This course offers a hands-on approach to quantitative and statistical methods commonly employed in political and social science research. It is designed to provide you with the methodological foundations necessary for understanding and conducting quantitative research in political and social sciences and giving you the tools to critically read and structure a quantitative research paper in its various components.

 

In the introductory part of the course, we will cover the essentials of epistemology, the key steps to set up a quantitative research paper and the types of research design. You will explore how political and social scientists use the scientific method to address their questions, while diving into the nuances of the demarcation problem— the distinction between the so-called "hard" and "soft" sciences in conducting research.

 

The main part of the course delves into the essential elements of statistics and its practical application in data analysis, the key components of a solid research design. We will explore concepts of descriptive and inferential statistics, learning ways to summarize and organize data with measures of central tendency and dispersion and then being able to infer about populations basing on a sample by means of hypothesis testing, analysis of variance techniques and regression analysis.  In this module, we will explore strategies for analysing large datasets and interpreting the statistical outputs commonly encountered in political and social science literature. With a solid theoretical foundation and real-world examples, you will learn how to select appropriate datasets and apply relevant statistical methods to tackle specific research questions.  By the end of the course, you will be able to design research, read and interpret statistics, choose the right elementary methods to address your research questions, and draw meaningful conclusions from your statistical tests.