and announcements made in class.
Examinations cannot be made up unless the student provides acceptable, documented reason for missing the exam. Makeup exam requests have merit to the extent that (1) the circumstance is unavoidable and beyond the student's control, (2) the reason for missing the exam can be documented, and (3) the instructor is notified well in advance of the exam. Makeup exams will not necessarily be identical to, and may be more difficult than, the exam given in class. Early exams will not be given.
The MSU Undergraduate Bulletin outlines University policy on incomplete grades as follows. "The grade of 'incomplete' is reserved for special cases and means that, because of extenuating circumstances, the student failed to meet a specific need and an important requirement of the course, but has in other respects done passing work for the semester. The incomplete must be made up in the next semester in which the student has enrolled, unless other arrangements have been made between the student and instructor. If the deficiency is not made up within the specified time, the grade automatically becomes an F or NC" (p. 31). I will support and enforce this policy fully.
Barring extenuating circumstances (which I must be notified of and approve in advance), late homework assignments will be downgraded as follows:
Bear in mind that all homework assignments are graded on a scale of 0 to 10 points. So, a 1-point deduction is equivalent to 10 points' deduction out of 100.
A number of activities may be construed as academic dishonesty (cheating). These include, but are not limited to: copying material from another source (book, manuscript or another student) without proper acknowledgment, using crib sheets during an exam, talking during an exam, or looking at another student's exam. Any cheating will result in an automatic F in the course and the possibility of further disciplinary action. Come see me if you have any questions.
On homework assignments, students may (indeed, are encouraged to) work in groups. However, take care to avoid merely copying the answer of another student. Copying another student's answers is considered plagiarism on homework assignments as well as on tests. Also, copying will not advance your mastery of the concepts and techniques presented in class and the readings - a mastery that you'll need to demonstrate on the exams.
There are two optional texts for this class. Although not required, they do provide appropriate readings to go along with topics discussed in class. I recommend that each student have access to a copy of Johnson & Reynolds; you may want to share copies. We will work out of Aron & Aron primarily during the middle third of the semester. If you decide to buy the textbooks, plan to do so by February 17; after that date, bookstores begin returning unsold books to the publishers. Both books are available at the CSU Barnes and Noble Bookstore, or at the Maverick Bookstore.
The Aron, Aron and Coups textbook has a study guide that accompanies it. This study guide is optional; the CSU Barnes and Noble Bookstore has a limited supply of it. The study guide is:
Students will need a calculator for the second midterm and final exams.
I will make reasonable efforts to follow the schedule of topics below. However, as time and circumstances dictate, dates may change somewhat. Thus, the dates given below should be considered approximate. If circumstances warrant, I may amend the schedule outlined in this syllabus. I will announce any such changes in class. Listed with each topic are recommended companion readings. Abbreviations used below are JR (Johnson & Reynolds); AAC (Aron, Aron & Coups).
Week 1 - January 18-20: Introductions; the discipline of political science; studying social phenomena scientifically. JR, Chs. 1 and 2.
Week 2 - January 23-27: Choosing topics; social science ethics; theories, hypotheses, concepts and variables. JR, Ch. 4. (Video: Obedience).
Part II. Collecting Data and Measuring Concepts.
Week 3 - January 30-February 3: Research designs; experimental research designs. JR, pp. 49-74.
Week 4 - February 6-10: Non-experimental research designs; surveys. JR, pp. 74-88 and 275-299.
Week 5 - February 13-17: Measuring concepts; reliability and validity. JR, pp. 153-168.
Week 6 - February 20-22: Levels of measurement; review. JR, pp. 168-172.
(Friday, February 24: First midterm exam)
Week 7 - February 27-March 3: Creating frequency distributions and histograms. AAC, Ch. 1.
Week 8 - March 6-10: Measures of central tendency and dispersion. AAC, Ch. 2.
(Monday, March 13 through Friday, March 17: Spring vacation - NO CLASS)
Week 9 - March 20-24: Using Z scores; the normal curve; probability. AAC, Ch. 4.
Week 10 - March 27-31: Hypothesis testing. AAC, Ch. 5.
(Monday, April 3: Second midterm exam)
Week 11 - April 5-7: Contingency tables (crosstabs); chi-square testing. JR, pp. 339-366.
Week 12 - April 10-14: The difference of means test; analysis of variance. JR, pp. 366-372.
Week 13 - April 17-21: Scatterplots and correlation; bivariate regression. JR, pp. 372-399.
Week 14 - April 24-28: Spurious relationships. JR, pp. 403-415.
Week 15 - May 1-5: Statistical control; multiple regression. JR, pp. 417-429.
(Thursday, May 11, 10:15 AM: Final exam)
